“Any criminal friends?”
He shrugged. “Most of them are still in jail.”
“So it’s lucky for you that you’re out.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you ever give anybody details about your case?”
“Tons of us talked about our cases,” he noted, with a sneer. “Sometimes it was all about whoever could tell the biggest story. And other times nobody gave a shit and just basically told you to shut up.”
“I get it,” she stated quietly. “Now you said that you didn’t murder your sister…”
“No, I did not,” he snapped.
“Did you give any of the details of her death to anybody in jail?”
“No, not really.” Rick paused. “I mean, I don’t remember all the details. I didn’t want to know.”
“I’m sure you know a lot of them,” she countered.
“Sure, some of them, but it’s not like I’m the one who did it.”
“Good.” Kate nodded. “So, if you didn’t kill your sister, do you have any idea who did?”
He looked at her in surprise. “Seriously?”
She just stared at him.
“Am I hearing things?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know anybody who would have killed her,” he replied, “and honestly I don’t think anybody ever asked me that question. Back then, I mean.”
“Well, the question remains as pertinent today as it was back then,” she noted. “Do you have any idea who else might have killed your sister?”
He stared quietly for a long moment. And then he slowly shook his head. “Honest to God, I don’t.”
*
Simon wasn’t sureif he believed Rick or not, but such a solid ring of truth was in the kid’s voice that it was hard not to. He looked over at Kate to see how she was taking his words and was gratified to see her looking like she was seriously considering it.
“You’ve had lots of time,” she said to Rick, “to think about what happened, to think about who might have done this. So, if you are innocent, I find it hard to believe that you don’t have at least some idea.”
He stared at her, and his lips curled downward. “Of course you don’t, and, because I can’t actually tell you who did it, I’m the guilty one.”
“Not at all,” she argued. “Somebody had access to your house. Somebody had access to your sister. Somebody knew that everybody was away. So how is that possible?”
He looked at her, shrugged, and sighed. “I don’t know. I wasn’t even there at the time. I was away with friends.”
And he said it in such an emphatic voice that she asked, “And who were these friends?”
He sneered. “Friends who ran as soon as I got into a whiff of trouble.”
“But they were friends who were part of your trouble, were they not?”
He nodded. “If you’re trying to say in a roundabout way that they were just as quick to avoid law enforcement as I was, then yes. I spent a hell of a long time in jail thinking about all the things that I did wrong,” he explained, “but not one of those things deserved what I went through.”