Free Liars, Cheaters & Thieves by L. J. Sellers Page A

dad wasn’t happy with my career choice, but I owned a house and made good money. Then the housing market collapsed, and I was let go.” He leaned toward her, his voice rising in pitch. “I tried finding work as a waiter, which I’d done in college, but no one was hiring. I finally managed to sell my house at a loss, and I moved back in here because my parents couldn’t stand to see me living in Jake’s unheated garage.”
    Evans had a moment of guilt about prejudging him. “Sounds like it’s been a rough couple of years.”
    “It was. But I landed a job at Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines a couple months ago. It’s phone work and I hate it, but I’ve saved enough to get my own place soon.”
    Evans looked at her notes. “You said Rafel was being weird last night. What do you mean?”
    “He hugged me, which he never does, then he seemed depressed. When Sierra came in, he got angry and paranoid. He was like that sometimes when he drank.”
    “Did Rafel take drugs?”
    “No.” Cody touched his chin and leaned back.
    “I think you just lied to me.” Evans softened her tone. “He’s dead and can’t get into trouble. But if he used street drugs, then he had a dealer. And that might help explain who killed him.”
    “There is no dealer. He had a prescription for OxyContin. I think he was taking a lot. He’d been losing weight.”
    “Who’s his doctor?”
    “Someone at the VA clinic. Although he was getting physical therapy from a volunteer at a different clinic.”
    Mazari kept morphing in her mind—from a wounded-veteran victim to a crazy weapons-loving survivalist, now to a pain-riddled, pill-popping mental case. Had his friends known about the explosives? “Tell me about the dynamite.”
    “What?” Sawyer practically sputtered.
    “The explosives Rafel and Sierra kept in their house. What were they for?”
    “They kept explosives?” His expression changed from shock to hurt.
    Evans found it puzzling. “Why does that bother you?”
    “I thought I knew Rafel.”
    “What about Sierra? Would she kill her husband?”
    Another stunned look. “No. What a horrible thing to say.”
    “Is there anything else you’d like to tell me?”
    “I don’t know what it would be.”
    Evans gave him a business card. “I’ll probably want to talk to you again, so stay available. In the meantime, call me if you think of anything important.”
    On her way out, Evans stopped to speak briefly with Mrs. Sawyer. She confirmed that her son had come home around ten, but admitted she’d gone to bed shortly after. She tried to convince Evans she would have heard if Cody left later, but Evans only nodded. Sleeping parents were easy to get past. She’d done it a dozen times as a teenager.

CHAPTER 10

    Friday, November 11, late afternoon
    Sophie Speranza caught sight of her editor coming toward her cubicle and reflexively tensed. He was either going to call her into his office and lay her off or give her an assignment she didn’t want. The newspaper had been stable for a few months—not making money, but not losing it either—and the small group that was left had started to hope they might survive.
    “I’ve got a feature you’re gonna love.” Karl Hoogstad leaned against her cubicle half-wall.
    Yeah, right. She hated the do-gooder stories he forced her to cover occasionally. She much preferred the crime stories and even the court proceedings, which could be bat-shit crazy sometimes. “I’m listening.”
    “An ex–National Guard soldier was found murdered this morning.”
    He had her attention now. “What’s the story?”
    Hoogstad looped his hands in his belt and rocked back on his heels. Short, lumpy, and balding, he was surprisingly confident. He continued. “The soldier was wounded in Afghanistan and received some kind of medal. Now he’s the victim of a heinous crime. I want you to dig into this guy. Talk to everyone who knew him. There’s an emotional and meaty feature here. I can feel it.”
    “I’m