The Blood-Dimmed Tide (John Joran Mysteries Book 22) by Michael Lister

Author:Michael Lister [Lister, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pulpwood Press
Published: 2019-06-03T22:00:00+00:00

28

On my drive back, I start calling the family members of the victims, beginning with Ellen Lucado’s older sister, Diane.

“My name is John Jordan and I’m an investigator with the Gulf County Sheriff’s Department.”

“Yes?”

“Do you have a moment?” I ask. “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your sister Ellen?”

“Now’s fine, but . . . has something new come up or . . .”

“It’s just a routine follow-up,” I say. “We try to do it for all our cases. Just take a second look at our investigations. It’s one of our agency’s best practices. Helps make sure we didn’t miss anything.”

“Oh, okay. What do you want to know?”

“Can you tell me why she chose not to evacuate?”

“She didn’t,” she says. “I mean she didn’t choose not to, not that she didn’t evacuate—although I guess she didn’t, did she?”

I wonder if she’s nervous for some reason or if she always talks so circuitously.

“She was supposed to,” she is saying. “And I thought she did. We have friends who live on Overstreet—near the Wewa end—and she was going to stay with them but she never showed. I knew something was wrong because she didn’t call them or me and that wasn’t like her at all. She would’ve let us know.”

“Any idea why her plans changed?”

“No, but she was a really good person. If I had to guess . . . I bet she got delayed trying to help someone or trying to save some pets other evacuees left behind. She was always doing stuff like that. Had several elderly neighbors she helped out and took in strays like a mother. That would be just like her. I’ll tell you this . . . I’d give all the stupid pets in all the world to have her back.”

“Was there anything unusual going on with her in the lead-up to the storm?” I ask. “Did she mention anything out of the ordinary? Anything at all, no matter how small it seems? Something suspicious? Someone new she met? Any conflicts she had with anyone?”

“Why?” she says, her voice rising. “Do you think she could’ve been . . . you know . . . that someone killed her?”

“Like I said, we just want to be sure. Please don’t read anything into my questions. They’re just some of the standard questions that we ask. What we try to do when we take a second look at a case is to question the original determination of cause of death. So since your sister’s death was ruled accidental, I’m asking the questions we would have if it was suspicious. I’m sorry to put you through this but it really helps. Just please don’t think that anything I’m saying means anything different than what you already know. If I discover anything in this second look we’ll obviously let you know, but it’s very, very rare that we do.”

“I understand,” she says. “Makes sense.”

I’m glad it does to her because the more I say about it the less I believe it.

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