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“Boyfriends are always on the short list.”
“So they didn’t rule him out.” He leaned back, forehead furrowed as he scrutinized her reaction. “There’s a name to throw on your list.”
Bailey squared her shoulders. “Are you being serious?”
Wes shrugged. “You said you didn’t have a suspect list.”
“Ryan didn’t kill Caitie. Besides, he had no motive; Erick gave him an alibi—”
Wes motioned to the police report folder. “They interviewed Erick as well.”
“He was there when Ryan and Caitie said good night.”
Wes picked up the report and re-read it, more slowly this time. “It says Erick met up with Peter Phillips and Martin Edinbaugh at a party.”
“That’s right.”
“Those guys go back further than I realized.”
“They met back then. Part of some college group they literally called The Club. I think it was them hanging around each other, acting like they were owed the world.”
Wes dropped the report and circled something on his notepad. She wanted to spy on his notes but didn’t want to be closer.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“The Ryan and Erick Cosgrove that I met weren’t the type to socialize together.”
“They still weren’t back then, but they ran into each other at the same party. They were brothers at the same college. What are you getting at?”
Wes lifted a noncommittal shoulder.
“Are you suggesting that Erick’s alibi for Ryan is bogus?”
“You suggested it. Not me.”
Bailey rolled her eyes. “That’s ridiculous.”
“I’m just the outsider you brought in to ask fresh questions.”
“Ryan didn’t kill Caitie. Besides how stupid that idea is, he was with Erick for the small amount of time when she was killed.”
“Okay.”
Her molars ground as she realized Wes wasn’t convinced. “You’re asking me to believe I spent years loving the man who murdered my sister.”
“I’m not proposing anything, Bailey. I’m asking simple questions, and you’re responding emotionally.”
“Of course I’m emotional, but I’m also stating facts.” Bailey pressed her lips together. This would not work if Wes couldn’t shake his Cosgrove bias. Ugh, had she really been checking him out five minutes ago? “Ryan said good night to Caitie, then someone found her in the stairwell. Dead. Do you know how hard it was for him to live with that guilt? It killed him. If they’d arrived at her place ten minutes sooner or later, someone else would have died. It was a crime of opportunity. Wrong place. Wrong time. And next to zero evidence.”
Wes watched, waiting to see if she was done. “No murder weapon left behind?”
Back to a practical question. Slowly, she took a deep breath and let it out. That was the kind of question he should have asked. Wes was completely detached and offered an objective perspective, simply questioning the premise she supplied. “None found.”
He returned to the police report. “What’d they suspect?”
“Probably a shoelace from a sneaker. Not too thick, but strong. There were no signs of a struggle. Her blood alcohol level was high.”
“College New Year’s Eve party. That’s to be expected.”
