Spare Change (Wyattsville #1)(71)

Although preferring sooner to later, Jack agreed.

When Ethan arrived home from school on Monday afternoon, Olivia told him Detective Mahoney would be there the following day and they set about making their plans. First off, they had to know for certain that Mahoney came alone, that Officer Cobb was not waiting outside in the car, or lurking in the dark of the stairwell. Secondly, they had to be absolutely positive there was no chance Ethan might be taken back to the Eastern Shore, and lastly, the boy had to see the light in Mahoney’s eyes for himself—if there was no light, there’d be no telling what he’d seen.

Once Ethan and Olivia decided what they would tell and under what circumstances it would be told, Olivia began calling the neighbors for help. Fred McGinty volunteered for the curbside watch, Sam Bowman to patrol the staircase, Clara and Barbara Conklin as sofa-sitting witnesses and Seth Porter planned to hide in the bedroom, his shotgun ready, in the event anybody tried strong-arm tactics. When the doorbell rang at three o’clock Tuesday afternoon, all the pieces were in place.

When Olivia opened the door, Jack Mahoney said; “Afternoon, Missus Doyle.”

She took one look at those eyes, glittery as a springtime river, and smiled. “Come in,” she said pleasantly and motioned him into the living room. After Olivia had introduced Clara and Barbara, she sauntered over to the window and looked down at Fred. He gave the all clear signal, waving his right hand. Mahoney had been alone in the car. She spent the next five minutes chattering on about nothing of consequence, waiting until she heard the three loud clunks echo up the radiator pipe. All clear; no one was hiding in the stairwell. “So,” she said, abruptly changing the subject, “I suppose we should get Ethan Allen out here.”

In response to her call, the boy came from the bedroom. He walked with slow shuffling footsteps, his hands jammed deep into his pockets and his head bent toward the floor. “Afternoon, Detective Mahoney,” he said without raising his eyes.

Seeing the dread pitched over the boy like a pup tent, Mahoney squatted down until they were face-to-face. “Son,” he said, “you’ve no need to be afraid of me.”

Ethan looked into the man’s river water eyes.

“I’m on your side,” Mahoney said in a most convincing manner. “The only thing I really want—is to see the person responsible for killing your mama and daddy brought to justice.”

“You ain’t gonna try to take me back to Missus Cobb?”

“Absolutely not! The best place for you is right here with your Grandma.”

Ethan looked square into Mahoney’s eyes and saw the light—it was bright as the noonday sun shimmering on a still water pond. If such a thing was proof enough for Grandma, then it was proof enough for him. “I wasn’t sleeping,” he said, “I seen it all.”

“Good Lord,” Mahoney sighed, “you actually saw what happened?”

Ethan Allen nodded.

“Did the attacker see you?”

“Uh-uh.” Ethan Allen timidly shook his head side to side. “He didn’t see me ‘cause I stayed hid, way far back under the bushes.”

“Did you recognize him?”

Ethan Allen nodded and opened his mouth, but the words felt so painful in his throat that instead of speaking the name as he had intended, he began to cry. “Honey,” Olivia sighed, wrapping her arm around the boy’s shoulders, “you don’t have to be afraid of telling the truth. The Lord himself is on the side of truth, and so is Detective Mahoney.”

“That’s right,” Mahoney said. “The only thing anybody can ask of you is the truth about what happened that night.”

Turning his face into Olivia’s shoulder, Ethan mumbled, “Mister Cobb did it.”

“Sam Cobb?” Mahoney gasped.

The boy shook his head, “Uh-uh, his daddy—Mister Scooter.”

“Scooter Cobb was the man who killed your Mama and Daddy?” Mahoney echoed with an overwhelming gasp of astonishment.

“Not Mama; just Daddy.”

“Did you see who killed your Mama?”

“Daddy, I reckon,” Ethan answered, “but, I think it was an accident.”

“Do you suppose,” Mahoney asked, “you could tell me the whole story of how things actually happened that day?”

Ethan looked up at Olivia, his eyes questioning such a move. Only after she gave him a reassuring nod, did he start to speak. “We was gonna run off to New York,” he said, “so Mama told me to hide out back ‘til it was time to leave. She thought I might slip and say something and then Daddy would know what we were up to.”

“Just you and your mama were going to New York?” Mahoney asked.

Ethan shook his head. “No, Mister Scooter was going too, that’s why Mama didn’t want Daddy to know. First off, just me and her were going; but after Daddy took all Mama’s money and spent it on a tractor, she said Mister Scooter was gonna take us cause he had a lot of money. Thing is, Daddy must of caught wind of it, cause him and Mama got into a real big fight. Once the cat was out of the bag, she threw her suitcase in the car and told him she didn’t give a beaver’s tit about what he wanted, we was still going to New York—that’s when Daddy punched her and she fell down.” Ethan suddenly stopped talking and turned his attention to picking at a loose thread on the pocket of his pants.