The Girl Who Survived(85)

Tate thought about it. He’d known the kid had some trouble as a teen, but what teenage boy came out of high school unscathed?

“There were drugs involved, steroids mainly and alcohol, of course. The fight was all hushed up by the parents, nothing more than a ‘scuffle,’ I think is the way Chad’s father described it, but Chad smashed the other kid’s face on the steering wheel of his Mustang to a pulp and the kid had to have stitches and plastic surgery. Once again, Chad skated, his parents bailed him out and from that point on he kept his nose clean.”

He leaned against the back wall of the vestibule and stared through the glass doors to the dark morning beyond. He’d never really considered Atwater as a serious suspect. “Why would he slaughter an entire family?”

“Don’t know. Can’t speculate. Just giving you the facts. But there’s one more wrinkle with Atwater. He had a girl on the side.”

“So he was furious that someone came on to Marlie, but meanwhile he was seeing someone else.”

“They were teenagers, what can I say?” Connell said. “Her name’s Brittlynn Cadella. She was all of fourteen at the time. They ended up marrying the minute she turned eighteen. So now she’s Brittlynn Atwater.”

Tate hadn’t known this. “Did Marlie Robinson know that he was seeing someone else?”

“Doesn’t seem that way.”

“Huh.”

“There’s more,” Connell said. “Another shady character. Roger Sweeney. The aunt’s boyfriend?”

“What about him?”

“He’s got a record, too. First of all, he had a dishonorable discharge from the Marines. Pulled a knife in a bar fight, cut someone pretty bad. The victim survived, but barely. And then five years later, more trouble. In Nashville. Didn’t get along with members of his band. Accused one of them of stealing and they got into it. The fight got physical and Roger pulls a knife, cuts the guy, might have done more damage but the third member of the trio puts a stop to it. He had a pistol.”

“So, in an about-turn, that guy brought a gun to a knife fight.”

Connell snorted. “The upshot was that no charges were filed. They both get stitched up, but Roger is out of the group. That’s about the time he migrated to Portland and took up with Faiza Donner.”

“But again, why would he kill the family?”

“Robbery gone bad? The family didn’t like him. Faiza wanted her share? Again, I’m just spitballing here and I have no facts to bear any of this out. This was just a first deep dive. I’m still checking out Silas Dean, Samuel’s business partner, as well as the exes: Walter Robinson, Leona McIntyre and Natalie Brizard.”

Tate thought about it but really couldn’t see a woman hoisting that old sword and killing the entire family and he said as much.

“Just covering all the bases,” Connell explained. “And women can have long memories, vendettas and accomplices.” True enough, Tate thought as he heard footsteps overhead. “Take Leona McIntyre, Samuel McIntyre’s college sweetheart and wife number one. She blamed her husband for their baby’s death and then lost custody of her only son, Sam Junior, because Sam Senior claimed she was nuts. It was all probably depression, but Leona has always claimed her husband and his second wife, Natalie, ruined her life. She never got over it.”

“It would be hard.”

“I suppose. Anyway, she never remarried and became a bit of a loner. Then years later, when Sam left Natalie, his second wife, for Zelda, Leona was supposedly ecstatic.”

“How do you know that?”

“An old friend of hers who knew both Leona and Samuel back at the university. I found her on Facebook, tracked her down on the Internet and she was more than willing to talk. Anyway, Leona, upon hearing that Samuel was dumping Natalie, said, ‘What goes around comes around, even for bitches who break up a family.’ ”

“No way would Leona kill her own son, Sam Junior,” Tate countered, because he’d gone down this mental path before. “And Donner died that night. That’s the primary reason Walter Robinson wasn’t considered. He was a great dad, loved his kids. Sent himself to school on the GI Bill or something. Became an electrician. But he had been at the house that day and got into an argument about custody.”

“Have you ever thought that there may have been more than one killer?”

“As in a team?” Tate asked.

“Yeah. Or possibly someone who didn’t intend to kill everyone, but because he was seen and could be identified, murdered the witnesses?”

Again, this wasn’t a new trail, but there was a roadblock. “Sam Senior and his wife were in their bed. Asleep. Both had traces of sleeping aids in their blood. Dead to the world.”

“So to speak.”

“Not funny,” Tate said.

Connell said, “Maybe they were the ultimate targets, but the killer didn’t expect everyone to still be up. Could be that all of the killings weren’t part of the initial plan, but it went awry.”

“They were killed with the same sword. Every last one of them. Blood from all the victims was found on the blade. Two killers—one weapon?”

“Again, I’m just throwing out ideas. I’ve still got some things I want to dig into. Alibis and motives, I figure the whole money angle should be more deeply explored. Samuel McIntyre was a rich man when he died. People lose their perspective and their moral compasses get all skewed when money’s involved.”