Ten dug deep for a reserve of patience. “All we wanted to do was speak with you about that night,” Tennyson said, feeling like Kate was on his last nerve. “The goal was to eliminate the two of you and then be able to focus on other, more viable suspects. The murder of your sister hasn’t been easy on any of you, but you’ll be able to heal and move forward when the case is solved.”
“I thought you were supposed to be some world-renowned psychic,” Kate sneered. “If you’re so great, why don’t you tell me what happened the night my precious sister was killed.”
Anger boiled in the pit of Tennyson’s stomach. He wasn’t going to relish what was about to happen. Well, not much anyway. “You had a date with a boy from your trig class. Byron Halsey, I believe. He stood you up for another girl he’d been trying to get his hands on for months. You spent most of the night bitching to any friend who would listen and stealing booze from the drink cabinet in the basement.”
Kate’s eyes widened. She sat up straighter in her chair. “I didn’t kill my sister.”
“I haven’t gotten to that yet,” Ten agreed. “All you had to do was meet with us in the beginning like your parents did and this would have all been over, without Jude having to chase you down like a criminal.” He turned his attention to Butchie.
“Don’t you dare pull that psycho bullshit with me.” He took a few steps backward, knocking into his father.
“What? You don’t want your family to know you spent the night in your room whacking off to your Kelly LeBrock posters.” Ten raised an eyebrow at the fifty-year-old man. “Like they didn’t already know that’s what you were up to.” Ten paused, his gaze moving to Butch and Muriel. “But that’s what happened before your parents went to bed that night. What I want to know is what happened after?”
“After?” Muriel asked, sounding robotic.
“Your daughter left this house the night she was murdered, Muriel.” Ronan sounded sympathetic, but Ten knew full well that tender mercy was about to come to an end. “If you and your husband were in bed, there were two witnesses to her escape.” He pointed back and forth between Skye’s reluctant siblings. “So, what happened after your parents went to bed?”
“Why doesn’t he just tell you?” Kate was staring at Tennyson.
Ten grinned. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to start laughing. “Because my words won’t stand up in front of a jury of your peers.”
Kate’s eyes widened. “Jesus Christ, fine.” She waved a hand in the air. “We were watching late night television. Some show with stand-up comics. Skye snuck downstairs and tried to go out the cellar door, but I was in the kitchen making popcorn and saw her try to sneak out.”
“What?” Muriel shouted. She lunged at Kate, but Butch grabbed her in time. “What are you saying? You saw your sister leave that night? Why didn’t you tell anyone? Why didn’t you stop her?” Muriel struggled against her husband, almost managing to free herself.
“We didn’t have anything to do with Skye’s death, but we knew if we told you what we knew that you’d…” Kate stopped. She got out of her chair and went to Muriel, prying Butch’s hands off. “I’m sorry, Mom. I should have told you and the police that Skye left of her own free will that night. I didn’t want you to blame me for what happened, but instead, I’ve spent the last thirty plus years blaming myself. If I had tried to stop her that night, made enough noise to wake you up, maybe things would have been different. Can you ever forgive me?”
Ten was stunned by the change in Kate. She was a grown woman, who’d carried a terrible secret for most of her life. She was unmarried with no kids and moved from job to job with no real attachments to anyone. He knew Kate’s life choices could all be traced back to that awful night in 1985. He’d been angry enough to expose what Kate had been up to, but not enough to reveal to the rest of the room what her life had been like since.
Muriel hugged her daughter. Both were crying.
“What about you?” Ronan turned to Butchie, who didn’t seem impressed by what Kate had said.
“I was too drunk that night.” Butchie shrugged. “Been drunk almost every night since. If I hadn’t been so wasted, I could have stopped Skye.” He turned to Tennyson. “You tell them how shitty my life’s been since that night. Go on.”
“I’m not here to play all the king’s horses and men to your Humpty Dumpty. I’m here to figure out what happened to your sister.” Ten turned back to Kate, who was still hugging her mother. “What did Skye say about where she was going and who she was going with?”
“She didn’t say, and I didn’t ask. I assumed she was meeting up with her boyfriend. Kyle what’s-his-name?”
“Kyle Danner,” Ronan supplied.
“I always thought he had a hand in Skye’s murder,” Muriel said. “He became a drug addict after Skye…”
“People react differently to tragedy. Some turn to drugs, other’s to alcohol.” Ronan’s eyes were on Butch.
“Did you speak to him? Work your magic on his brain?” Kate asked.
“We did meet with him, but we don’t know if he killed Skye.” Tennyson didn’t think he had anything to do with it, but needed cold hard facts to back up his theory.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Muriel practically shrieked. “You were able to read my kids like books, why not Kyle?”
“My gift doesn’t work on command like a trained seal.” Ten sighed. It was all well and good when he was able to pull things from people’s heads. It was another matter entirely when he heard nothing. “Kyle was messed up for a lot of years. Sometimes things like that keep me from getting a good read on people. He’s gotten his life together. Runs a food pantry across town.”
“Yeah, we’ve heard about that place.” Butch rolled his eyes. “Skye’s the Limit. How dare he use our daughter’s name to peddle his bullshit?”
Ten got up from his seat. “None of that matters now, Butch. Your kids didn’t have anything to do with Skye’s murder. We’ll see ourselves out.”
“Wait!” Kate shouted. “Hold on a minute.”
Ten turned back to her.
“Skye’s friends. They’re all dying. Are we next?” Her eyes darted around the room. “Well, are we? You spoke to Jennifer and Heidi, and now they’re dead.”
“I don’t know.” Ronan pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll have the chief put a patrol car on the house.”
“That’s it?” Kate yelled. “We helped you, and now we could get murdered?”
“No one is going to get murdered,” Fitzgibbon said calmly. “We’ll make sure you’re protected.”
“Yeah, like you protected Skye’s friends?” Muriel sounded panicked.
“You’ll be fine,” Fitzgibbon assured them before heading out the front door.
“Will they be fine?” Ronan asked when they were crossing the street to Kevin’s SUV.
“So far as I can tell, but I would have Cisco put someone on the house like you said.” Ten was ready for today to be over. They’d been chasing Butchie and Kate to get their version of the story from the night Skye was murdered, and it was all for nothing. The siblings had nothing to do with Skye’s death, but at the very least, they could have prevented it.