“I don’t know. I guess. I gave her rides and stuff. Sometimes I picked up some groceries or cigarettes for her. That kind of thing. She was in real bad shape, and her kid was all over the place. Vera had a hard time controlling her. She was something else.”
“Beverly,” Josie said. “How well did you know her?”
“Not that well.” He noticed them staring at him intently and added, “I ain’t no pervert, so don’t even think that. She was grown up but too young for me. Plus, she was Vera’s kid, you know? I don’t mess with shit like that.”
“You sure about that?” Gretchen asked. “Because we’ve got evidence that Beverly was fixated on you.”
“That wasn’t my problem. That kid was wild. She wasn’t really interested in me, anyway. She was trying to piss Vera off. I never gave her anything to work with.”
“What does that mean?” Josie asked.
He blew out a loud breath. “It means that she flirted with me every chance she got but only when Vera was around to see it. I made sure to shut her down every time. I tried telling Vera that she only did it when Vera was there, that it was fake, to get a rise out of Vera, but she didn’t believe me. That kid wouldn’t give me the time of day if her mom wasn’t there to witness it. She wanted to make Vera jealous. No way was I getting in the middle of that. I didn’t need that crap, and like I told you, I’m not a perv. I don’t mess with young girls. That ain’t right.”
“You never had sexual contact with Beverly Urban?”
“Of course not! Even if I wanted to—which I didn’t—Vera would have kicked my ass.”
“Did Vera ever talk about Beverly’s father?” Josie asked.
“Not at first. But then right before she did her disappearing act, she tried to tell me that the kid was mine. Crazy, right?”
Josie said, “Was she your daughter?”
He gave her an incredulous look. “Of course not. Vera and I were together a few times, but I never got her pregnant.”
“How do you know?” Gretchen asked.
“’Cause I know, okay? I can count.”
“You remember precisely when the last time you were with Vera in a sexual way was?” Josie asked.
“No, no. I just know it couldn’t have been me, okay? I don’t remember dates and stuff. Just that at the time when she told me, I knew it couldn’t be me.”
Josie said, “Would you be willing to give a DNA test?”
“Does it hurt?”
“No. It would be a simple cheek swab.”
“Sure, whatever. I don’t care.”
Gretchen took out her notebook and pen. She flipped to a clean page and jotted down some notes. “Great. We’ll have a couple of officers from our evidence response team come by your place and do the test. Try not to run from them.”
“Does that mean you’re going to let me go?”
Ignoring his question, Gretchen asked, “Do you know if Beverly was involved with anyone? A male?”
“Hell if I know. Look, I know you gotta do your job, ask all these questions and stuff, but I don’t know what you want from me. Me and Vera were friends. I dealt her some drugs over the years. When she was at the salon and going to these drug parties. Then I didn’t see her for a long time. She got in touch after she had back surgery. I kept her out of pain as much as I could. I helped her because we were friends, even though she was behind in paying me. Then one day she was gone. Never saw her again.”
“Do you have any idea where she might have gone? Was there anyone who might have helped her move away? Anyone you can think of who might have offered her financial help?” Josie asked.
Again, Silas laughed. “Financial help? Vera owed everyone money. She had a real problem by that time. I always thought that was why she left. I thought she took her kid and found some place to lay low.”
“Did she have other friends that you know of?” Gretchen asked. “Besides you?”
He shook his head. “No. She was private. The last time I saw her, her only real friend was Percocet. So are you gonna let me go or what?”
Josie said, “That depends. Would you be willing to let us see the tattoo on your back?”
He let out a sigh of frustration. “You bitches want anything else? A lock of my hair or something? Shit. Fine. You want a look at the goods, go ahead.”
Josie turned him around and she and Gretchen lifted his T-shirt, pulling it up to his neck. Gretchen said, “That’s not a skull.”
Silas said, “Whaddaya mean it’s not a skull? It’s a coyote skull. Took weeks to get that shit.”
Josie could see why. The coyote skull took up his entire upper back. Silas Murphy was definitely not the married man they were looking for.
“Let him go,” Josie said, feeling defeated.
Forty-One
“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” Gretchen asked as she drove them back to the stationhouse.
Josie checked her jeans for blood. The gash on her leg was aflame. She was convinced the stitches had popped, but no blood soaked through. Regardless, the filthy water could introduce infection into her leg. She needed to get it clean as soon as possible. The pain and worry over the possibility of infection were only momentary distractions from thoughts of her grandmother and Sawyer Hayes. She’d managed to evade them while they were questioning Silas Murphy, but the moment they got into the car, the thoughts came roaring back. “What’s that?” Josie asked.
“Silas,” Gretchen said. “Do you think he’s telling the truth? About not being involved with Beverly and about not having seen Vera in all these years?”
“Actually, I do,” Josie said. “He’s pretty easy to crack. Aside from the fact that he ran, he gave up his secrets a little too easily.”
“Well,” Gretchen said. “He’s not the brightest bulb on the tree.”
Josie laughed. “He’s pretty guileless.”
“Or pretending to be guileless to fool us into thinking he’s not a threat of any kind. He has no alibi for when Vera was killed.”
“True,” Josie agreed. “But we’ve got no evidence that would connect him to Vera’s murder. I don’t see what reason he’d have to kill her.”
Gretchen said, “Unless he killed Beverly and Vera saw it and she’s been flying under the radar all this time because of that. His rap sheet lists him as six foot one. Definitely tall enough from what Dr. Feist said—although ballistic testing would be needed to confirm something like that.”
“I don’t see the motive there, though,” Josie said. “Silas is the kind of person who is only ever worried about his next payday or his next smoke or his next drink. He’s like Needle in that way. They don’t think long-term. They try to stay off people’s radars as much as possible unless those people want to buy drugs from them. Violence isn’t really in their wheelhouse. Not that they could never be violent, but given Silas’s history and that interview, I just don’t see him killing Beverly or Vera.”
Josie panned the municipal parking lot as they pulled in. It was filled with news vans from WYEP. A crowd of reporters much larger than the one that had assembled the day Beverly’s body was recovered stood before the back door. Across from the news vans were two patrol cars, lights flashing. Chief Chitwood and Amber stood in front of the first car. The Chief looked smug and triumphant, whereas Amber looked terrified.