Page 65 of Peak Suspicion
“Ed Anders? Is that you?” she demanded.
“Ed?” Carter echoed. “What are you doing here?”
In answer, he fired the gun. The bullet hit the wall a few inches past Carter’s head, the explosion deafening in the smallbedroom. Carter and Mira jumped out of bed. She grabbed her robe and wrapped it around her shoulders, clutching her cast protectively across her stomach. Carter stood on the opposite side of the bed naked, his gaze fixed on the gun.
“Ed, what do you want?” Mira asked. She took a step away from the bed, putting more distance between her and Carter. If she could keep Ed focused on her, maybe Carter could get away.
“I’m going to kill you,” he said.
“Why?” Carter asked. “What did either one of us ever do to you?”
“You killed my friend.” Ed spoke to Mira, ignoring Carter. “The best friend I ever had.”
Mira gasped. Was he talking about David Ketchum? Did he really believe she had been responsible for the boy’s murder? “I never killed anyone,” she said.
“You signed George’s death warrant when you turned him in to the cops,” Ed said. “Prison destroyed him. He was never the same after that.”
“You knew George?” She thought she had known all of George’s friends. Not that he had very many.
“He was my best friend. I stayed in touch with him even after he was sent away. We had the same…interests.”
The word made her skin crawl. No wonder she hadn’t known Ed. George had done a very good job of concealing that whole side of himself from her. “I didn’t turn George over to the police,” she said. “I had no idea he was into child pornography until the police came to our apartment.”
“That’s not what he told me. He said you had ratted him out.”
“I didn’t. I promise.” She held the robe closed with one hand and tried not to stare at the gun trained on her. The shot had been so loud. Surely one of her neighbors had heard. Had they called the police? If she and Carter could keep Ed talking until help arrived, they could stay alive.
“Did you send Mira those letters?” Carter asked. “The ones about David Ketchum?”
“Yes, I sent them.” Ed turned his head to look at Carter, though he kept the gun focused on Mira. “I wanted to ruin her life the way she ruined George’s life.”
“Why try to connect Mira with David Ketchum’s death?” Carter said. “She was never even a suspect.”
“The police never knew who did it. I thought if I gave them a suspect they would do the rest of the work to prove she was guilty.”
“But why bother?”
He said nothing. The silence stretched and Mira strained her ears, listening for an approaching siren. All she heard was Ed’s own ragged breathing. She couldn’t keep herself from focusing on the gun now, and gooseflesh rose along her arms as she imagined the bullet tearing into her. It wasn’t fair. She had just found Carter. She was in love with him. Not the way she had loved George—because he was easy and falling in love with a man and getting married was what everyone expected her to do—what she expected to do. Her feelings for Carter ran deeper. Being with him wasn’t about expectations. It was all about possibility. With him, she didn’t see only one path, but many, all of them better because he would be at her side.
“I think you sent those letters because if the police focused on Mira, they would stop looking for the real killer,” Carter said. “You were in Santa Fe then. I think you killed David.”
The words shook her like a physical punch. She stared at Ed. A slight, unassuming man. But one who had admitted to accusing her of a terrible thing. Was Carter right? “Did you do it?” she asked. “Did you kill David?”
“No! Why would you say such a thing?” His voice sounded strained, like a guitar string pulled too tight.
“Those boys here in town? Were you the one who went after them?” Carter took a step toward the older man.
“How could I?” Ed gestured with the gun, but vaguely, no longer pointing it directly at her. “I can hardly walk.”
“You didn’t have any trouble breaking in here and crawling through the window,” Carter said. “You’re walking fine now. Standing up straight.”
He was right. This wasn’t the stooped man, hunched over a walker, who Mira was used to seeing. “You were pretending to be feeble,” she said. “So people wouldn’t suspect you.”
“Did they suspect you after David disappeared?” Carter asked. He took another step toward Ed, the slightest, gliding movement that Ed didn’t appear to notice. The older man’s gaze was locked on Carter’s face, mesmerized by his words. “You took him, didn’t you? Just like you tried to take the boys here in Eagle Mountain. You thought you got away with it once, why not try again. No one would suspect you.”
“That’s right. And they won’t suspect me now. Not when I get rid of you two.” He straightened and held the gun steadier.
“What happened to David?” Mira asked. She had to keep Ed talking. She had to give Carter a chance to get away and go for help. “He was a friendly boy. It probably wasn’t hard for you to get him to trust you.”
