Ollie Clark—Thursday, June 27, 2019
Ollie groaned at the text from Cindy and showed Eli her phone. Dad’s lawyer is here and wants to talk to you.
Eli stirred his coffee, tilting his head from side to side. “On the one hand, she’s making sure you know it’s actually his lawyer.”
“What, before I start ranting to one stranger about how he spilled his guts to a different stranger who wants to get him arrested?” Ollie set the phone on the table, plunked her elbow down next to it, and propped her chin on her fist.
“On the other hand,” he continued, nudging her mug closer, “we’re not allowed to darken that door again. So.”
The little dots danced and then revealed She’s told Dad in no uncertain terms that she needs to talk to you, even if he wants to be a whiny brat and leave the room.
Eli raised an eyebrow. “Do you think the lawyer actually said ‘whiny brat’?”
“Children’s librarian,” Ollie murmured, picking up her phone but then hesitating. “I don’t have to rope you into this.”
“I don’t have work and I’m sure as hell not packing if you’re not here to marvel over the wonderful job I’m doing.”
“Praise kink,” Ollie muttered, shaking her head as she typed We’ll be up there soon.
“Slow burn, hurt/comfort, fluff and angst.” He winked. “Adult content. By clicking here, you agree that you are over eighteen and consent to see—”
“Yeah, let’s bookmark that for later.” Ollie chugged the rest of her coffee and considered her shorts and t-shirt before deciding that a lawyer who made house calls had probably endured worse. “Okay.”
“Not flip-flops,” Eli cautioned, going to grab some socks so he could put on sneakers instead of sandals. “You know. In case we need to run back home.”
She rolled her eyes. “Beat Jared’s time trial. Hey, you heard from him today?”
Eli shook his head. “Way too early. His phone’ll be on silent, so unless your dad went and broke down the door …”
“Doesn’t he have a key?”
“Maybe. If your dad’s ever asked for one. Randy’s the only guy Jared’s ever had trouble saying ‘no’ to.”
Ollie’s phone buzzed again before she dropped it into her purse. Coffee’s on.
Eli nodded. “So she’s anxious.”
Cindy didn’t need to be anxious to put the coffee on. “They just got into the biggest fight of their marriage because Dad wants to blame you for the murders and now super stud Len Wilcox is trying to get her husband arrested.”
Eli grimaced but got the door and gestured her out first. “So, I’m not saying your dad’s stupid but, if he actually did do it, trying to focus all the attention on me is about the worst move.”
“Yeah?”
“Sure. I’ve already been dismissed. I,” he announced with theatrical grandiosity, “have been vindicated by no fewer than four separate podcast episodes.”
She wrinkled her nose. “You actually listen to those?”
“I have, yeah. I know they tell authors not to read reviews, but …” Shrugging, Eli took her hand as they crossed the parking lot. “I did at least wait until other people listened and posted and gave away the ending.”
“Who’d they say did it, then?” Since presumably these episodes were published more than six months ago, before Sean Kelly got his own wave of podcasts.
“Two of them said it was a stranger or a mistake. One of them went for your dad, and the other …”
“The other?”
“It was one of those dynamic duo podcasts. One of them said a stranger, and the other … she said Jared.”
Ollie wasn’t sure what sound came out of her, but it wasn’t very ladylike. “Jared?”
“Yeah. So it’s probably a good thing they didn’t know Birdy was pregnant, or else she would’ve said he killed her to keep from getting tied down.”
She chewed on her lip, not really keeping an eye out as they walked because there just wasn’t much traffic in South Range and Eli would pull her to a stop, anyway. Jared knew Birdy was pregnant. The math meant she wasn’t that far along, unless it was someone else’s kid, in which case Jared wouldn’t have been tied down, anyway. If Birdy came after him for child support, he’d say sure, after we do the DNA test, and bingo. Except Jared wasn’t angry about it last night. He was sad. And oh, God, that totally put him on par with Dad, didn’t it? They’d both lost their partner and their child. Dad wasn’t going to stick at the whole idea of potential child, not with everything he and Mom went through with Birdy. So if Jared knew Dad knew …
But there were other things Jared wouldn’t have known. “How did this podcaster get around the fact that I was supposed to be the one home that night? Like, if he wanted to kill Birdy, why didn’t he go out to Covington?”
“Yeah, that’s what the other one pointed out. Plus how angry do you have to be to kill someone and her mother because hey, by the way, birth control isn’t just on the partner with a uterus?”
“I mean, if it’s the uterus that pisses you off …” Still, she shook her head, because Jared? Jared was self-destructive. He drank and he hid from the world and he refused to socialize and he wouldn’t even buy self-help books. She couldn’t imagine Jared killing anyone other than himself, and definitely not Birdy. Sure, it might’ve been six weeks, but in those six weeks his entire universe revolved around Birdy. Her death tore his life apart.
“Yeah, nothing makes any sense,” Eli agreed. “It would’ve been so much easier if they could’ve made it stick with me, but uncertainty is part of life.”
Ollie shook her head. “We had our certainty. Sean Kelly.”
“And now it’s not him, so we’re back to the uncertainty. And,” he added with an apologetic shrug, “we’re probably going to be stuck there. It was a freaking miracle we had Kelly in the first place.”
If you could accept a serial killer as a miracle, maybe, but Ollie knew what she meant. She chuckled, though, and nodded at Dad’s driveway instead. “How much can you trust a lawyer who owns a Prius up here?”
“Maybe she owns two cars. She’s successful enough she can do the Prius in the summer and something hearty in the winter. So really, it’s a good sign.”
“Yeah, I’m just going to say that having to talk to a lawyer is never a good sign.” But Cindy had the door open already and stood there fiddling with the hem of her blouse as she waited for them to come in, so Ollie gave Eli’s hand a tug and went on up the steps.
Phone Call, Roger Porvoo with Len Wilcox, June 27, 2019
RP: Hey, Len, it’s Roger.
LW: Hi Roger.
RP: You know, I’d like to get you on the record. I don’t want to say you were hiding things from me on Monday, but …
LW: You recording right now?
RP: I am.
LW: I’ve got nothing to put on the record at the moment.
RP: At the moment. So. What are you thinking? Is he going to get arrested? Can I get some insights then?
LW: No comment at this time.
RP: Come on, Len. You can’t keep this kind of thing all to yourself. Make nice with the locals, hey? Throw me a bone to tide me over until you publish whatever you’re going for.
LW: Rog, come on. You know how this goes.
RP: I do know how this goes. You’re the one who doesn’t seem to get it. You’re not a lone wolf here, kid. And if you sit on it, and something happens, the police might mention your name during a press conference. Once. Then, if you try to publish your own tell-all, you’ll get swamped by angry people saying you’re trying to take the credit for their hard work. Back the blue. So the way this goes, Len, is you give me a comment now about the fact that you’re involved, and then, later, you let me have a teaser before you drop the full piece.
LW: I don’t think—
RP: You don’t have to think, Len. If you don’t go on the record now, I’ll be the one pointing out your Monday-morning quarterbacking and how you’re trying to take credit away from our good men and women with your city smile and capped teeth.
LW: They’re not—
RP: Final question: do you have anything you want to put on the record?
[long pause]
LW: I would like to express … my gratitude … for everyone who’s been willing to speak to me about the murders and … if anything this project uncovers … assists … the police in any way, I only hope that the Clark family can find closure.
RP: Clark family, huh? Every single member?
LW: No further comment.
Bury the Dead 18 – coming April 18
Rebecca Frost 
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