Chapter Fourteen
Bethany gave Ian credit for not freaking out when she’d suggested an afternoon at a graveyard. He’d even waited until they’d turned into the parking area for the cemetery before saying anything else. “Now do you want to tell me why we’re here?” he asked.
She told him about her visit to the historical society and what she had learned about the accident that had damaged Katherine’s leg as well as the fire at the newly wed Gerald and Abby’s home.
“If they went missing only a short time after someone tried to burn down their house, why wasn’t law enforcement more suspicious when they disappeared?” Ian asked. “Why didn’t they at least investigate the possibility of foul play?”
“Maybe because the family said Abby and Gerald had talked about moving to get away from Katherine’s harassment,” Bethany said. “I wonder if the sheriff questioned Katherine about the fire. I know she couldn’t walk long distances, but maybe she could have set the fire?”
“I don’t know if they have records going back that far, but we could ask,” Ian said.
“I also found the official notice of Gerald and Katherine’s divorce,” she said. “It was granted six months after Katherine’s leg was injured, a year before Gerald married Abby.”
“We know Gerald remarried,” Ian said. “Did Katherine?”
“If she did, I didn’t find any mention of it. But we know there were rumors she had a boyfriend—someone who could have set that fire for her and maybe even have murdered Gerald and Abby.” Excitement zinged through her. “I wonder how we could find out if she was seeing anyone special.”
“When did she die?” he asked.
“Nineteen eighty-five.”
“There might be something in her obituary, maybe mention of a close male friend.”
“Why didn’t I think of that?” Bethany said. “I’ll have to go back to the historical society.”
“There’s no guarantee he would be listed in the obituary if they never married,” Ian said.
He turned into the parking area for the cemetery.
“And she died ten years after Gerald and Abby. If she did have someone acting on her behalf to exact revenge, that person might have been out of the picture by then.”
Eagle’s Rest Memorial Park was a tree-shaded expanse of ground near the river, dotted with grave markers and monuments. Ian and Bethany stopped just inside the entrance and stared at the neat rows of graves. “How are we going to find her?” she asked.
“I guess we start walking and reading,” he said and led the way down the nearest aisle between graves.
They located Katherine Boston’s headstone after only fifteen minutes. Beneath her name and dates of birth and death was a single word: Beloved.
“Whoa!” Bethany gripped Ian’s arm. “Beloved of whom? A lover?”
“Or a relative or friend,” he said. “Beloved can mean a lot of things.”
“Who’s buried nearby?” she asked. “That might give us a clue.”
They scanned the graves to either side. One was a family of five named Creech, the dates of their deaths ranging from 1916 to 2018. On the other side was a man named Davies and his wife.
“Maybe she was Davies’s mistress?” Bethany asked.
“Except he died a year before she did.” Ian pointed out the date. “His wife died two years later, but I doubt she would have agreed to put her husband’s mistress next to him or order a grave marker with the word beloved.”
“I see what you mean.” She returned to stand in front of Katherine’s grave. After a moment, she straightened. “I just realized something,” she said.
“What is it?” Ian asked.
“Whoever loved Katherine, that person is still alive.”
“How do you—” Then he saw the flowers laid at the base of the marker. A bouquet of daisies, still fresh.
It stood out in the row of otherwise unadorned graves. Bethany knelt and checked the wrapping around the bouquet. “No indication of a florist,” she said. She looked around. “Let’s check that building over there. Maybe there’s an attendant or something.”
Before they reached the building, they encountered a man by a shed, filling a lawnmower with gasoline. “Do you work here?” Bethany asked.
The man straightened. He was very tall—six inches taller, if not more, than Ian, who was at least six feet. He had long arms, long legs and a long face with deep lines alongside his mouth. “I’m the caretaker,” the man said. “Can I help you?”
“We were visiting a grave,” Bethany said. “Katherine Boston. She’s over there.” She pointed toward the row that contained Katherine’s site. “And we noticed fresh flowers on her grave. Do you know who brought them?”
“Why do you want to know?” the man asked.
“Um, so I can thank them,” she said. “It’s such a nice thing to do.”
The caretaker didn’t say anything.
“Do you know who put the flowers on Ms. Boston’s grave?” Ian asked.
“Don’t know,” the man said and picked up the gas can once more.
“Have you seen anyone around her grave?” Bethany asked. “With or without flowers?”
The man shook his head and returned to pouring gas into the mower.
Ian took her arm. “Let’s go.”
Back at the Jeep, Bethany could scarcely contain her agitation. “I’m sure Katherine is the key to this mystery,” she said. “She was the woman scorned. Craig said she hated Gerald enough to kill him.”
Ian unlocked the Jeep, and they got in. “It’s a big step from resenting a former spouse to murdering him and his new wife in a remote canyon,” he said. “We know Katherine couldn’t have committed the crime herself. And we don’t know if she really had a friend who would have helped.”
“The logical part of my mind knows you’re right.” She grinned at him. “And yes, I do have a logical part of my mind.”
“I never said you didn’t.”
“Thank you for that, but I know I tend to rely more on impulse and instinct. I can’t shake the feeling that Katherine is involved in the murder somehow.”
“It happened such a long time ago,” Ian said. “Without DNA or some other conclusive evidence, you’ll probably never know what happened for certain.”
“Maybe not, but I think it’s important for us to try to find out.”
He angled his body toward her. “Why is it important?” he asked. “I really want to know.”
She glanced at him, then looked back at her hands, clenched in her lap. “This is going to sound silly…”
“Tell me and let me decide that,” he said.
She drew in a deep breath. “The way Gerald and Abby died was so horrible—all alone in that cave. And no one even looked for them for fifty years. Then we found them. That connects us with them, in a weird way. I think if we could find out who killed them, even if that person is long dead and can’t be punished for the crime, it would be a way of finally laying them to rest. Of giving them the peace they deserve. ”
“That’s very sweet of you, to want to do that for them,” he said.
“And maybe silly. But there’s another reason to look for their killer. Maybe an even more important one.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“You said it before—the vandalism and the attacks on you might not be because someone is opposed to the via ferrata project,” she said. “Maybe you’ve been targeted because you uncovered the killer’s secret.”
“I was only speculating. So you really think their killer is still alive and here in Eagle Mountain?”
“Why not? They would be older now—in their seventies or even eighties. But they could still be worried you’ll find out their secret and they’ll go to prison. It’s reason enough to threaten you.”
“As far as I know, the sheriff’s department doesn’t have a single suspect in Gerald and Abby’s murder,” Ian said. “I can’t see the murderer has anything to worry about.”
“Except that all these years, no one has even known there was a murder. The killer was perfectly safe. Now people are starting to ask questions. At least…you and I are asking questions. That’s making the killer nervous.
If they can shut us up, maybe they can make this all go away.
” She frowned. “I’m not saying that makes a lot of sense, but someone who would kill two innocent people and leave them in a cave for fifty years has to be a little unbalanced. ”
He went very still. “If what you’re saying is true, you could be in real danger,” he said.
“So could you. So are you. Someone already tried to shoot you, and you could have been killed, falling off that catwalk.”
“Someone shot at me. And at your brother, the cop. And only broke a window. That doesn’t seem like a very serious attempt at murder to me.
And the catwalk was more likely to injure one of the construction workers than me.
Whoever sawed through those supports couldn’t have known I would climb up there.
I didn’t even know I would until I did it. ”
“The only thing that’s happened to me is someone sent a lame note.” She didn’t mention the feeling yesterday that she was being followed. That had probably just been her imagination.
He didn’t answer, only looked at her with a pained expression.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
“I can’t decide if I need to tell you to stay away from me for your own safety or if it would be better for me to keep you close. At least then you’d have someone trying to protect you.”
“I have an entire overprotective family, remember?”
“No offense, but I’m not sure how much defense they would be against a killer.”
“Is there something else about you I need to know? A black belt in karate or training as a Navy SEAL that you neglected to mention?”
He pulled her close. “Haven’t you figured out that I’m incredibly stubborn? I don’t give up when it comes to scaling mountains, and I won’t give up going after anyone who tries to hurt you.”
Bethany had read about how love made people weak in the knees, but she had never experienced it before. If Ian hadn’t been holding her upright, she might have slid right out of her seat. “I never feel safer than when I’m with you,” she said, the words just above a whisper.