Page 103 of The Summer that Changed Everything
“I used to stop by their place every once in a while to see if they needed me to pick up anything from the store,” Lucy explained. “Tony had arthritis and Lucinda was on oxygen, so it was hard for them to get out, and it gave me something to do, somewhere to go, and an excuse to say hello. I liked being with them. My dad was hardly ever home, but Lucinda and Tonyalwayswere.” She scooted forward. “Anyway, Lucinda would sometimes reward me with a cookie or whatever she was baking, and I would hang out with them. One day, Tony showed me a baseball card collection. I had no idea it was worth anything, but he said, since he didn’t have any children or other close relatives, he wanted me to have it after he was gone.”
“How nice of him,” Ford said. “But... you never got it?”
“Of course not,” Lucy replied. “I didn’t even ask about it. How could I expect to getanythingafter what I thought my father had done?”
“You could’ve sold it,” Ford pointed out. “You needed the money.”
“I didn’t know how much it was worth,” Lucy reiterated. “I wouldn’t have taken it, anyway—didn’t even want to see it.”
Anna sank deeper into the couch. It was looking more and more like her brother could go to prison for the rest of his life, and she’d be responsible for speaking up about the baseball cardcollection. It was something she’d had to do, but that didn’t make it any easier. “Oh, God,” she muttered.
“Claxton didn’t think the baseball card collection signified anything?” Ford asked.
Knowing she had to see this through, that she no longer had any choice, Anna forced herself to sit up taller. “Claxton believes nothing was stolen,” she said, attempting to at least formulate an opposing argument.
“If he didn’t know about the baseball card collection—if no one did—and that was all that was taken, it would be easy to assume nothing was missing,” Lucy said.
“We need to talk to Claxton, tell him Tonydidhave a baseball card collection,” Ford said and, suddenly in a hurry, they both stood.
After they’d thanked her and she’d shown them out, Anna took another look at the patch on the wall in the entry and felt a great deal more fear. What kind of man was her brother? And would her mother ever forgive her for the fact that, if he got caught, it would be because of her?
It was Reggie who’d killed the Matteos. Ithadto be him. He’d been at the trailer park that night. He’d been desperate to make a drug buy he didn’t have the money for. He was known to be reckless, have no respect for the law or other people’s rights, and he had an incredible temper. He’d also had possession of the only item stolen from the Matteos’ home. Except for the DNA under Tony’s fingernails, everything fit. Could the blood in the sink have been his?
Lucy was so excited and hopeful she could scarcely breathe. She knew Ford was filled with the same expectant energy. His knee bounced as they waited to speak to Chief Claxton, who was in his office with someone else.
Claxton kept glancing over at them, so he knew they werethere. But Lucy was willing to bet he wasn’t eager to give them an audience. He’d been so resistant, so afraid to take another look at the murders that’d occurred fifteen years ago for fear it would make the department look bad. But she and Ford had collected enough evidence that what they had to say should supersede something like that. A man’s life—his freedom—was worth more than the department’s reputation.
“You okay?” Ford murmured as she started to dig at her cuticles.
She clasped her hands together to stop herself from doing any more damage. “Just anxious. And hopeful. I would love to be able to give my father some good news.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” he warned. “You know Claxton’s just going to point to the DNA evidence. That’s all he cares about.”
“This other stuff should matter, too.”
“Except he’ll say it’s circumstantial, so it isn’t enough to overthrow the case against your father.”
“I just want to know if they tested the DNA evidence from the blood in that sink against Reggie’s DNA. That’s all.”
Ford opened his mouth to respond but jumped up instead, and Lucy followed suit. An officer had approached them to say it was time to speak to the chief of police.
Claxton glowered at them as they entered his office. Clearly, she’d been right; he wasn’t happy they were there.
“What’s going on now?” he said in lieu of a greeting.
“Reggie’s sister, Anna, came to visit you yesterday.”
He leaned forward, resting on his elbows. “So?”
“The baseball card collection she told you Reggie sold for five thousand dollars around the same time the Matteos were killed—”
“Has no connection to the murders,” he interrupted.
“Except it does,” Lucy insisted. “Tony Matteo owned a baseball card collection from when he was a child. I’m guessing it would’ve been worth about what Reggie got for it, too.”
He stared at her for several seconds without responding. Finally, he said, “And how would you know this?”
“Because I used to visit the Matteos. They were sort of like grandparents to me—or the closest thing to grandparents I’d ever had. Tony showed me the collection one day, told me he wanted me to have it after he was gone.”
