“Death has a way of bringing important things into focus,” Cope said. “You’ve got limitless time to go over your faults and mistakes, which can lead to some pretty enlightening conversations with yourself.”
“And you think the enlightening conversations Cyrus had led him to believe he deserved to be murdered in this run-down, no-tell motel?” Hines sounded dubious at best. “I just don’t buy it.”
“Stranger things have happened. Why are you so all fired up to solve the murder?” Jude asked. “Yeah, I get that it’s the one that got away, and you want to win a Pulitzer or something, but I get the feeling there’s more to it than that.”
Hines sighed. He stared out at the ocean and was silent for a moment. “The case wasn’t the one that got away. Cyrus was.”
Jude’s eyes widened. Cope and Ronan wore similar looks. Now they were getting somewhere. “You were in love with Cyrus?”
Hines hesitated for a few seconds but grudgingly nodded. “Cyrus was the love of my life. He didn’t want to be tied down. Wanted to be free to live his life as he saw fit. He was gorgeous, rich, popular. I didn’t care about those things. I just wanted to be with him. He didn’t want to be with only one person. He wanted to be with them all. I figured as time moved on and he got older that Cyrus would change his mind and decide he did want to settle down, but that day never came.”
“That’s not the whole story.” Cope prodded, his eyes bright. “What aren’t you telling us? There’s so much guilt surrounding you that I can’t see through it to what’s causing you to feel this way.”
Jude knew Cope was onto something. He watched as Chet Hines battled his inner self, knowing that he was going spill his guts as soon as he worked up enough courage to speak his truth. Maybe he was the killer.
Hines shook his head, looking as if he’d lost the argument with himself. “We had plans that night.”
“The night Cyrus was murdered?” Ronan asked.
“Yeah. We were supposed to have dinner at a posh steak house a few towns over. We both knew dinner would turn into a nightcap back at the motel, and the nightcap would turn into a night of…sex,” Hines said. “I knew I would say something stupid to make him love me, or worse, I’d beg him to love me. The night would be fun, and he’d fuck my brains out, but when the sun rose the next morning, it would all be over for another year. After getting my hopes up and my heart broken so many times, I decided enough was enough and saved myself the pain. I sent him a message canceling our plans. I spent the night at home with a bottle of cheap whiskey. Maybe if I’d been there that night like I should have been, I could have stopped the killer.”
“Or you’d be dead too,” Ronan said. “Or the killer would have come back another time. There’s no way of knowing what would have happened if you hadn’t canceled your plans that night.”
Jude still wondered if it had been Hines who’d killed Cyrus. He turned to Cope, who shook his head, as if he could read Jude’s mind. “Okay, so if you didn’t kill Cyrus, who did?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Hines shrugged. “I’ve been searching for the answer for the last fifteen years. You and your husband were my last hope.”
“I’m willing to give it one last try,” Cope said, his eyes on Jude as he spoke. “I’ll send the kids to watch a movie with Ten and Ronan tonight, and I’ll see if can reach out to Cyrus one more time. We’ve got an ace in the hole that I’d rather not use, but we’ll see what happens.”
Ronan nodded as if to agree with Cope’s plan. “We’ll be in touch tomorrow morning at some point. Checkout time is noon, so we’ll reach out before then.”
“Thanks, guys,” Hines said, looking a bit more optimistic than he had minutes earlier. “I’m sorry again for the trouble I caused in getting you up here under false pretenses. If you speak with Cyrus, can you please tell him that I love him?”
Cope nodded. “I will.”
Without another word, Hines got up from his seat and headed for the pier. Moments later, he disappeared into the crowd of tourists heading the same way.
“This case ends tomorrow whether we know the killer’s name or not.” Jude didn’t like the idea of leaving the murder unsolved, but if the victim was unwilling to reveal the killer and there was no new evidence pointing to the person in question, there was nothing else they could do here, even with a pint-sized super-psychic at the ready.
14
Cope
Two hours later, Cope couldn’t get his mind off Chet Hines’s story of love, loss, and guilt. After they’d finished their round of mini golf, with Ronan winning handily, Fitz and Jace had treated everyone to lunch on the pier. Cope and Jude had sausage-and-pepper subs with fries. Cope couldn’t help but wonder how high his cholesterol was going to soar courtesy of this trip.
“Are you okay?” Jude asked, settling next to Cope on the beach.
“I will be,” Cope said. “I’m really looking forward to going home tomorrow and settling back into our life. Getting Wolf off to school and sending Lizbet to preschool two days a week with Ezra. We’ve had quite a busy summer, and I need a bit of a break.”
Jude seemed to be mulling over what Cope was saying. “I’m going to do more to help with the kids. In the morning, I’ll get Lizzy B ready to go and help out with Wolf, which will leave you free to get dressed and make the kids breakfast.”
Cope studied his husband for a few seconds. “Where is this coming from?”
“Confession time,” Jude whispered in Cope’s ear.
With his heart slamming against his ribs, Cope nodded. Jude was unpredictable in the best of times, but right now, Cope had no idea what he was about to say.
“I love having you take care of me,” Jude said simply. “I love that you do my laundry and cook my dinners and take care of our kids.”
