Page 63 of See You Again
“An hour or so later, after Luke left the house to find a witness for Dr. Keller’s statement, someone came into the house and killed him. At the movie premiere, Matt referenced the blanket. He specifically mentioned the rainbow of colors.”
Cami swallowed past a lump in her throat even as a thrill coursed through her. “And he couldn’t have known about the blanket unless he’d been there.”
“Exactly. The blanket was in that house for less than an hour before the fire. Unfortunately, the police don’t consider our unsubstantiated claim as evidence because of the known animosity between us and the Crawfords.”
Cami groaned.
“My sentiments exactly. But it gets a little juicier. Before he died, Dr. Keller also revealed that decades ago, he had an affair with my father’s wife, Courtney. She was a stripper at the time with the stage name, Crystal. Apparently Dr. Keller fathered one of her children. The timeline makes it more likely to be Matt than Trey. She then ran an escort service before she got her hooks in our father.”
“Matt killed his own father?”
James lifted a shoulder. “We think so. To protect his mother and the money she inherited when my father was killed. But without Dr. Keller’s testimony, we can’t prove they forged the will.”
Cami chewed her lip as she thought. “You said Dr. Keller was killed recently?”
“July.”
“Then the evidence from his murder scene wouldn’t have been in the CODIS database last year when they found Amy’s body.”
Understanding washed over James’ face. “You’re thinking about a familial match. That if Matt killed Amy, the forensics they found might match a relation of Dr. Keller’s from his crime scene.”
Cami lifted her eyebrows. “One thing I’ve asked Mark to do is to run a test for a familial match. He’s not sure it’s something they can do.”
“I don’t know that a familial match would be enough.” James shook his head. “Other than Dr. Keller’s admission to Luke, there is no proof that Matt is his son. There isn’t enough probable cause to compel a sample from Matt.”
She pursed her lips. “There’s got to be some way to get a sample of his DNA. Maybe I can find a way to collect it when I interview him.”
“Not only would it be inadmissible, but I thought we established you weren’t meeting with him.”
Cami patted his arm. “Don’t worry. He hasn’t agreed to meet with me yet.”
She understood his concern, but he couldn’t seriously think she would let a lead like this go.
“I’m serious, Cami.” His eyes lit with concern. “You shouldn’t meet with him and definitely not alone.””
“I’ll take someone with me.”
“I’ll go.”
Her mouth fell open. “You said yourself you don’t get along. With you there, he’d never talk.”
James opened his mouth to argue, but Cami held up a hand. “On the off chance he does agree to meet, I’ll let you know.”
He clearly didn’t think it was enough. “We aren’t done talking about this.”
She smiled sweetly, keeping her thoughts to herself. “It’s getting late, and I have an early interview with the new witness before he goes to work.”
James hesitated before he got to his feet. “You’ll come by the gym on Friday?”
She pretended to salute him as they reached the door. “Yessir!”
“People only salute like that in musicals.” His lips twitched.
Cami kept her face blank as she said, “I didn’t know you liked musicals.”
James groaned, but when their hands met on the door handle, all humor disappeared as heat cascaded through her. James’s eyes fell to her mouth.
“Oh! I meant to ask you before,” Cami said, taking a self-preservation step backward. “Did you get the files Gerry sent over? On the use of thallium in the Alvarez case.”