“Tess told me she was sleeping with Eddie.”The words came out harsh.
“You’re sure she said Eddie?”I asked emotionlessly.
“Of course I’m sure.I have ears.”He wiped his face tiredly.“I caught her sneaking in late one night, and she smelled like sex, and it was so fucking obvious she’d been fucked.I told her I was going to rip the head off the motherfucker she was cheating with.”His lip trembled, anger burning in his eyes.“I grabbed her and forced her to tell me who it was.She started crying, and she confessed she was seeing Eddie.”
Spencer had seemed so sure Tess was sleeping with Gil.Now Craig was saying it was Eddie.That was also what Lena had overheard him say in her coffeehouse.Had Spencer got that wrong?Or was Tess sleeping with both men?
“I couldn’t believe my ears.”Craig’s jaw clenched.“She said she was sorry, but that she and Eddie had been having sex.I wanted to put my fist through the wall.I almost did.Eddie Salcedo, who everyone thought was such a great fucking guy.A family man.And he was screwing my wife.”
“What did you do after she told you?”
“I lost it.Not at her.I didn’t touch her.But I was out of my mind.I went to the Anchor and had a few drinks, and yeah, I said some shit to people I shouldn’t have said.I was angry.Wouldn’t you be?”
“And the night Eddie died, what happened?”
Craig rubbed his face with both hands, dragging them down slowly.“I heard through the grapevine that Eddie was going out alone that night on an overnight run.I figured I’d go find him on the water where nobody could see us.I just wanted to confront him.Get in his face.Let him know I knew what he’d been doing with my wife.”
“You just wanted to talk to him.”
“I wanted to beat the shit out of him,” Craig said, and the honesty of it was almost startling.“I’m not going to sit here and pretend I wanted to have a calm conversation.I wanted to hurt him, like he hurt me.But I wanted to hurt him, not kill him.There’s a difference.”
“Okay.So you took the skiff out.Then what?”
“I went looking for him where he usually fished.I figured he’d be out past the headlands, working his pots.That’s where most guys run overnight.But I couldn’t find him.It was dark, the fog was rolling in, and I was in a shit little skiff with no radar, no GPS, nothing.I went up and down the coast for hours.I never found the Pacific Lady.I never saw Eddie.”He met my eyes.“I came back around one in the morning.Cold, pissed off, and empty-handed.That’s the truth.”
“Why couldn’t you find him?”
“Why?How the fuck do I know?He wasn’t where he was supposed to be.Or maybe the fog hid him.It was dark as hell out there.I could barely see twenty feet in front of me.”
“And you expect me to believe that you went out there wanting to beat a man senseless, couldn’t find him, and just came home?”I narrowed my eyes.“But that same man turned up dead the next morning.”
“I know how it sounds.”His voice cracked slightly.“But that’s what happened.I never found Eddie.I never touched him.When I heard he was dead the next morning, I was...”He trailed off, staring at the wall.“I wasn’t sorry.I’ll be honest about that.The man was sleeping with my wife.He deserved what he got, but I didn’t kill him.”
“But you’re glad Eddie is dead?”
Something ugly flickered across his face.“I’m not going to cry about it.I told you, he got what he deserved.”
I studied him for a long moment.Craig Barlow had motive, opportunity, and a witnessed threat against the victim.I’d bet money there were more witnesses down at the Anchor, not just Lena.He was on the water during the window when Eddie was killed.He admitted he wanted to hurt Eddie.He admitted he went looking for him.On paper, Craig was the best suspect I had.
But something about his story nagged at me.Not the content, but the way he told it.Craig wasn’t a sophisticated liar.His first instinct had been to bullshit me with the fresh-air story, and he’d been terrible at it.When he finally told the truth, it came out raw and unpolished, full of details a smarter man would’ve left out.He admitted he wanted to beat Eddie.He admitted he was glad Eddie was dead.A guilty man trying to cover a murder probably wouldn’t say those things.
Then again, maybe Craig was counting on me thinking exactly that.
“I’m going to need you to stay available,” I said.“Don’t leave town.If I need to talk to you again, I expect you to come in willingly, like you did today.”
His eyes widened.“Am I a suspect?”
“You’re a person of interest in an active investigation.That’s all I’m prepared to say right now.”
“Person of interest,” he repeated, his voice hollow.“Jesus Christ.”
“Go home, Craig.We’ll be in touch.”
He stood slowly, like a man who’d just been punched in the gut.At the door, he turned back.“I didn’t kill Eddie Salcedo.I swear to God.”
“Noted,” I said.
He left, and I sat in the interview room for a few minutes after he was gone, staring at my notes.Then I went to my office.I pulled up the case file on my computer and stared at it.Eddie Salcedo.Cause of death: blunt force trauma.Autopsy inconclusive on manner of death.GPS wiped.No defensive wounds.A suspect who threatened to kill the victim, who was on the water the night the victim died, and who admitted he went out specifically to find and assault the victim.
