Pete grimaced. “Wylie’s been my support, especially now, when it’s the roughest. I just don’t understand how anyone could’ve done that to her.”
He covered his face and started to sob. Wylie gestured that it was time for us to go. He followed us outside.
“Sorry you had to see that,” he said. “And sorry about the shotgun.”
“All’s forgiven,” Rufus said. “Please give him our condolences.”
“I will.” Wylie scratched his head. “Yep, I don’t know what Pete would do without me.”
“Sounds like you’ve been a good cousin and friend,” I told him.
“I try. He was real tore up about Crystal. I never seen him so bad when she broke up with him. Sometimes I wished that girl was out of his life, but not like this.”
“Death is hard on all of us,” Rufus said. “Thank you for your time.”
“Ain’t no problem. Listen, you got any more questions, I’ll help you. I’ll tell you anything that you want to know.” He glanced nervously back at the door. “You know, that girl wasn’t no good for Pete. Maybe at some point he’ll come to realize that. I hope so. I really do. Right now, though, he’s got to heal.”
He was awfully concerned about his cousin, wasn’t he? “What about you?” I asked. “Are you upset about Crystal?”
“That girl was trouble with a capital T. At some point something bad was going to happen to her. I’m not happy about what happened. Heck, I’d never wish murder on anybody, but I’m not surprised, either.”
Rufus nodded. “Thank you for talking with us. We should be going.”
Wylie wagged his finger as if a thought nagged at him. “There’s one more thing.”
I quirked a brow. What could it be? He wanted to discuss the type of beer he drank? “What’s that?”
“Crystal, when she ran around with all those men and was cheating on Pete—”
“She was cheating on Pete?” I was shocked. I know, I know. There was no reason for me to be shocked. I mean, we were talking about Crystal, here, but still. “I can’t believe it.”
He nodded. “Well, when she was doing all that hussying—”
Was that a word?
Wylie continued. “She was doing some of it with Mr. Vass.”
Realization flared on Rufus’s face. “Leola’s husband?”
“Dead husband,” Wylie corrected. “He died of a heart attack a few years back. Supposedly he was in bed with Crystal when it happened. Not sure Leola ever got over it.”
“And you wouldn’t put it past her to still be holding on to a grudge, I suppose,” I guessed.
“I sure wouldn’t be.”
“We’ll talk to her.” Rufus extended his hand and shook Wylie’s. “Thank you for all your help.”
Wylie entered the camper, and we stood there a moment, in the middle of the commune.
“What do you think?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “I think that Pete had a reason to kill her.”
“I agree. He seems sincerely upset, though. It’s not over-the-top. It’s not an act.”
“No, I don’t think it is. Though the beer drinking could be to cover up how upset he is. Hard to say.”
Wow. Rufus was really getting into this detective stuff. I nudged his arm with my elbow. “You really like this, huh?”
