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to think you could have had something to do with her death,” the detective said.
    The accusation cut deep into Ken’s heart. He loved Debra’s family, had accepted Tarrah as his own child, and even agreed to his brother-in-law’s living in their house. Ken couldn’t believe his in-laws would be of the opinion that he could have anything to do with Debra’s death.
    The allegations hurt Ken, but worried him more. If the police were convinced that he had killed Debra, had they stopped looking for the real killer? And if so, would he ever be found?

Chapter Five
    The murderer of Sims, Gibbs, and Taylor returned to Wichita Falls shortly after Taylor’s killing. Fort Worth hadn’t brought him the employment he sought, only more fury and violence. He had rented an apartment on Bell Street, one of only four in the small, two-story redbrick building.
    At the apartment he often ran into Ellen Blau, a twenty-one-year-old, spirited Midwestern State University student. Ellen, who visited her best friend, Janie Ball, and her husband, Danny, in apartment A, never failed to smile and say hello to the tall, ill-kempt neighbor. He also frequently ran into Ellen outside the Subs ’N Suds where she worked, only two doors down from the Pizza Inn where he was employed. Ellen thought the lanky man a bit peculiar, somewhat of a nuisance, but basically harmless.
    Janie didn’t agree. Her neighbor gave her the creeps. She had watched the way he stared at Ellen as she came and went from the Ball’s apartment. Her five-foot, three-inch, one-hundred-twenty-pound friend was dwarfed by the large man.
    â€œHe’s weird, Ellen,” Janie said. “If he is out of his apartment when you come by, don’t stop to talk to him. Come right up.”
    Something about the athletically built man made Janie Ball uneasy and she knew Ellen was a nonjudgmental person, friendly to everyone. Janie had often wished she was more like Ellen. Her gleaming smile and dancing, deep-brown eyes naturally drew people to her. But Ellen’s accepting manner also frightened Janie.
    Ellen Blau had told Janie about breaking up with the mechanic she’d left her family home in New Jersey to be near. Blau had finally gotten fed up with him when he wouldn’t find a job.
    Ellen’s choice of places to live and the company she kept after the breakup had concerned Janie, as well as other friends. Once she left the metal trailer she had shared with the mechanic, Blau moved into a dilapidated house where rats scurried around the backyard storage shed among boxes of Ellen’s clothes, and the kitchen table was littered with pork-and-beans cans growing gray hair.
    Ellen Blau had once lived with the friend of an old boyfriend whose chosen occupations included repossessing cars and strip-dancing. He had taken Ellen on “a job” to repossess a car without even telling her what they were doing.
    Friends had warned Blau about the company she kept and about accepting rides with strangers. One friend had even alerted her. “They’re going to find you in a field dead if you don’t stop that crap.” But the warnings went unheeded. She trusted everybody and she loved everything.
    While living with girlfriends in a rented house on York Street, Ellen had kept a dog in her room, a mutt named Little Bear. The dog eventually had pups and the whole bunch lived in Ellen’s small room.
    As hard as the stray dogs were to take, Blau’s roommates drew the line when she brought home two guys that needed “a roof to sleep under,” as Ellen had put it. After the men had eaten the girls’ food and dominated the television programming, the roommates demanded Ellen tell them to leave. Ellen didn’t seem to understand her roommates’ frustrations. Her heart was so big, she just wanted to help others. She accepted everyone she met into her life, regardless of their differences. It was one of the things