The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

 

Joe Talbert, a 21 year old University of Minnesota student has an English assignment to write a biography of an older person. He could write about his mom Kathy, but he doesn't really like her because she's a total drug addict. He decides to go to a local nursing home for a more interesting subject. The director Mary Lorngren of Hillview Manor nursing home (which has no hills or views) recommends Joe to interview a war veteran and convicted child molester and killer, Carl Iverson, who's dying soon from pancreatic cancer. Oh this is good!

Carl Iverson is a Vietnam Vet who's won multiple war medals, but he's convicted of raping and killing a 14 year old girl, Crystal. Crystal lived next door to Carl with her mother Danielle Hagen, her stepfather Douglas Lockwood and stepbrother Daniel Lockwood. Crystal's burned body was found in Carl's backyard. One of Crystal's fake nails was found on Carl's front steps. Carl was arrested the day after the body was found and served 30 years in prison until a recent parole due to his pancreatic cancer diagnosis. He's always maintained his innocence, but no one seems to believe him, including people at the nursing home.

Joe starts interviewing Carl and investigating the case on his own as well. Joe has an autistic brother named Jeremy Naylor. Jeremy is 18 years old but can not take care of himself due to his autism. Kathy takes care of Jeremy except when she gets in trouble with the law or decides to go gambling etc. Then Joe has to drop what he's doing and bring Jeremy to his apartment. Joe's been interested in a cute girl that lives in his building, but he doesn't know how to break the ice. When Joe brings Jeremy home due to his mother's absence, Joe finds the neighbor Lila Nash on his living room couch when he comes home from school, watching a movie with Jeremy. How funny. Joe asks him how did Jeremy accomplish this in one day what he's been trying to accomplish for months, Jeremy tells him he knocked on her door and told her he couldn't get the TV working. Genius. 

Joe opens up to Lila about his assignment. She's totally intrigued. She is very nice and good with Jeremy because she also has a relative with autism. Joe starts using Jeremy as an excuse to invite her over for dinner, etc. Joe learns about Carl's war buddy, Virgil Gray, who staunchly supports Carl and says there's no way he could be guilty. Carl saved Virgil's life in Vietnam. Virgil also tells Joe that he knows Carl is innocent because of something that happened in Vietnam. 

Joe gets Carl to open up. Carl tells Joe that in Vietnam, his senior officer, Sergeant Gibbs would rape young girls and order the soldiers to do so too, but Carl refused, even with a gun to his head. 

Joe looks over the journal Crystal had left behind. Crystal talks about someone stalking her and the prosecution said that's Carl. The final journal entries are written in codes and no one ever cracked the code. Jeremy realizes the code's key is the pangram, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog". They crack the code and it reveals her rapist is DJ. Joe and Lila try to think who DJ is. They find out that the stepfather's middle name is Joseph, and since his first name is Douglas, they gather he must be the killer. (The stepson's first name is Daniel, but middle name doesn't start with J.) They work with detective Max Rupert and Boady Sanden from the Innocence Project. They need some DNA evidence to prove concretely. By now, they've also ran the DNA from the fingernail and they know it's not Carl's. So that means the evidence was to frame Carl. But now they must find the person to match the DNA to, and it's pretty obvious it's DJ's. 

Joe goes to Douglas's house in hopes of getting either a confession or some DNA evidence from him. Well he got neither. Instead, Douglas hits him with a whiskey bottle and tosses him in his trunk. Douglas also ties cinder blocks to Joe's ankles. Next is a thrilling ride as Joe tries to free himself in the trunk, and by removing a taillight, he manages to get out of the trunk. Douglas shoots at him but somehow Joe escapes.

Joe finds a cabin in the woods and decides to spend the night there. He lights a fire. Minnesota winters are no joke. A blizzard starts and Joe ends up spending two nights at the cabin. When he comes out, an old man sees him and points a shotgun at him. Joe tells him to call the sheriff. Joe is rescued. Douglas is missing and his house is on fire, presumably to get rid of his DNA.

Lila and Joe tell Carl and Mary the latest developments, although they don't tell them about Joe's close brush with death. Carl is visibly very excited about clearing his name, even though he had previously said that he didn't care since he's about to die anyway. Mary tells Lila and Joe that they can use Douglas's son's DNA. The father passes their DNA to the son so with Daniel's DNA, they would still be able to prove it.

They go to Daniel's house in Mason City, Iowa. The wife lets them in. They see an ashtray with cigarette butts. Score! The wife tells them that Daniel had left to look for his father on the day of the blizzard. But his father didn't become missing until the day AFTER the blizzard. Joe and Lila realize Douglas must have called Daniel to go up there. Then, Daniel's wife refers to Daniel as DJ. J actually stands for Junior. Joe and Lila realize they need to grab the evidence and go. But right then, Daniel shows up. Joe and Lila bolt. Don't need to mess with a killer. We'll worry about the DNA samples later.

They realize now that Douglas was protecting Daniel and called Daniel to give him a heads up. Daniel instead, showed up and killed Douglas and set Douglas's house on fire, to destroy any potential familial DNA. That's why Douglas is missing. I didn't see this coming.

Now they decide to drive back to Daniel's house and find something from the trash can. They find a garbage bag with cigarette butts in it. Success. Joe had to go pick up his brother Jeremy again, because Jeremy told him that Kathy's boyfriend Larry hit him again. 

Joe goes out to buy a toothbrush for Jeremy. When he comes back, Lila is gone. He gets a call from Daniel. Daniel had kidnapped Lila. He wants his DNA back in exchange. UGHHHHHH!!!!! Joe drives to Daniel's meeting spot, Daniel has him on the phone the whole time. Joe realizes Jeremy's phone is in the back seat. He reaches for it and dials Max's number - by memory since it's not programmed in Jeremy's phone. He has Daniel on speakerphone, hoping Max can understand what is going on. Joe says loudly that Daniel is DJ. Joe knows that Daniel will kill them both, Daniel confirms it also, and says that the police will think it's Douglas that killed them since they are going to Douglas's barn and Douglas is still the suspect for Crystal's murder. So Joe tosses the garbage bag out of the window, in hopes police can locate it and use the DNA later. When he pulls up to Douglas's property, he looks at the phone. There doesn't appear to be anything on the other end of the line. Uh-oh.

Joe tries to lure Daniel closer to him so he can hit him. Daniel is holding a gun on Lila's head. Poor Lila. Joe punches Daniel, and Daniel shoots Joe in the leg. Daniel tells Joe that he will rape Lila first before killing her. Just then, 3 bullets are fired and kills Daniel instantly. Max comes out of the shadows with a fleet of police cars. The phone call had worked. 

They locate the bag with the DNA evidence. Daniel is the confirmed killer of Crystal, as well as another case in Davenport, which had a $100,000 reward because the girl is the child of a rich banker. There are two other unsolved cases that might be his doing as well, each with a $10,000 reward. Joe and Lila want to give the reward money to each other. In the end, they settle on splitting it 3 ways, with Jeremy. Now Joe can continue school and take care of Jeremy. Carl is declared an innocent man. That night, Carl passes away from pancreatic cancer. Virgil gives Joe Carl's war medals, including 2 purple hearts. He tells Joe that Carl wants him to have them. What a great ending!! I absolutely loved this book!! Oh, Joe and Lila are officially together. She is so good with Jeremy. How perfect. This is the first book of a trilogy. I might try to get my hands on the next two when I catch up on my TBR.