Riverside's Perfect Murder

Who Is Ollie?

Rita came out twenty minutes later. She was dressed in the clothes she had brought, with her hair partly dried.

Ollie put down the book he was reading.

"What book is that?" Rita asked.

"The title is Untamed by Kiersten Haymes, a promising young writer."

"Would I know her work?"

"Not yet, but you will someday."

"OK. I didn't want to talk about a book. I want you to talk about yourself. Who are you?"

Ollie rolled his eyes. "I suppose we are going to do the date questions now?"

"Oh, get over yourself and tell me."

"All right. What would you like to know? Please understand I can only tell you what I can, but I will not lie to you."

"Who says something like that?" but Rita thought she knew the answer.

"I do," Ollie said and raised his hand to silence what he suspected was coming.

"I was raised on a farm outside of Rochester, New York. My brother and I ran wild until the age of eight, when our parents sent us to a school."

"A school?"

"Yes, it is a different school that teaches special skills."

Rita started to understand and asked, "Like hunting."

Ollie smiled. "Hunting would come later but shooting yes, along with other methods."

"My God, you were only eight."

"Yes. We stayed at the school for the next nine years, and we learned many things. Things that regular schools do not teach."

"But why?"

"You see my brother, shall we call him Derek?"

"I take it that is not his real name," Rita asked.

"You are correct."

"Wait," Rita interrupted. "Does that mean your name isn't real?"

"I believe you already know the answer to that."

Rita nodded. She always suspected it was not his real name.

"I will continue. Derek is a bad apple, and after stealing our neighbor's rifle, he killed many things. It started with little things like mice and birds and moved up to cats and dogs. He is a natural with any weapon but especially good with a rifle. When he shot the Mayor's cattle and then shot at the Mayor himself, we had a problem."

"But why did you have to go? Your brother did the shootings, right? Did you help?"

"No. I didn't help, but we are identical twins. He hid the rifle under my bed. When they found it, he said I did all the shootings. I tried to plead my innocence, but my brother is very persuasive, and since we look the same, no one could tell for sure."

"Not even your parents?"

"Not even our parents, although I suspect they knew it was him. He claimed I was Derek."

"How terrible. Do you see your brother?"

"Not since they split us up when we turned eighteen."

"Where did you go?"

"I spent several years working in and around England."

"Doing what?"

"Things no one else wanted to do. Things better left unsaid."