The Book of Matt Read Online Free Page A

while Max, who stood taller and was more bookish, was a grade behind him.
    The atmosphere around the Sulk case had also become progressively more acrimonious. Among Rerucha’s political foes there were allegations that he was showing racial bias; there were even those who said Kevin Robinson was innocent.
    “Some of the evidence against Robinson was circumstantial, absolutely, but all of it pointed to him as Daphne’s killer,” Rerucha stated confidently long after the trial was over. Yet other Laramie sources, including several respected attorneys, strongly disputed that view. Even today, they remain convinced that Robinson was “framed” or “set up” while the real killer was protected, presumably by someone with clout. Some found it strange that after Robinson was arrested for Sulk’s murder, he was allowed to leave the county jail each day to continue working at his job. He was even permitted to attend his company’s Christmas party, returning to his jail cell after the festivities ended.
    But behind the town rumors were lesser-known facts regarding Daphne Sulk’s history — aspects I only became aware of after I’d been investigating Matthew Shepard’s murder for a few years. By the age of fifteen and before Kevin Robinson’s name was ever linked to hers, Daphne had made claims to the police that she’d had sexual relations with three different adult males, each of whom served jail time for having sex with her as a minor. Yet her status as a juvenile prevented those records from being made public. Authorities also had credible information that Daphne had been involved with drugs, including methamphetamine. For a time two of the men whom she identified as sex offenders, reputedly meth users themselves, were suspects in her killing; the third offender was in jail when she disappeared.
    One story I heard about the Robinson case was said to be too scandalous — or too dangerous — to repeat around town because it involved a prominent family, the Fritzens, who had worked in local law enforcement. Don Fritzen had been a popular county sheriff, while his two sons, Brian and Ben, had served respectively as a sheriff’s deputy and a detective in the Laramie Police Department. Don Fritzen’s brother-in-law, John Fanning, was also the county under-sheriff for several terms and, according to some, a powerful cop who allegedly controlled the town and its surroundings — “just like a sheriff in the Old West, someone you don’t want to mess with,” one insider cautioned.
    Ben Fritzen, Don’s younger son, a short, handsome man with a tight, muscular frame, was a lead investigator in the Sulk homicide.Respected among peers for his keen forensic skills and his network of sources on the street, Ben personally interviewed more than a hundred individuals during the investigation; he was also responsible for discovering drops of Daphne’s blood in Kevin Robinson’s car.
    But seldom mentioned until long after Robinson’s conviction was an alleged affair between Brian Fritzen’s wife and Kevin Robinson’s brother, Royal Robinson, known around town by the nickname “Bug.” The affair was apparently a well-kept secret until Brian’s wife gave birth to a child fathered by Bug Robinson.
    A few Laramie residents who insisted on anonymity contended, “at that point the fix was in.” One said the Fritzens, in an old-fashioned vendetta, “promised to get even with the Robinsons if it was the last thing they did.”
    But rumors notwithstanding, no one dared to question the evident conflict of interest in allowing a Fritzen family member to investigate Bug Robinson’s brother for murder. According to Cal Rerucha, he was unaware at the time of any personal connections and therefore had no reason to question Ben Fritzen’s role in the investigation. Other locals said, “We’ve got people in this town a lot more powerful than the Fritzens,” and “There are plenty of secrets to go around [in Laramie],” though