Down the drain, p.7
Down the Drain, page 7
“Now, I know we’re discussing different people. Deke does not cheat. He’s aromantic, not an asshole.” Not that the two were mutually exclusive. In this case, I’d say they were.
His face paled. “You’re wrong about him.”
“I’ve known him for five years. I’d say I know him better than you do from hearing things from a woman who still harassed an ex-boyfriend who moved on.”
“She wouldn’t have done that,” he said, but his voice was shaky. Maybe his confidence was too. “She only emailed him because of this book we’re writing. Were going to write. She was using people she knew for inspiration. To help form the characters.”
“She used them all right.”
“You’re wrong. You are. She wanted to write a story about small towns. It was going to be a fun activity we did together. She never would have hurt anybody.”
I would have argued, but what would be the point? Nothing, not even evidence to the contrary, would change his mind. I thought we could take his name off the suspect list. If he didn’t believe his fiancée would have said anything cruel to another person, why would he kill her?
As I turned away, Brian Morein approached. Great, and I’d been able to avoid him so far. A few steps behind him walked the officer who’d been with Matthias the other day. What was with that? Had he lost his partner and this case? That didn’t seem right.
Morein glared as he passed me, but Officer Lato gave me a nod before glancing away. “Mr. Duncan Morrau?” Morein asked.
“Yes. What do you want?”
I glimpsed Morein show Duncan his badge. “You need to come to the station with us. I have questions for you.”
“I told an officer everything I know. You should hunt down the person responsible.”
“That’s what we’re trying to do.” I swore his gaze drilled right into me. Just what did he think? That I’d killed Mayra. I hadn’t even known her.
“If you would come with me, we can do this easily. Once we know a bit more, it will be simple to find who killed her.” Right, like he cared about that.
“You should talk to the guy who broke her heart. He wanted to break her in other ways, too.” His voice wavered, but he sure was sticking to that theory. “Take Deke McBryde in, not me.”
“We’ve spoken with him and probably will again. Right now, we need to talk to you, too. Have a good day, Mx. Carsley,” he called out to me. “You should get on, unless you want to answer some questions as well.”
I waved dismissively and headed to my truck. I couldn’t let him get to me. I had more important things to do, like talking to my brother, then figure out who had done this before Deke paid too high a price for dating the wrong person when he was young and didn’t know better.
Chapter Eleven
“You cannot be serious.” My older brother stared at my outburst, his face paling. I smacked his shoulder. “Why didn’t you say anything?” I thought Ross would chew me out for getting involved with another murder. This was definitely better.
Eli stepped next to Ross. “We weren’t sure the adoption would go through,” he said, “and didn’t want to jinx it by getting too excited. We told the rest of the family at dinner Thursday, but you weren’t there.”
“You’d already left when I showed up. I got called to a late job. I still can’t believe this. You’re going to adopt a baby? The two of you?”
“Don’t sound so horrified,” Ross said. “I’ve always wanted a family of my own. We just weren’t sure it would happen.”
“It might not,” Eli said. “The baby’s mom can back out, but she has shown no sign of that, and she’s due in two weeks. If she doesn’t change her mind, we’ll be bringing our child home then.” He clasped Ross’s hand.
“You two deserve this. You’ll be wonderful dads.” Not that I knew much about raising a kid, but if anyone could do it, these two could. “This means I’ll have another kid to spoil, then send back home.” I rubbed my hands together and chuckled. “I can’t wait.”
Ross hugged me. “You’re the worst, Lou.”
I patted his back. The big lug. “I think you mean the best.”
He flashed me a wink before kissing Eli’s cheek. “I have to go. I have a client who could only meet today. I’ll see you at dinner tomorrow?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.” My family could be chaotic but I didn’t know what I’d do without them.
After he’d walked away, Eli turned to me, the smile sliding off his face. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “What aren’t you telling me? Is it about the adoption? Something wrong with the baby? Does Ross know?”
“Slow down, Lou,” Eli said. “Stop worrying trouble is coming for somebody else. You might want to look out for yourself.”
“What’s that mean?”
He ran a hand through his short-cropped hair. “I found my admin doing background searches on a few people yesterday morning.”
“Isn’t that part of their job?” I asked. “Checking into things for you.”
“None of it had anything to do with our current caseload,” he said. “It connects to a recent murder. One I learned you’re involved in. Again.”
So much for not getting chewed out. It just wasn’t coming from the direction I thought it would. “I didn’t kill anyone.”
“I never said you did. As far as I know, you aren’t a suspect. Why would you get yourself involved?”
I looked away, hating the concern, and yes, even disappointment, I saw on his face. He’d known me since I was a teenager, he was just as much family as Ross. “Deke is,” I got out around the lump in my throat.
“What are you talking about?”
I told him everything I knew, Deke’s past with Mayra and how he’d found her at the rental house. “He didn’t kill her. Deke doesn’t have a violent bone in his body. He would never have done this.”
“Tell him to call me. I’ll help him. You don’t need to get involved. We almost lost you once.”
“I was fine. I am fine.”
“You weren’t the one waking beside Ross, who dreamed you died for weeks. Please don’t do this to us. Don’t get involved.”
I turned away. “I’m already involved.”
I was still smiling as I hefted the dog food bag into the cart and added a box of treats. I hadn’t been spending as much time with Zio, and I needed to make it up to him. I’d learned early not to bother with rope toys or stuffed animals. In a matter of hours, or less, he would destroy them. Even tennis balls were usually a quick loss, especially the supposedly indestructible ones made for dogs. He did have a treat ball which withstood his attentions. That kept him occupied when he was locked in the kitchen.
I’d grab a couple snacks for myself and the group, since everyone was coming over tonight. Hopefully we could figure out how to get Deke out of this mess before it went further.
“Hello, Lou.”
I looked up at the voice, sure I had to be wrong. There was too much... friendliness in it. “Whitney,” I greeted cautiously. When I’d seen her last, she accused me of framing a man for a crime he didn’t commit. She had taken it back, but it had still been there. She certainly hadn’t wanted to spend time in my presence. Which had only been a matter of hours ago. What was she doing now?
“I hoped I’d get to speak to you,” she said, shocking me even more. “I’m sorry about earlier today. I didn’t mean to be so short with you. I had errands I needed to run for my stepfather, and I don’t take well to interruptions to my plans. I shouldn’t have taken my mood out on you.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t always at my best when a wrench was thrown into my routine, either. She hadn’t said anything too awful. Certainly nothing other people in this town hadn’t thought. I’d heard some of it after Josiah’s arrest. “It’s fine. No hard feelings.”
I started to step around her. I wanted to get home before my friends arrived. I wouldn’t have much time at this rate. Whitney followed, blocking my path.
“Is there something else I can help you with?” I asked her. “Do you need something fixed?”
“No. I mean, maybe.” She scraped her teeth over her bottom lip and glanced away.
I looked at that lip for a moment before bringing my gaze to her eyes. Sure, I’d felt some attraction to her at the reunion. Even that was gone. I was attracted to a lot of people, that didn’t mean much in the scheme of things. There was running hot and cold, then whatever Whitney did.
That was unfair. Maybe she had just been having a bad day earlier.
I held in a sigh. It seemed I wouldn’t have much time to get ready before my friends showed up at my house to go over what we knew. “How can I maybe help you?”
She didn’t meet my eyes. “It’s just that mean old cop keeps asking me questions. He makes me nervous, and I think he thinks I had something to do with Mayra’s murder. I didn’t, of course. I would do nothing to hurt her. We used to be best friends, you know.”
“I heard something like that.” Not the way Deke described it, but maybe that was how Whitney viewed their relationship.
“You have to help me,” Whitney said. “What do they know about what happened? Please, I need to know for my own peace of mind. If Mayra really didn’t kill herself... I was so unkind to her right before it happened. How could I forgive myself for that?”
“I’m not sure why you think I’d know anything.”
“Everybody knows you’re involved with one of the cops.”
“No,” I said, “I’m not. If you mean Officer Lindert, he’s not even investigating this case.”
“He still must know what’s happening. And he would tell you.”
I narrowed my eyes as her tone took on a wheedling tone, like how my younger nieces got when they didn’t want to leave yet. This was why she’d stopped me. Not to apologize or anything else. “Nope.” I pushed my cart around her. “Excuse me, I need to get home and feed my dog.
And figure out exactly what this had been about. When I pushed through the doors, the bag of food over my shoulder and another bag in my hand, I saw a man walking toward me. I barely bit back a groan. “Morgan,” I said as he approached.
He didn’t respond, but his shoulder hit the dog food, nearly dislodging it. I glanced back once I had it secured again and caught him smirking at me.
Yeah, some people never changed.
“Duncan insists he didn’t hurt Mayra,” I said as Cord got ready to write new information on the board. “Of course, he was insistent it was Deke. Which makes me doubt his claim.”
Deke shot me a half-smile, petting Zio’s head as it currently rested in his lap. “Thanks for the unswerving loyalty, Lou. He’s not the only one who thinks it was me.”
“Have the police come to talk to you again?”
Deke shook his head. “I had the joy of running into Whitney Buren earlier. She thinks I’m the scum of the earth.”
“When I talked to her this morning, she pointed the finger at Duncan, after acting like she believed the suicide theory. That’s one reason I wanted to talk to him.” I paused then added, “I saw her this afternoon at the store as well. She acted like she couldn’t believe Mayra hadn’t killed herself.” I wasn’t sure what to make of all that she’d said.
“Even if she believes that,” Deke said, “she’d rather I take the fall. I wasn’t one of them. No matter who he gives his money to, Duncan always has been. She never did like me. No matter what people whispered about her, I was worse. Maybe for taking Mayra’s attention from her. I don’t know.”
“What did they whisper about her?” I asked.
“A lot of things. It made me uncomfortable, especially what they insinuated about her relationship with her stepdad. Probably wasn’t anything to that. She was always the teacher’s pet, and they made that into a thing, too. I assumed that was jealousy because she got better grades than them.” He sighed. “Not that she didn’t spread her share of rumors, too. Usually on Mayra’s behalf. It wouldn’t surprise me if she’s the reason everyone gave me sideways glances when I walked through town today.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t everyone,” Quin said.
“It certainly felt that way.”
“Well,” I said, “if we can figure out who actually did this, people won’t be looking at you like that.”
“That’s optimistic, don’t you think?” Deke asked. “Some people will believe it, no matter what proof we have.”
“I don’t know what else we can do.”
Deke slumped back on the couch. Zio lifted his head and nudged Deke’s arm until he started petting the dog again. “Nothing. I’m starting to think there’s nothing we can do. They’re going to pin this on me.”
“No,” Cord said sharply. “We won’t let that happen.” She took the marker and wrote the names Duncan had given me, the marker squeaking as she pressed harder than necessary.
Deke squinted then pushed his glasses up his nose and tilted forward a bit. Zio let out a huff and jumped from the couch, curling his body between Deke and Quin’s feet. “Who are they?” He squinted even more. I was sure he could read the names, but that expression meant he was thinking deeply or trying to remember something.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “Duncan mentioned them to me, though he didn’t seem to suspect them, at least not as much as he did you. What we need to do is figure out what they had to do with Mayra.”
“Neither went to school with us,” Deke said, “so I’m not sure why those names are familiar. Maybe I interviewed them, or we did a story on them. I’ll have to check my notes.”
“You do that,” Cord said, “and we can...” Her phone sent off a series of pings. She pulled it out, cursing under her breath. “I have to go.”
“What is it?” I asked her.
“When I get a message from the first responder alert system and Uncle Bobby at the same time, all I can say is it will not be good. I’ll call you later, Lou.”
“Okay,” I murmured. Things hadn’t been the same between us today. I couldn’t help thinking it was because of the date with Mika. At least Cord wasn’t ignoring me. I just wish I knew what was going on with her.
I hadn’t even heard from Mika again. I tried not to take that personally. It hadn’t been a full day, and they had a life that didn’t revolve around me. Maybe they’d sensed something off about that night, too. I just couldn’t get over that look.
What hadn’t Mika wanted to tell me?
Deke stood, too. “I’ll go through my interview and article notes and see what I can find.” He and Quin left, leaving me all alone. Except for Zio.
“At least I’ve still got you, boy,” I said. He nuzzled my hand. “We may as well get something done, too.” I didn’t know what. I thought about what Eli said at the park, but he was wrong. I couldn’t not get involved. As long as Deke was a suspect, and I knew he hadn’t done it, what else could I do but help him?
I was sure Morein wouldn’t put out much effort on that end.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Not until later that evening when Cord called me. “What’s going on?” I’d expected to hear from her a lot sooner.
“There’s been another murder,” she said, foregoing any greeting. “Duncan Morrau is dead.”
“I can’t believe this,” I said when Cord got to my house. “I just spoke to him. How can he be dead?”
Cord’s face was pale. “We found him hanging from the ceiling in the living room. When exactly did you talk to him? You never said. Did you track him down or did he find you?”
“I stopped outside the rental house this morning, trying to see if it would jar loose ideas. I didn’t go inside. There’s still tape over the door. I was standing on the sidewalk, and he came up to me. The crap he said about Deke made me want to punch him. Of course, he only had Mayra’s perspective. I could still—”
“Lou,” Cord said sharply.
Right. He was dead. I couldn’t do anything to him now. Someone else had taken care of that. She’d said murder. “Someone else killed him? But you said he was hanging there. They don’t suspect suicide?”
Cord ran a hand over her face. “I shouldn’t have said that. We don’t know. Uncle Bobby’s barely got him in the morgue. Certainly hasn’t had a chance to start the autopsy. I’m sure he won’t until tomorrow morning, even though the pressure will be higher. It looked like a textbook self-termination hanging, though.”
“Yet you think it wasn’t suicide?”
Cord dropped onto the couch. Zio came over and put his head on her thigh. “It just seems too convenient, you know?”
“I don’t think death is convenient for him.”
Cord barked out a rough laugh. “Yeah, well, if you believe the note he supposedly left behind, the cops will close this case. I guess you won’t need to dust off your investigative skills anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“He confessed. His note said he did it, and he couldn’t live with himself, so he wasn’t going to.”
“That makes little sense.”
“Guilt and grief often don’t, especially when combined.”
I tried to fit together what she told me with what I’d witnessed when talking to him. “He didn’t act like he was guilty.” What had Morein said to him when he took him in? Could that have changed something? She gave me a long look. “People often don’t.”
“He seemed sure Deke did it. There was no hesitation in his words, like he was inventing something on the spot. He thought Deke cheated on Mayra, harassed her, and then killed her.”
“People lie,” she said. “Josiah pointed the finger at a lot of people after he killed Brenten.”
She had a point, but it didn’t feel right to me. I told her as much.
“I’m not sure what else to tell you, Lou. He’s dead, and he left a confession. This should take the pressure off Deke. He can’t be their primary suspect. Not anymore.”
I blew out a breath. “You’re right. That’s a good thing.”
Why wasn’t I happier?
Chapter Twelve
I stowed my tools in the back of my truck and shut the tailgate, making sure it latched, so it didn’t fall open when I was driving. I needed to get that latch fixed. Again. It kept coming loose. The last thing I wanted was to lose my tools.
