The Good Neighbor. Sharon Mignerey

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ pure conjecture,” Wade said. “And, since she’s the one who called this in, I want her to tell me how she found the body. Then you can take her.” He glanced back at Megan. “We’ll need her clothes, too.” Wade paused, waiting for Chief Egan to look back at him. “You know that witnesses to this kind of crime sometimes have post-traumatic stress symptoms that makes them look like they have things to hide when they don’t.”

      “I’ve done my share of interrogations, Detective,” the chief said stiffly.

      “All I’m saying is maybe we want to take it easy with her. See where it leads us.”

      Chief Egan nodded. “Smart. Get her to convict herself with her own words.” He glanced back toward Doc Wagner. “You talk to your suspect and I’ll get Doc Wagner settled down. The sooner you can release the body to him, the better.”

      “The body needs to go to Grand Junction for an autopsy by the medical examiner, in case this goes to court. We’ll need this done by a certified professional.”

      Egan stared into space a moment. “That’s spreading resources pretty thin, since we’ll need to send an officer along to keep the chain of evidence intact.”

      “That’s right.” Wade looked toward Doc Wagner, who was still talking on his cell phone. “Like the man told me, the body is his by state statute. As coroner, he can accompany it.”

      Chief Egan laughed. “Nothing like getting even for messing with your crime scene, is there? Okay.” He slapped Wade on the back. “I’ll talk to him.”

      

      By the time Wade headed back toward her, Megan had finished her call. Her boss, Sarah Moran, had told her not to worry about a thing, saying that she’d notify all the patients on Megan’s schedule for the day.

      Detective Prescott’s posture was all tense again, she noted, deliberately thinking of him by his title. Finding that her hands were once more trembling, she clasped them on top of the table. She remembered this from before, and it seemed to her that she’d spent a long time shaking, especially when she had tried to go to sleep.

      Stop it, she mentally scolded herself. She was no longer a child, and she’d be able to handle this.

      “Are you up to showing me how you found the body?” he asked, pulling out a notebook from the inside pocket of his jacket and coming to a stop a few feet away from her.

      She stood and came toward him, determined to get everything out in the open. Better he hear it from her than someone else. “I helped Doc Wagner put him—Robby—in the body bag.”

      He looked at her steadily as though she’d simply told him something banal, like it was a nice day. “Is that when you got the blood all over you?”

      She looked down at herself. “I don’t honestly remember.” How could she have not noticed the blood before now? “I remember touching Robby’s neck to see if there was a pulse. There wasn’t.”

      Over the next few minutes she explained to Wade how she had found Robby while he drew a sketch, adjusting the lines on the drawing as she struggled to remember as many details of those awful minutes as she could.

      When they were finished, he thanked her, then said, “We need to get a formal statement from you, and for that, Chief Egan is going to take you down to the station.” He paused. “And, we’re going to need your clothes as possible evidence, so he’s going to go inside your house with you while you get something to change into after you get to the station.”

      Megan felt her lips go numb. This was more than a witness statement. “Am I a suspect?”

      He seemed to weigh his words before answering without anything close to a reassuring smile to ease his somber expression. “Let’s take this one step at a time, Megan.” He said her name the way a friend might, only she knew he wasn’t, couldn’t be, her friend. “The sooner we get your statement and process the crime scene, the sooner we’ll have an idea of who did this.”

      With that, he introduced her to Chief Egan, whom she had seen at quite a few different civic functions over the last three years. If he recognized her, he didn’t indicate it at all. He was silent as they went inside her house and she retrieved clothes to change into.

      As stern as Detective Wade Prescott had seemed to her, Chief Egan was even more so, his gaze avoiding hers as she climbed into the back seat of his cruiser. When he closed the door, she looked across the street to the shocked faces of her neighbors. Was it her own rampant imagination, or had their eyes narrowed in suspicion? She wanted to bow her head and cry, but instead she lifted her chin, managed what she hoped would pass for a reassuring smile and waved at them. Only Angie Williams, her youngest child riding on her hip, waved back.

      On the short drive to the police station, Chief Egan was quiet, his gaze meeting hers in the rearview mirror only once. When they arrived, he barked an order to Caroline York, the dispatcher, to accompany her to the restroom where she was to collect Megan’s clothes.

      “Hi, Caroline,” Megan said as the woman came around her desk.

      “I’m so sorry for what happened this morning,” Caroline responded. “Are you okay?”

      “Wait,” Chief Egan said. “You two know each other?”

      “Sure,” Caroline said. “We go to the same church.”

      “Uh-huh,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “You’re the only female on duty today, so you’re stuck with collecting the evidence whether she’s a friend or not. Understood?”

      “Yes,” she replied evenly, leading Megan down the hall and rolling her eyes when they were out of sight of Chief Egan. “My gosh, he’s acting as if you’re a suspect, instead of the person who reported the crime.”

      Megan didn’t say anything about the chief. Instead, she asked Caroline, “How’s your grandfather?” He had been a patient last winter when he’d suffered a mild stroke.

      “Testy as ever,” Caroline replied in her cheerful tone. “He likes making me think that he doesn’t want Billy and me living with him. And I’d almost believe him if he didn’t light up like Christmas when Billy gets home from school. Billy can’t wait to show his great-grandpa his papers, and Gramps can’t wait to see them.”

      Caroline’s description of a family that took care of one another, even as they meddled and interfered in one another’s lives, made Megan envious. She thought of the void in her own life. Helen Russell was the closest thing she had to a mother, a bond that was sure to be tested when the old woman found out how much Megan had disliked and distrusted her grandson—a man who was no longer here to tell his side of the story.

      “You’re awfully quiet back there,” Caroline added as Megan passed her bloodied shirt and pants over the bathroom stall. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

      “I’m fine,” Megan said.

      “Is there anyone I can call for you?” Caroline asked.

      “I’m worried about my neighbor, Helen Russell. If you could call Reverend Ford and ask him to check on her, that would be great.”

      “Consider it done.” She paused, then asked, “What about you? Anyone I can call for you?”

      “No, СКАЧАТЬ