Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
Angie
“Hey, there you are,” I say to Jason when I open the door. “Henry’s already here, and Tabitha stopped by, too.”
“I’m really sorry I’m late.” He kisses my cheek. “I have so much to talk to you about.”
I brush a hand over his jaw and bring his lips to mine.
He widens his eyes. He sees Henry in the living room.
But fuck it. I can’t undo it now. Tabitha saw it as well. She and Henry know Jason and I are an item. He’s already on administrative leave—though hopefully that will be reversed soon. We may as well enjoy our newfound freedom.
I smile at him. “Come on and meet my brother.”
Henry rises, and only now do I realize that he’s even taller than Jason. At least by an inch or two.
Jason holds out his hand. “Jason Lansing.”
“Good to meet you, Jason. I’m Henry.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
“So what are you drinking tonight?” Henry asks.
He scratches the side of his head. “I’m going to start with water, I think. It’s been kind of a day. I can’t thank you enough for calling in some favors to get those warrants.”
“No problem at all,” Henry says. “I hear Angie got you Blake Haywood. He’s the best.”
“Yes, he’s doing a great job.” Jason sighs. “I hope you know I’m innocent of all the charges against me.”
“Hey, Angie trusts you, so I do too. Right about now, the DA’s investigators along with some police detectives should be checking all of the surveillance footage around Ralph Normandy’s apartment.” Something tugs at the edges of his lips. “And I have some other good news.”
“What’s that?” Jason asks.
“They’ll be going inside as well. We were able to get a search warrant.”
“Yes, Angie mentioned that as well. I can’t thank you enough for that.”
Henry narrows his eyes at me. “Come on, sis, you already spoiled the surprise?”
I shrug. “I think Jason is entitled to some good news after the last few days.”
Jason rubs at his forehead. “Christ, if that isn’t the fucking truth.” He turns to me. “But I have to talk to you about something. Something I—”
Henry’s phone starts ringing. He grabs it out of his pocket, looks at the caller ID. “Hold that thought, Jason. You’ll want to hear this.” He accepts the call and puts it on speaker. “Hello?”
“Henry Simpson?”
“Speaking.”
“Great. This is Detective MacDougal with Boulder Police.”
“Right,” Henry says. “Tabitha, would you mind giving us the room? This is kind of a private matter.”
Tabitha frowns but then stands. “Of course.”
Once Tabitha is in the other room, Henry turns back to his phone. “Sorry, just wanted to keep this private, Detective.”
“Understood. We’re calling about the fingerprint sample you submitted. We were able to rush it and get the analysis done quickly.”
Henry grins. “Excellent. Detective, I have you on speakerphone with my sister, Angie, and her”—he lifts his eyebrows at me—“friend Jason Lansing. He’s the doctor, the husband of the woman whose death we’re looking into.”
“Oh, great. Dr. Lansing, a pleasure to talk to you as well.”
“Thank you,” Jason says. “Were you able to confirm if the fingerprints were a match?”
Detective MacDougal pauses, and we hear the shuffling of papers. “Results are positive. Ralph Normandy and Ronny Burgundy are the same person.”
“Hell yes!” Henry pumps a fist into the air. “Thank you.”
“We’ll be in touch once we put this whole case together, Mr. Simpson. Have a great rest of your day.”
The call ends, and Jason falls onto the couch, heaving out a sigh. “Henry, I think I’ll have that drink now.”
“Of course. What’ll you have?”
“Do you still have bourbon, Angie?”
Henry holds up a hand. “I brought some of the good stuff from the Western Slope.” He walks to the kitchen, and a moment later comes back with a glass of bourbon for Jason.
He takes a quick sip. “Good stuff.”
Henry nods. “It’s called Peach Street, made on the Western Slope. My Uncle Talon got me started on it when I turned twenty-one. Best bourbon ever.”
“It is good. Really smooth.” He takes another drink. “Now, about Ralph. Or Ronny—”
“We’ll get him straightened out in a second,” Henry says. “For right now, we need to focus on you, Jason. You still don’t have an alibi. We might be able to prove that Ralph murdered Lindsay, but all that does is give you a much stronger motive to beat the shit out of him.”
“Well, I do have an alibi, but I don’t have any witnesses. I was just home alone.”
“Man, that sucks,” Henry says.
The doorbell rings then.
Tabitha comes back into the room. “That’s probably the pizza. I’ll get it, Ange.”
“Thanks,” I say.
Tabitha returns with three pizza boxes and takes them into the kitchen.
“So no luck getting the guy to confess that he had himself beaten up?” Henry asks.
“Nope. He’s standing firm. Says I did it. But I didn’t.”
“You don’t have to keep convincing me. I believe you, man.”
Nice of him, considering he doesn’t even know Jason. But he trusts me, which I appreciate.
“So what were you doing while you were home that night?” Henry asks.
“I’ve already been through all of this with Blake, but if you think it’ll help…”
He shrugs. “You never know.”
“Okay.” Jason draws in a deep breath. “I was home that night. I had just figured out that my wife, Lindsay, probably hadn’t committed suicide, so I was shaken up. I was pacing around a lot.”
“Okay. Is there any way someone might’ve been able to see you from the outside?”
“I don’t know.” He frowns. “Maybe my neighbors. But Angie didn’t see me. I mean, she wasn’t peeping in my windows or anything. I don’t really know any of my other neighbors. I’ve kind of been a loner for the last three years.”
“Did you eat anything? Go to the refrigerator?”
“How is this supposed to help?” Jason asks. “I already went through all of it with Blake.”
“Blake is the best, for sure,” Henry says. “But he’s also old-school.” He crosses his arms. “So did you go to your kitchen?”
Jason wrinkles his forehead. “I know I had a drink. Wasn’t very hungry, but I forced myself to eat a little bit.”
“What did you eat?”
“What does that matter?”
“What you ate doesn’t matter,” Henry says, “but it might jog something else.”
I sit, letting Tabitha serve the pizza. I find this interrogation of Jason really intriguing. “Since when do you know so much about gathering evidence?” I ask Henry.
He chuckles. “I watch a lot of police drama shows.”
I laugh. “Can I get you to have some pizza?”
“Yeah, as soon as I’m done questioning Jason. So what did you eat?”
“Like I said, wasn’t hungry, so I grabbed the bag of potato chips off the top of my refrigerator, opened them, ate a few chips.
They were dry and crackly down my throat, I remember that.
I drank some water, and then I went back to the computer.
I was going to look on Facebook, and that’s when the electricity blipped. ”
Henry widens his eyes. “The electricity blipped?”
“Oh my God,” I say. “It did. I came home that night after studying at the library, and I had to reset all my clocks.”
“Yeah, it happens around here sometimes,” Jason says. “More often during the summer, when there’s a storm, but sometimes during the winter, when it gets cold or snowy.”
“So the electricity blipped,” Henry says.
“Yeah. So I had to go reset my motion sensor. It has a battery backup, but it beeps after a blackout until I hit the reset button. And I don’t know about you, but that noise drives me insane.”
Henry holds up a hand. “Wait, wait, wait… You have a motion sensor?”
“Yeah,” Jason says. “It’s not connected to the police or monitored by a security company or anything.
It’s just a cheap motion sensor light system inside the house.
I installed it when I first moved in because I hate walking into a dark room.
Ever since I lost Lindsay and Julia, it just helps a little.
Half the time I forget it’s even there.”
“What kind of motion sensor is it?” Henry asks.
“Oh, I forget the name of the company, but it’s one of those smart home motion sensors.”
“Smart?” Henry wrinkles his forehead. “So it probably logs data.”
Jason strokes his chin. “Yeah, I think so. I have an app on my phone. Half the time I forget it’s there, like I said. I never check it.”
“Yeah, but this is your alibi, Jason.” Henry snaps his fingers. “It will show movement at your home that night.”
Jason raises his eyebrows. “Oh my God. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.” He frowns. “But I’m not sure it will help at all. It may show that someone was in my home, but how do I prove it was me?”
“Does anyone else have a key to your house?”
“No.” He shakes his head.
“Then we can assume it was you. I mean, if your house was broken into, you would’ve called the police, right?”
“Yes,” I say. “There would be evidence of a break-in, Jason.”
Jason grabs his phone out of his pocket. “Here’s the app. Man, I had the thing installed right after I moved in almost three years ago. God, I hope I remember my login information.”
“You remember, Jason,” I tell him. “You have to. You can reset your account if you have to.”
He fiddles around with it for a few minutes.
“Got it. Third time’s the charm.” A moment later.
“Oh my God. Here are all my logs.” He scans the screen.
“Looks like there’s a slight bleep, probably when the electricity blipped and the Wi-Fi went down for a couple of minutes.
But other than that, it’s all here.” He slaps his hand against his forehead.
“I never thought I’d be glad I was pacing around my house all night. ”
“You think anyone could’ve seen you through your windows?” I ask.
“No, I keep my drapes shut for the most part.”
“I don’t think it matters,” Henry says. “This should be enough for the DA to drop the charges. Did you tell Blake any of this?”
He shakes his head. “I didn’t think it was important. And he didn’t ask me about an alarm system or anything.”
“Yeah, he’s old-school.” Henry gets to his feet. “But we need to call him. This could be exactly what you need to get those charges dropped.”
“Yeah. I’ll call him first thing in the morning,” Jason says.
“No,” Henry says. “We’re going to call now.” He pulls out his phone. “My family calls our attorneys at all hours. For what we pay, they always answer. He won’t mind hearing from me. You mind if I do the honors?”
“Please,” Jason says.
I launch myself into Jason and throw my arms around him, kissing his stubbled cheek. “Oh my God, Jason! This could be it. We’re going to get those charges dropped, and then we can work on proving that Ralph is the one who killed Lindsay.”
Then I clamp my hand over my mouth as I look at Tabitha.
Her mouth is dropped into an O.
Oh, shit.