Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Harriet
Dooley ushers us to the dining room table. There’s a bowl of pink cereal swimming in milk. He sits down in front of it.
“It was kind of you to bring baked goods. I’ve got this cereal, but Tilly and the kids will sure be happy to see those.”
I set the bag on the buffet, and Alexandru and I sit across from Dooley and his cereal.
He digs in. “Did you know that there are twice as many cereals at Gable’s Grocery from when I went inside?”
“I guess fifteen years is a long time,” I say.
“You’re telling me. And to answer your question I know you’re gonna ask, no, I didn’t kill that Milo guy.
I know it looks bad, like everyone says I was waiting around for somebody to discover the body, but the truth is, I was sitting in the grass in the shade of the gazebo playing Tetris when I heard Fern screaming.
I went over there to see if somebody was in trouble or something, but the minute I saw that body lying there, let’s just say I noped out pretty fast.” He takes another bite. “Not the best decision.”
“Did they establish an alibi for you? Is that why they let you out so fast?” I ask.
“Nineteen hours and twenty-three minutes. I wouldn’t call that fast exactly.”
Alexandru crosses his legs, observing Dooley carefully. What is he picking up? Dooley seems so guileless, but then I keep thinking about Alexandru’s mastermind’s toolbox thing.
“Legally, they could’ve held you a bit longer,” I say.
“My lawyer threatened to sue the department for harassment, and I suppose they took it pretty seriously. He’s really been stepping up lately.”
“We learned something interesting the other day,” Alexandru begins. “We learned that you’ve been lying to us.”
Dooley stares at Alexandru in alarm. “Excuse me?”
I want to rush in and smooth over the situation, soften the edges of the question, but I fight the urge. Alexandru was right; I do have a hard time hanging back and letting people answer for themselves.
Alexandru’s voice is low and resonant. “I believe you heard what I said. You. Lying. To us.”
Dooley looks over at me, and I feel super uncomfortable now. “Or…leaving something pretty big out.”
“Like what do you mean?” Dooley asks.
“We know that Jerome Goodwin was visiting you a lot in prison,” I say.
“Did Jerome tell you that?” Dooley asks.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” I press, feeling proud of myself for not answering Dooley’s question. I think old me would’ve explained exactly how we got that information, but we’re the ones asking the questions here.
“I didn’t tell you because it’s supposed to be a secret. He’s working on a book project—did he tell you that?”
“And that is all?” Alexandru says.
Dooley’s expression falters. “What more could there be?”
“The rest of what you’re not telling us,” Alexandru says.
Dooley casts a desperate glance in my direction.
I try to look sympathetic. “Well…if there is something...”
“There is something,” Alexandru says casually.
Is he picking something up? He must be.
“Did Jerome say there was something else?” Dooley asks.
Alexandru fixes him with a raptor-like gaze. “The subject is you, and what you’re not telling us.”
“I don’t have to tell you anything.” Dooley drops his spoon back into his cereal with a decisive clink. “You don’t get to question me. I’m done with having you in my house.” He points at the door.
I stand, because what else do you do when someone tells you to leave their house?
Alexandru stays seated, calm as can be. “Better us than the police.”
Dooley looks wildly back and forth between Alexandru and me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Alexandru takes this moment to tug his gloves off, one finger at a time. Slow. Deliberate. He knows something. Dooley watches each finger like Alexandru might be pulling the pin on a grenade.
“I’ve said all I’m going to say.” Dooley’s voice has thinned. “You’re not the police.”
“Lucky for you, that,” Alexandru says, starting on the other hand. “Does this secret you’re keeping have something to do with why you’re killing Jerome’s enemies?”
Dooley’s eyes round with shock. “I’m not killing anybody! Jerome’s enemies?”
Alexandru waits. I know what he’s doing, letting the silence be excruciating. Well, it is excruciating!
“I’m not killing Jerome’s enemies. Why would I do that?”
“You tell me,” Alexandru says.
Something flashes behind Dooley’s eyes just then. Even I can see it—thoughts connecting. Something coming together, maybe.
He mumbles a profanity under his breath.
What does it mean? Is he starting to suspect Jerome is framing him for the murders of Jerome’s enemies? Is that what’s going on? Which...I can’t imagine it.
“Yes?” Alexandru says.
Dooley turns to me, expression wild. “You have to understand I’m not killing anyone! You have to believe me! I was just walking around during the time people were killed. Both times, just rambling around. And where would I even get a crossbow? With what money?”
“That all makes sense,” I say.
“Jerome visiting me, it’s not important. It was just that book of his—period! And I didn’t tell you because he made me promise not to tell anyone. It’s something with his book company.”
Alexandru’s dark eyes glitter. “What else?”
“What!” Dooley exclaims.
“What else are you hiding?”
“What could I be hiding?!”
Alexandru waits. He’s being so harsh, but I suppose that’s nothing compared to having someone’s fangs sink into your neck and drain all the blood from your body like two horrible little straws. Compared to that, he’s practically showering Dooley with gifts.
Dooley is overwrought at this point.
Alexandru places one of his gloves on top of the other glove, lining them up exactly. His fingers really are long and elegant. Mesmerizingly so. Does he know it? Of course he knows.
OMG. Is this gloves thing for Dooley or for me?
“Fine! Okay!” Dooley says. “You know that technicality I got out on? The prosecutor had hidden some evidence that would have helped me. I don’t really understand it, but Jerome is the one that figured it out.
He was researching something random about my case for his book, and he noticed a gap in the files or something like that. ”
“Jerome found the technicality?” I say.
“Yes. He alerted my lawyer and my lawyer got on it, but Jerome’s the reason I got out.”
“I don’t understand—why the secrecy?” I ask.
Dooley sighs and looks up at the ceiling.
“Well, my lawyer was pretty embarrassed that he screwed up like that. He told me if Jerome and I just act like he found the loophole, he’d give me free lawyering.
Getting me out, and so forth. And considering all of this crossbow killing, that deal is really working out and I don’t want to lose it. There is no way we could afford him.”
I narrow my eyes. He doesn’t sound like a very good lawyer, but it’s Dooley’s decision.
Alexandru lowers his voice. “You are grateful to Jerome.”
“Well, yeah! I’d still be in prison if it weren’t for Jerome.” He straightens right then. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going around killing his enemies!”
Alexandru eyes him like prey.
“What?! Look. I’m asking you not to tell anybody about the lawyer thing. I’m putting my sister through so much already. We don’t have the money—”
There is commotion at the door. Dooley’s sister Tilly comes in with her two children, face bright and smiling. “Welcome!” She grins, gesturing at Dooley. “Isn’t this great news?”
“So awesome!” I point at the pastries. “We have to go, but we left a parting gift. Some croissants.”
“That is so thoughtful!” she says.
“Very thoughtful,” Dooley says, following us out. He gives me a look and mouths the word, please, meaning, please don’t tell anyone about the lawyer and loophole thing.
I give him a nod. I’m really, really hoping there’s no world where we have to tell. Because I’m guessing Tilly will be bearing the brunt of those costs.
“That was intense,” I say on the way back home.
“I found it rather diverting,” Alexandru says.
“Don’t you feel at all guilty about pressing him and hounding him like that?”
“I find guilt a rather useless emotion.”
I snort. “Says the guy who would happily drain a small child and that child’s puppy.”
“I would not drain a small child. Too much work just for a fraction of a meal. And a puppy? Repugnant.”
No comment.
“Did you get a vibe on his truthfulness?”
“He seemed genuine.”
“So he might be innocent.”
“Or a sociopath,” Alexandru says.
Gregor is nowhere when we get back home. Alexandru doesn’t seem surprised.
“Do you think it’s possible that Dooley is killing Jerome’s enemies as a thank-you gift for getting him out of jail?” I ask.
“Dooley is indeed grateful for his freedom. But it is secured either way. He wouldn’t need such an extreme gesture of thanks.”
“Well, people do like to express their gratitude.”
“You humans are so very sentimental.”
“I don’t know, can you really call it sentimental when it’s like, ‘thanks, let me show my gratitude by doing grisly murders’?”
“You found those murders grisly?”
“All murders are grisly,” I say.
“Huh,” he says simply in his totally disagree tone. “I find it far more plausible that Jerome found the loophole and realized that it had value. He struck a deal with Dooley—he would help get him released from prison in exchange for Dooley eliminating two of Jerome’s enemies.”
I stare down at the polished marble floor with its intricate inlays. “I guess it makes more sense than murder as a thank-you gesture.”
“Indeed. And if I am right, it was probably Jerome who had the idea to keep who found the loophole quiet. To allow the lawyer to take the credit.”
“But what about all that guilt you sensed with Jerome? Why get somebody to do murders for you and then feel all guilty about it?”
“It would not be the first time that a human does something atrocious and then regrets it.”
I shake my head. “Jerome. It’s so hard to imagine.”
“We’ll get it out of him this afternoon—if you’ll allow it,” he adds darkly.