Chapter 16 #2
“Because a blackmailer doesn’t have that many hotspots if they’re just blackmailing one person. That’s someone who has a system and knows how to collect payments. Payments were always collected on a Saturday.”
“So maybe someone who worked during the week.”
She shrugged, but I could tell she’d already had the same thought.
“James said he didn’t kill Henry,” Dash said. “Do you know what he told us?”
She shifted on her seat, and I could see the question made her uncomfortable. She licked her lips and then said, “What did he say?”
“He said, ‘Ask Jackie.’ Why would he say something like that?”
“If you think you’re going to pin Henry’s murder on me after all this time then you can get out and talk straight to my lawyer.”
“All I’m asking for is the truth,” Dash said. “Why would he say that to us? What do you know about Henry’s murder?”
“I know James didn’t do it,” she said.
“How?”
“Because he was here that night,” she said.
“He’d gotten the last blackmail letter the day before and he’d brought it here.
He was upset and angry. I’ve never seen him that angry before.
He told me he was ending things between us and that he had to make everything right.
He was going to confess to Edie. Stop paying the blackmail, no matter the consequences.
And he said he was going to go straight to Henry’s and beg for forgiveness, and pray that Henry would let him make things right.
He said he didn’t care if he had to sell every property he owned and empty his trust. And then he left. ”
“What time was that?”
“A little after nine,” she said. “The weather was bad. Worse than it is right now.”
“So you’re saying that on the night Henry was murdered James was there? We know he talked to his sister on the phone around seven o’clock that night. And we know his housekeeper found his body the next morning. And James decided to go over after nine at night to beg Henry’s forgiveness?”
“He did,” she said. “And he was back in less than half an hour, shaking like a leaf. He was white as a sheet. Went straight to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a drink. He drained it and then poured another, and did the same with it. I was still pretty angry from when he left. I’m not a fan of getting dumped.
But I was thinking whatever had just happened to him, he’d come to me instead of going home to his wife, so maybe there was hope after all. ”
“What’d he say?” Dash asked.
“Once he stopped shaking he sat down in his favorite chair in front of the fireplace and just stared at it. I kept asking him what had happened, but he was in shock. I could see that from the medical side of things. His pupils were dilated. His heart rate was rapid and his breathing shallow. I threw a candy dish into the fireplace and it jolted him out of whatever trance he was in.” She looked at us without apology. “I was more dramatic in those days.”
She took a deep breath and got up from the stool, making her way to the groceries that were on the counter. Looking for something to do with her hands while she talked.
“He told me Henry was dead.” She moved briskly around the kitchen.
“That’s not at all what I was expecting to hear.
I thought maybe they’d gotten into a fight.
I don’t know. But I hadn’t expected that.
And then I thought that maybe James had killed him because he’d stopped talking again.
And all I could think of was that James had killed for me.
It’s a bit of a thrill to think that a man would go to those lengths for the woman he loved. ”
I looked at Dash and wondered if my face was displaying the fact that I thought this woman was a psychopath and very well could have killed Henry. Dash had his cop face on, which meant he was most likely thinking the same thing.
“Did James have blood spatter on him when he came back?” Dash asked. “There would have been blowback from the gun on his hands and shirt if he’d been standing as close to Henry as he would have been to pull the trigger.”
“No, there was nothing like that,” she said.
“His skin was clammy and he was soaked from the rain. But there was no blood or marks on him. I asked him what happened and he said when he got to Henry’s it was almost impossible to see with the rain, and none of the outside lights were on at Henry’s house.
That was unusual because they were set on a timer to come on every night.
“James said the house was dark, but Henry’s car was there so he let himself in the back door. He said he could smell it before he got to Henry’s office. You work in the medical field long enough you know the smell I’m talking about.”
“Yeah,” Dash said. “I know.”
She nodded as if that was all the confirmation she needed.
“He said he opened the door to Henry’s office and there he was.
Blood everywhere. His body slumped over.
James said he ran inside before he could think better of it.
That medical training kicks in, and you wonder if you can save him.
But he said there was no saving Henry. He’d shot himself in the head. ”
“And James didn’t think to call anyone? The police? 911? He had a duty to call it in?”
She’d stopped putting the groceries away and stood with her arms crossed protectively over her chest. “He was afraid. Because of what he saw on Henry’s desk.”
“What did he see?” Dash asked.
“A note on the desk. Just like the one he’d gotten the day before from the blackmailer.”