Chapter Six #3
“See you’ve redecorated.” Reggie’s stout body filled the doorway. He paused dramatically before heading toward the chair farthest from the door. He sat down with an audible grunt.
“Sorry I’m late.” Bernadette took the other chair. “I wanted to swing by the hospital to check on Mandy. Poor thing didn’t even know I was there. Father Nate was praying for her when I left. Speaking of which, I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it to your mother’s funeral.”
Emmy felt sucker punched. She managed a nod.
“All right, ladies. Let’s go.” Reggie pounded his cane into the tiles. “Emmy, I know you talked to Bill at the ballpark. What were you thinking letting him walk away like that?”
“I was thinking that people have constitutional rights.”
“You know as well as me there’s ways to get around that.”
“For godsakes,” Bernadette muttered. “Reggie, must you telegraph your crimes?”
Reggie smirked.
“Emmy.” Bernadette leaned forward in her seat. “I’m here—we’re here—to offer our help. Whatever you need, whether it be manpower or logistical support, the City of Clayville will do everything we can to help bring this monster to justice.”
Emmy summoned one of her father’s pithy responses. “No, thank you.”
“What?” Bernadette’s voice had gone up in surprise. She’d clearly thought this was a formality. “Our budget is twice yours. We’ve got more resources. More officers. No offense, but you don’t even have full-time forensics. You’d rather lean on the GBI than your neighbors?”
“Correct,” she said. “Thank you.”
Reggie snorted. “Stop bullshitting around, all right? Everybody knows the Garrisons have a lot of power in North Falls. If you’re too afraid to arrest Bill this close to the election, I’ll do it myself.”
Emmy forced herself to not take the bait. “On what evidence?”
“Whatever evidence I damn well find.” Reggie jabbed his finger in her direction. “You’d know how to build a case if you’d spent more than a minute outside your daddy’s shadow.”
“Reggie, shut up,” Bernadette snapped. “Emmy, why don’t you tell us where you are in the investigation.”
She gave them her prepared, Gerald-like response. “I’ve got suspects. I’ve got leads. There’s nothing definitive. I’m not ready to arrest anybody. Thank you for coming.”
Reggie laughed. “You ain’t your daddy. You can’t get away with that shit like he could.”
Bernadette said, “Emmy, I hate to agree with him, but one of our officers was murdered in her own home. I expected more than four short sentences and a thank you.”
Emmy said, “The city of Clayville has no jurisdiction in North Falls.”
Bernadette frowned. “Honey, I know Gerald did things his own way, rest his soul, and he was a good man, but we’re in the twenty-first century now. Government officials should be transparent in their actions.”
“You’re right.” Emmy took a moment to appreciate her father’s stealthy approach, because it had walked them all up to the line she needed to cross. “Tell me about Allison’s lawsuit against the city.”
The energy from the panicked look between the two of them could’ve powered the sun.
Emmy said, “Allison felt like she was forced into retirement after she ended her sexual relationship with Reggie. She filed a lawsuit against both the city and the police department for workplace retaliation, correct?”
Reggie hissed air between his teeth. “Careful, girlie.”
Emmy said, “Allison was demoted from the drug squad after she ended the affair.”
Bernadette said, “Well—”
Emmy waited, but there was nothing more from either of them. “Allison withdrew the lawsuit two months ago, right?”
Bernadette turned cagey. “I’m not sure about the timing.”
“Did you get to the deposition stage?” Emmy sensed a thread she could pull. “I’d like to read them.”
“Good luck,” Reggie said. “The case was sealed.”
“The depositions from a lawsuit against the city are not available to the public?” Emmy felt the thread start to play out. “Who asked the judge to seal it?”
Bernadette looked out at the squad room. Her lips were pursed. “I wish I could tell you more, but we’re under an NDA.”
“You signed a non-disclosure agreement in a case that was withdrawn?” Emmy pulled at the next thread. “Or maybe it wasn’t withdrawn. Maybe you settled privately with Allison so that she would drop the lawsuit.”
Bernadette didn’t respond, but the truth was fairly obvious.
Reggie gave a dramatic sigh. “Lookit, sugar, you’re hunting with the wrong dog. Bill is who you need to focus on. Are you gonna arrest him or do I have to step up?”
Emmy doubted he could get out of the chair without assistance. “Do you think it’s a good idea for the ex-lover of a murdered woman to arrest her husband?”
“You gonna keep playing dirty like that, somebody’s gonna put your ass in the mud.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Hey, now,” Bernadette said. “Let’s dial down the temperature, please.”
Emmy wasn’t going to dial down anything. “Reggie, the thing you were saying before about the husband always being the top suspect—does that apply to the ex-lover, too?”
Reggie started twisting his cane like he was screwing it into the floor.
Emmy asked, “Chief Wilder, can you tell me where you were today between the hours of noon and one-thirty?”
The question changed the tone of the conversation completely. No one spoke. The only sound was the loud tick as the second hand traveled around the clock.
“All righty.” Bernadette broke the silence. Her legal brain had clearly told her not to witness a conversation she might later be called on to testify about in court. She grabbed her purse and stood up. “Sheriff, thank you for your time. I trust you’ve got the investigation under control.”
The mayor left so quickly that the only thing left was the scent of expensive perfume.
Reggie’s eyes tracked her progress across the squad room and through to the lobby.
Emmy couldn’t tell if he was being predatory or appreciative.
Bernadette was the kind of rich that took years off your face and added tone to your body.
Reggie waited until she disappeared into the lobby, then he reached out with his cane and closed the office door.
He studied Emmy with a very different look from the one he’d given the mayor. “That’s why you didn’t want me inside the house, right? I’m a suspect?”
Emmy said nothing.
“You coulda told me instead of taking out my knee.”
“You coulda complied with my order to stop.”
Reggie leaned his cane against her desk. Sat back in his chair.
Emmy didn’t know what she was expecting him to say, but of all the possibilities, it never occurred to her that he would actually answer her question.
“Saturdays are pancake day. I cooked breakfast for the wife and kids. I was at home with them until around eleven-thirty, then I told them I had to work for a few hours, and that I was gonna swing by the hardware store to pick up some string for the weed trimmer on my way home.”
“You told them?” she repeated. “What did you actually do?”
“Swung by a friend’s house.” Reggie rubbed his jaw as he chuckled. “I’ve been catching a little side action with a lady who wishes to remain anonymous.”
It was mind-boggling that so many women found him attractive. “You know I’m going to need to talk to her.”
“You were asking about the lawsuit before. They left me outta the negotiations, and Allison was cagey about the number, but I heard she walked away with a hundred grand.”
Emmy needed to understand why Allison had done nothing with all that cash. “When was this?”
“Like you said, a couple of months ago. The city lawyers ran the numbers. Cheaper to make her go away than fight it.” Reggie shrugged.
“Bill didn’t know about the money. She told him the lawsuit fell apart, that I lied in the deposition.
Which was fine by me. I was glad she got paid.
Gave her the chance to make a clean break. To start over with Mandy.”
Emmy couldn’t help but think of Allison’s voicemail.
Maybe the plan had been based on the payout from the settlement.
Emmy wondered what had made Allison back out.
Legal fees would’ve cut the money in half.
Still, with the cash in the blue bin, $350,000 would’ve gone a long way toward starting over.
She asked Reggie, “Did Allison tell you that anybody was hanging around Mandy lately?”
Reggie cut her with a sharp look. “Who was hanging around her?”
Emmy moved to her next question. “How did Bill feel about you screwing his wife?”
He hissed out a stream of air between his teeth. “Made our poker games a tad bit uncomfortable, but you know Bill was cheating on her, too, right? Like, even before they were married.”
“With whom?”
“Any gal he could whom it into.” Reggie shrugged again. “He’s a regular at the Dew Drop Inn. He says paying for it keeps things clean, but I wouldn’t call those girls clean.”
Emmy knew who Bill really paid. The Rawleys ran all the prostitutes in the county. She went back to Reggie’s alibi. “I need the name of the woman you were with when the shooting happened.”
“Let’s see how this little investigation of yours shakes out. My lady is a good woman. I don’t wanna blow up her marriage. Or mine.”
Emmy was damned if she’d take his word for it, but there were other ways to find out.
He said, “I know you wanna think Allison hated me after what happened on the job, but we still cared about each other. We were screwing around because we were bored, and it felt good. Neither one of us wanted anything permanent. She looked out for me. I looked out for her.”
Allison wouldn’t be dead if that was true. “Something changed between you two lately. A witness told me you stopped parking in her driveway a few weeks ago. I heard your regular ride got banged up. Kind of stupid to take one of your marked cruisers from the motor pool.”
Reggie scratched his neck.
“We’ve got it all on camera. Dates, times. Your fling lives on Dahlia Drive, right?”
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Me and Allison fell out a few weeks ago. It was nothing big. We always made up.”