Chapter 1 #2
Just then the authorities arrived out front. Mugs alerted them the only way he knew how, by barking furiously. Nick looked out the window and nodded. “I’ll deal with them, and you guys can stay here, if you like.”
“Gladly,” she muttered.
He disappeared from the office, while Doreen watched through the window to see some uniformed cops plus some forensic types in their white jumpsuits traipsing to the conservatory in the back.
She realized it would be a bit of a circus now.
She called Mugs back into the office and closed the door.
She groaned and looked at Mack. “I didn’t really expect to find a dead body here. ”
“Neither did I,” he noted, watching the proceedings through the window.
“Do you feel out of the loop?” she asked him.
He turned to her and laughed. “No, I’m on holiday, remember?”
She rolled her eyes at that. “Which is why you’re studying it all so intently. Did you honestly think I wouldn’t notice that?”
“I notice even if I’m off work. I’m a detective. Once that gene turns on, there is no turning it off. It also makes me wonder who had access to the house. Yet, if you and I try to help solve this case, we’ll piss off the local authorities.”
She sighed. “Surely that’s not a smart thing to do.”
His lips twitched, and he murmured, “It’s not a smart thing to do, as I’ve been telling you for a very long time. On the other hand,” he began, giving her a side look, “will you let them investigate this all on their own and not have anything to do with it?”
“I can’t do that,” she admitted, staring at him intently. “It’s my house, after all.” Then she frowned. “God, that sounds weird.”
“Right, it is your house,” he stated. “I know for a fact you won’t let this go on without your assistance.”
“Correct,” she confirmed, as she shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Of course not,” he muttered. “So, as soon as they sort out what’s going on out there, and they get the coroner involved, they’ll need to talk to us.”
“Of course,” she replied, with a nod. “Yet we have alibis. So this should be easy.”
Thaddeus poked his head out of Doreen’s hair. “He-he-he.”
Doreen could only hope he was just being a smart aleck, not giving her advance warning of the mess they were in.
“We do have alibis, indeed,” Mack declared, then did a double take. “Do you really expect them to look at you as a suspect?”
She frowned at him and shared, “You’re the one who always tells me that the spouse is usually the first place anybody looks.”
He smiled at her. “That’s very true, but I don’t think it’ll be an issue in this case.
Your spouse is dead. You aren’t the spouse of the dead body in the garden.
We don’t live here. We can prove that we drove down today, stopping in Merritt, buying brunch and gas.
Plus we found the body ourselves almost immediately upon our arrival.
So, whoever has been in and out of this place, like caretakers or whatnot, that’ll be a different story. ”
“And I need to find that information for the police, don’t I?”
“Or Nick can share that. As you mentioned, Mathew’s probate attorney had hired a property management company to get a caretaker on the property.
I mean, the house was unoccupied, so that sounds like a good idea.
The caretaker can mow the lawn and can watch for intruders.
Probably cheaper than hiring a private security guard, the way your neighbors, the Smithsons, have. ”
“And what if the dead body is the caretaker?” she asked in horror. “What if it was somebody working for the estate?”
“Let’s deal with that if it happens,” Mack stated.
She pinched her lips together to avoid launching one million other questions that were all piling up and incredibly disturbing to her right now.
When Nick finally walked back inside, he smiled at her. “The coroner is on the way, and, yes, the police will need to talk to you.”
“Of course,” she said. “I didn’t have anything to do with it though,” she announced, staring at him.
He smiled at her and nodded. “I know that, and Mack knows that. You just have to convince the police of that.”
Mack groaned, chastising Nick, “Don’t go sending her off so terrified that she’ll be a suspect again.”
“Right.” Nick chuckled. “I forgot that you’ve already been through this once.”
“Don’t remind me,” she muttered, with a nervous smile. “It wasn’t much fun.”
“Of course not,” Nick said. “I’ve already explained that we three, in two separate cars, just drove here from Kelowna, and they can call the restaurant in Merritt, proving that we’ve only just arrived here, based on quite normal travel time.
We’ve got the gas and brunch receipts from Merritt, and both of our vehicles are here.
Heck, the car hoods may still be warm. Plus, Mack is a cop, which should help give us credibility, but they’ll still need to check all our alibis to confirm that we literally did just come into town. ”
Mack added, “I was in at work early this morning in the station at Kelowna, with plenty of witnesses, including the captain. The drive takes about four and a half hours, without stopping for food and gas, and the talk with Jefferson too, so that should help. Plus, your being an attorney should make you an equally viable witness.”
“Exactly, and I followed you both in my own vehicle,” Nick pointed out. “So, if one of us will be looked at as a suspect, then all of us are.”
“Oh dear,” she muttered, staring at him in horror. “I would feel terrible to get you two involved in anything.”
Nick gave her a smirk. “You can’t get me involved in anything because I didn’t do anything.”
“Neither did I,” she declared adamantly.
He rolled his eyes and nodded. “I know, and you don’t need to worry.”
Just then came a knock on the open office door.
She turned and found a man in a suit standing there, a detective no doubt. She frowned at him and asked, “Daniel? Daniel Sherwood?”