Dirty Little Secrets (Romantic Mystery) Book 1 in the J.J. Graves Series (19 page)

“I hate you,” I said and flipped him the bird. But I felt under my chin for stray hairs just in case he’d been telling the truth. We climbed back into the Suburban to go see Dr. Hides and had just turned off the County Square into Nottingham when Jack’s cell phone rang.

“Sheriff Lawson,” he said. He was quiet for a few seconds, his attention still on the road. It wasn’t until he said, “We’ll be there,” that I realized he was turning us around and headed back into Bloody Mary.

“Who was that?”

“That was Detective Colburn. He said he has some important information to tell me.”

I could see the strain around Jack’s eyes and the tension around his mouth. “Why does that worry you?” I asked.

“Because I think we may have just found Amanda Wallace’s lover. I thought you said the day couldn’t get much worse.”

“I was just trying to keep a positive outlook.”

“Well, if I’m right, it doesn’t get much worse than one of my detectives being suspected for murder. Christ, I’m going to have to get a job at the 7-Eleven if I can’t get this mess resolved.”
“That might not be so bad,” I said. “I hear they’ve got good benefits, you’d get free Slurpies for life and you’d know what to do if there was ever a robbery.”

Jack didn’t appreciate my suggestions.

Detective Marcus Colburn was a tall man, broad through the shoulders and thin through the hips. He was slightly graying at the temples, but attractive in a distinguished gentleman sort of way, and I’d guess his age to be around forty. I found myself thinking about what Jack said about the murderer being strong. Detective Colburn certainly fit the bill.

He’d decided to meet us at the park near Wooten’s pond. Actually, he’d decided to meet Jack there. He was probably going to be surprised to see me. I knew him well enough to speak to him whenever I passed him in town, but not well enough to strike up a conversation at a party. He’d been on the force ten years more than Jack, but he’d actively supported him when he’d run for sheriff, so I’d always liked him for that.

“Detective Colburn,” Jack said, shaking his hand. “Why don’t we have a seat?”
I took my place unobtrusively on the other side of Jack and decided to let him handle this newest problem. After all, it was one of his men.

“Why don’t you tell me everything you can, and then we’ll decide what we need to do.”
“I want you to know I didn’t find out about Amanda’s death until right before I called you. I worked the night shift last night, and I have it again tonight, so I was asleep until a couple of hours ago when the station called me to ask if I’d work overtime because of the murder.” He stumbled over the word murder a little but quickly got himself under control.

Jack only nodded, and I guess that put Colburn at ease because he took a breath and pushed on. “I wanted to tell you that I was the one who met with Amanda Saturday night.”

“What time did you leave her?” Jack asked, the friend replaced by the cop. 

“Sunday morning, about seven thirty. We had an early breakfast because I had some things to take care of before I went on shift. Grocery shopping, that sort of thing. If I’d stayed longer she’d still be alive.”

“You’re as sure as you can be on the times?” Jack asked. “You know we’ll check the video tapes at the hotel. It’s best to be as up front as you can be.”

“I’m sure,” he said. “I’m not likely to ever forget.”

“How long have you been involved with Mrs. Wallace?” Jack asked.

I saw Detective Colburn wince at the way Jack called her by her married name and thought he did feel some guilt over the act.

“About six months. She was going to see her attorney this week to file for divorce. She said she wasn’t going to stay in a marriage where she wasn’t loved anymore. We were going to get married.”

“Why’d she wait so long for the divorce?”

“She wanted to make sure her youngest was settled into college before making any drastic changes,” he said. “I agreed with her.”

“Do you know if she was seeing a therapist?” Jack asked.

“Sure. She’s been seeing him for more than a year. She told me her husband wanted her to, and she said it was just nice to have someone to talk to that was completely impartial in the whole matter.”

“Did she ever tell you anything about her sessions?”

“No, but she did say that he was the one who finally helped her settle on divorce. And he told her he thought it was good that she was entering back into a healthy relationship at this point in her life.”

“Do you know what days she went to the therapist?”

“I think she usually went on Tuesday mornings, but she had to miss last week because she had an appointment with her regular doctor she couldn’t miss. She made the session up on Saturday, though. He’d do that sometimes if she had to miss an appointment.”

My hands clinched in my lap to keep me from blurting out what I was thinking. Amanda Wallace had been the Saturday appointment that Jack and I had to vacate the office for. Very interesting.

“What do I do now, Jack?” he asked.

My heart went out to the guy. He’d lost his lover and might even lose his job all in the same day.

“We’re going to do this by the book, Marcus. It’s not going to be easy, and you know there’s no way it’ll be kept quiet.”

“I know. It doesn’t seem to matter anymore.”

“I’m going to call Stewart and have him handle this personally.” Captain Stewart Smith was Jack’s right hand at the station. He was also one of Martha’s numerous sons. One of the ones in the middle. “You’ll need to go in and make an official statement. Volunteer to give a DNA sample and take a lie detector. You’ll have to turn in your gun and badge until your name is cleared,” he said.

I could tell by the look on Colburn’s face that this was the biggest heartache of all next to the death of Amanda. To some men, there was no life without the badge. Jack was one of those, and apparently so was Colburn.

“I need you back at work soon, so get this done quick and get your name cleared.”

“I don’t know if I can come back,” Colburn said, standing. He unholstered his weapon and handed it butt-end to Jack, and he unclipped the detective shield he carried on his belt.

“Take as much time as you need, Marcus. The badge will be there for you when you’re ready for it.”

No one knew that little bit of wisdom better than Jack.

“Why do I feel as if things are crumbling rapidly all around me?” Jack asked once we were back in the car and on our way back to Nottingham to visit Dr. Hides.

“Don’t feel bad,” I said. “It feels that way to me too.”

“You’re no help whatsoever. I’ve changed my mind about Dr. Hides,” he said.

“How’s that?”

“I was going to question him at his office, then arrest him. I think I’m just going to arrest him first and let him stew in a cell for a while. He’s made my life a living hell. Just think, if people were basically honest in nature instead of liars this thing would be solved by now. You know, I feel bad for Dr. Hides. Sometimes in small towns the paperwork can really get backed up and cause unnecessary delays.”

“I’ve heard that,” I said.

“And what’s going on in this town? Isn’t anyone faithful to their spouse anymore? It makes staying single a whole lot more appealing.”

“People like you and me, Jack, we’re so careful to let anyone close, but when we do it’s for life. Marriage will be like that when we’re ready.”

“Yeah, Lord knows if I ever do tie on the shackles, I’ll be faithful. And you’ll be faithful, but what if he’s not?”

“Then I’ll carve off his testicles with my scalpel and put them in formaldehyde so they can sit on my shelf forever and ever.”

“You’ve obviously thought this through before. I have to say I’m starting to feel a little pity for Brody.”

I decided to ignore him because we’d just turned onto Covington Lane. Dr. Hides’ street looked the same as it had two days before. The same white car was parked two houses down and the red flag was up again on the mailbox in front of the attorney’s side of the town house. This place gave me the creeps.

“You know what’s missing?” Jack asked.

“The Stepford Wives?” I asked.

“No,” he said, grinning. “Janette Taylor’s car. She works Monday through Friday, isn’t that what Dr. Hides said?”

“I can give her a call if you want.”

“Yeah, why don’t you do that. I’ll try the door.”

Janette picked up after the third ring, and if possible, she sounded worse than she had two days ago.

“Are you all right, Janette?” I asked.

“No, I’m not all right. I’ve got the cold from hell.”

“Did you call Dr. Hides to let him know you weren’t going to be in?” I asked.

“What are you, my mother? For your information he called me last night to let me know he’d come down with the same stuff. He cancelled all of his appointments for today. Now, please leave me alone to die in peace,” she said, slamming down the receiver hard enough to make me wince.

“Well, that was pleasant,” I said once I made my way back over to Jack.

“What’s the story?”

“Both of them have the crud. They probably gave it to each other just by being nasty human beings.”
“He’s not answering the door,” Jack said. “His car’s parked at the back of the house.”

“Janette did sound rather concerned about the doctor’s health,” I said, smiling. “Maybe he had a severe coughing fit and passed out. He could be lying in there now. What if he hit his head when he fell?”

“Good one, Dr. Graves. It’ll help having you here to confirm that.”

“Why?” I asked.

“So you can back me up when I say we had probable cause to enter. Look here, the door’s wide open. I wouldn’t be doing my civic duty if I didn’t step inside to make sure there’s not anything missing or out of place.”

“You’re pretty good yourself,” I said as I followed him into the spacious foyer once again.

I smelled it before I saw the body. Death. The air was thick with the putrid smell of bladder and bowels and the coppery scent of blood, and no matter how much you tried to breathe through your mouth that first whiff would be stuck in the back of your throat for hours, sometimes days. I’d gotten so used to the stench of death the past couple of days it almost seemed odd to go somewhere without it.

“I’d say Dr. Hides is definitely not feeling his best,” Jack said.

I didn’t think Dr. Hides was feeling anything. Dr. Hides was wearing a white bathrobe and hanging by a rope from the second story balcony. It was odd, the downstairs was exactly as it had been a couple of days before, neat desk, stuffy furniture, long hallway and straight staircase leading to the upper levels. You almost wouldn’t even notice the body suspended above us if it wasn’t for the smell, and the puddle of body fluids dripping on the floor. I was thinking Dr. Hides surely could have found a better way to deal with the common cold.

“I’m going to be right pissed if he offed himself because he was feeling guilty for murdering those two women. It couldn’t possibly be enough justice.”

“I’ve got my bag in the car,” I said. “Why don’t you call it in and we’ll get started.” In the meantime, I hoped like hell we didn’t run into any more bodies. I only had room for one more in my freezer.

Chapter Nineteen

The police were probably still a good fifteen minutes away since Jack had had to reassign officers to keep covering the crime scene at the hotel. He had everyone on duty until further notice, and I reminded him the council wasn’t going to be happy about forking over the money for overtime. Let’s just say that Jack’s response to my comment was anatomically impossible.

I pulled on gloves and threw an extra pair to Jack, and I was careful not to touch anything until the scene could be documented. I took pictures from the bottom floor and then made my way upstairs to snap a couple of close-ups.

“He looks surprised,” I said, looking at the dead doctor’s face.

“Yeah, well who knows what was going through his mind in that last second. I haven’t found a suicide note,” he said.

“You know, that’s a common misconception. Most suicides don’t actually leave a note.”

“I know, but Dr. Hides just seemed like the kind of guy who would need to clear his conscience. I do have a small amount of good news,” he said.

“What’s that?”

“The warrant for the files came through first thing this morning. Apparently someone in the DA’s office has a lake house on the Chesapeake Bay and the entire staff spent the weekend there. And Judge Andrews was out of town at a wedding. Fortunately, someone checked their voicemail and heard my frantic messages because it was waiting for me first thing.”

“Then let’s see what we can find.” I watched Jack do something interesting to the locks on the file cabinet and the drawer popped open. “My, my, my,” I said. “Somebody has hidden talents.”

“I’m not the only one,” Jack said. “Both files are gone.” It was then we heard the sound of sirens and feet clomping up the stairs outside. Officers I’d just left at one crime scene were coming into the door of another. They got to work, and I stood by Jack and waited for my turn to come up.