“Yes, as I was saying, she didn’t handle it very well, giving birth to another child so soon after Andrea was born so I went over there sometimes to help out.”
“That seems a bit strange doesn’t it? A man with all you have to do here, why did you make the effort? Where did you find the time?” From the look he gave her he was obviously not too pleased with her line of questioning but it couldn’t be helped. She had a job to do and beating around the bush or showing any type of preferential treatment was out of the question.
“Because her husband was busy at the bank and my wife had her art gallery to see to. I was the only one who had any free time throughout the day to see to her. We were friends, and whatever you or anyone else may think, that’s all it was.”
Did he seem a bit defensive? “When you say what anyone else might think, have there been talk?” Now she looked at him head on, hoping to read the truth in his eyes.
“No, there was never any talk.” Not until today anyway Riley thought silently.
It was something his own wife had hinted at, well not so much hinted, but he’d read between the lines of her words and didn’t like what he came away with. He didn’t even know where it was coming from, and why now. She’d never had a problem with their closeness before, his and Sonya’s.
She’d never seemed threatened by it and he’d never given her reason to. Or maybe it had been there all along, her distrust, and he’d been too blind to see it. And now here was someone else hinting at the distasteful suggestion.
“Any more questions detective?”
“Well yes, when was the last time you saw the deceased?”
“I saw her last night, we had dinner together.” Detective Sparks swallowed hard and looked down at her notebook.
“We were joined by my wife and her husband.” He gritted the words out through clenched teeth.
“And how did she seem to you?” She hated that she felt such relief at his words and did her best to hide it.
“The same as always. Bright, vivacious, fun. And before you ask, I didn’t see her this morning and I wasn’t out in the woods. Neither do I know what she was doing in there.”
He ran his hand over his wild mane of jet-black curls in frustration. It was still hard for him to accept that the woman he’d seen just the night before across the dinner table, the woman he’d spent so many hours laughing and joking with, was actually gone.
He knew the cop had a job to do, but he wished her to hell all the same. And why do all their questions have to sound so accusatory? There were things that a person didn’t want to and shouldn’t have to share with outsiders, did that make them suspicious?
He, his wife, and the Davises had been close for years. It’s true that he and Sonya had become closer in the last year and a half but so what. Is that a crime? Now his own wife was upset to the point that he had to tranquilize her and this woman was on his doorstep looking at him with suspicion in her eyes.
“Have you been in the woods at all lately Mr. O’Rourke?”
“No, not since I was a kid. I have better things to do with my time. If I need to take a walk I have more than enough land to do that on. Now if there’s nothing else, I need to get back to my wife.”
He turned and walked away, leaving her stymied by his hostility. Could there be something to what the nanny intimated? And her own growing suspicions? And what about that statement he made? Whatever anyone might think? Who, who was thinking that he’d had an affair with the dead Mrs. Davis?
She looked up at the house before turning and going back to the car. She needed to speak to Mrs. O’Rourke now more than ever but it looked like that was going to have to wait. Tomorrow, she’d go see the other woman at the gallery first thing in the morning.
She drove back down the lane, her mind in turmoil. She knew better than to let her emotions play a part in an investigation but she couldn’t help but be disappointed. Though it was still too soon to tell, if she were looking in from the outside she’d have to say that so far he was the only one that stood out.
She didn’t go back to the station but headed home to the little cottage she’d rented in the heart of town. She’d got the place for a song, at least a third of what she would’ve paid for the same kind of accommodations in the city.
The place was neat and out of the way with its little garden out back and the trees that shielded it from view of anyone driving by. She’d been lucky to find it or more to the point that the captain had found it for her just when she needed it.
The owners had moved away after spending their lives here. Gone to some retirement home in Florida where they were enjoying sun and surf. They’d left all the furniture and she hadn’t needed to change a thing, except the mattress since she was never one for home decor.
Though the place looked like something out of a nineteenth century inn, it did fit with the general ambience of Briar Reef so she saw no need to fiddle with it. Plus it had saved her from having to shell out thousands of dollars.
She used one of the spare bedrooms as an office and that’s where she headed now. She dropped her bag on the chair behind the desk and headed back out to the kitchen to find something to eat when her stomach growled a reminder that she hadn’t eaten since the few nibbles she’d taken of the stale tuna fish sandwich at lunch.
She put on the kettle to make herself a cup of tea as she foraged in the refrigerator for leftovers. She had some nice pasta from the only Italian restaurant for miles and a couple slices of cold cheese pizza. Neither of which interested her.
It was finally setting in that she had her first murder case in years, and the first on which she was the lead. She called to mind everything that she’d learned about handling a case like this, but there was one blaring difference. Briar Reef is astronomically different from New York.
She couldn’t see handling the local residents of the small town she now called home the same way she’d done with the denizens of one of the largest cities in the country. As much as she hated the idea, she knew she’d have to handle everyone with kid gloves.
She was astutely aware that this was also a first for many of them. And since the last murder had been a domestic situation, which had been very cut and dry and rather isolated, she knew that there would be fear amongst the residents here if she didn’t get a handle on things soon.
She settled for some toast and a cup of her favorite jasmine tea before heading back to her home office to get down to work. The way things were looking she was sure she’d be here for a while, that her days and nights will be long until she solved this thing.
As she poured over her notes, she realized that her mind kept coming back to Riley and their strange exchange. All the questions in her mind seemed to be centered around him, something she knew could become a problem if she let it.
She tapped her pen against the desk as she looked out the window at the darkening sky. Outside everything seemed still, a slight contrast to the morning and she wondered what the next day would bring.
She thought of Mr. Davis who was going to bed tonight without his beautiful wife beside him, and those three young children who were now left without a mother. And she thought of Sonya Davis and what had been done to her. This last thought brought her mind back in focus and she settled down to work.