Down the Drain, page 3
Deke licked his lips, looked at me, then back at Matthias. “I knocked on the door, and she didn’t answer. I tried a couple times. I was going to give up and go back to work, but I figured she’d blame me for standing her up. She’d always been skilled at that. I tried the door, and it was unlocked. I thought maybe she wasn’t here. Then why would she have texted me to meet her? And why wasn’t the door locked? It’s a rental house, so I guess she might not have cared. I should have left, but again, I thought she’d twist that on me. I just wanted to be done with it all. Then, I found her. In the tub. I thought she’d fallen asleep. But, she... Oh, God.”
I glanced over at Matthias as the ambulance approached. “Do you need more from him, or can he be seen? He’s fainted once, either from the shock or the heat.”
“I’ll have more questions, but I won’t hold him here.” He shifted his gaze to the house, then to me. “How well did you know this woman?”
“I didn’t. I met her Saturday night, but that’s it.”
“At his reunion? Why were you there?”
“He didn’t want to go on his own. I offered to be his date. We didn’t stay that long.”
“Why not?”
“I got tired of being accused of setting up a pillar of the community as a murderer. If that’s it...” I said, not bothering to finish as I helped Deke to his feet and over to the ambulance.
Chapter Four
“I brought snacks.”
I looked over as Cord came through the door. Sure enough, she had bags hanging from one arm and a container under the other. “This isn’t a book club meeting,” I told her. “You didn’t need to bring refreshments.” Considering if this was a meeting night, and they were coming to my house, I would have provided those refreshments.
“You didn’t say why we were coming over tonight.” She set the bags on the counter before bending to pet Zio. “Where’s everyone else? I ran into Quin out front, but I guess we’re the first ones here.”
“I didn’t invite anyone else.” I unpacked the bags she’d brought.
“Why not? What is going on, Lou?”
“Wait for Quin to get in here. He didn’t have Deke with him?”
“Nope,” Quin said as he stepped into my kitchen. “The doctors gave him a mild sedative. He’s still sleeping.”
“How is he?” I asked. “Sorry I couldn’t stay at the hospital. You were there, and I had jobs to get to.”
“They released him shortly after you left, diagnosed with dehydration. He’s supposed to take it easy for the next day. We’ll see how that goes.”
A soft laugh came from behind him. I looked up to see a person step into the room. They towered over Quin, and had their brown hair pulled back from their face, though it was barely more than a stub of a tail. Green eyes sparkled behind their glasses even as they stepped forward and slipped their hand around Quin’s.
I clamped my mouth shut. I liked Amery. They’d only been dating Quin for a few weeks, but they fit into our group seamlessly. They also worked for my brother-in-law. I worried anything said here would get back to him, and from him to my brother.
“I didn’t know you were coming,” I said, trying to appear nonchalant.
“They were over when I got your text,” Quin said. “What’s going on, Lou? Deke said little when I brought him home. Other than repeating, ‘I didn’t do it.’ I’ve never seen him so agitated. He’s usually the one calming me down. Shea better not have accused him of cheating or something. Deke isn’t like that. They were broken up anyway, so it shouldn’t matter.”
“That’s why I called you both here.” I glanced at Amery. I’d have to take the risk, I supposed.
“How come only us?” Cord asked. “Lucie and Jody are part of the group, too.”
“They haven’t known Deke as long as we have, and he’s going to need us.”
Quin’s eyes narrowed. “What is going on? He didn’t just pass out from the heat. Why were you there?”
Amery put a hand on Quin’s arm. “Relax. I think that’s what Lou’s trying to tell us. Give them a chance.”
Quin took a deep breath then nodded. “Right. I’m sorry. Carry on.”
I peeked at the stuff Cord brought. “Do you have any wine there? We’re going to need it.”
“What do you take me for?” Cord pulled a full bottle from one bag. “Of course I brought wine. And your beer.”
I preferred the beer, but I needed more than that right now. “Let’s take the wine into the living room. We can talk there.”
I was stalling, but I wasn’t sure how to go about telling them. I’d figure it out. If we were going to help Deke, we all needed to know as much as possible.
This felt like the only way to do that, at least until Deke could tell us himself. According to Quin, he wasn’t currently in any shape to do that.
It was up to us.
“Have you ever heard Deke mention someone by the name of Mayra?” I posed the question to Quin, since he’d known Deke the longest, but flicked my gaze to Cord. She shook her head, but Quin was coming up from the relaxed position he’d taken on the couch beside Amery.
“What’s that harpy want with him now?”
Amery arched a brow at Quin.
“I’m not just saying that. She’s a stone cold you-know-what. I don’t enjoy using that word, but it fits her. She made the summer between high school and college absolute misery for him. He was still reeling from the break-up when we met that fall. She’d broken up with him, then threw a fit about him kissing someone else. Which was all he’d been doing, but she acted like she had to get tested for everything under the sun. She wouldn’t have reacted that way if he’d been kissing a girl.”
“Yeah,” I said. “That matches what he told me Saturday night after we saw her at his reunion.”
“That’s why he was so quiet when he got home. And yesterday. He wouldn’t tell me what was wrong. He rarely gets like that.”
Amery didn’t seem upset by how well Quin knew Deke. I liked them more for that, knowing a partner’s jealousy had been a problem for both Quin and Deke. Still, if they told Eli that we were here talking about this case, he’d tell Ross. Then, my brother would be all up in my business.
“I’m not sure why you keep looking at me like that, Lou. If you want me to go, I will.”
Quin took Amery’s hand. “No, please don’t. It’s okay. Right, Lou.”
Might as well put it out there. We may need Eli’s help before this was over. “Yeah, but if my brother comes after me, telling me to keep my nose out of things, I’ll know how he found out.”
“Oh.” Quin flopped onto the couch again. “She’s dead.”
Amery jerked their head toward him. “Why would you say that?”
“Lou thinks you’ll tell Eli they’re investigating another murder. He’ll tell his husband, who will go into protective mode because he doesn’t want to visit his sibling in the hospital again. I’m not only good with computers, Am.”
“I’ve figured this out about you. How do you know this person is dead?”
I dove right in. “Deke found her body this afternoon. He went to the house she was renting here, found her, and called me. I didn’t realize that until I got there. I called Matthias, Deke passed out, I only know what Deke told Matt when he came to. Matt was pretty gentle with his questioning.” Nothing like he’d been with me the first time he’d interrogated me.
“It’s Matt now?” Cord wiggled her eyebrows at me.
“Shut up.” I tossed a pillow at her. “I was trying to speed things up. Anyway, he asked a couple questions then let Deke go to the hospital. That’s all I know.”
“They don’t think he killed her?” Quin asked, his face pale.
“I don’t even know how she died. Deke said something about her being in the tub, but he rambled a lot, so I don’t know what happened exactly.”
“This is a mess,” Quin said. “He didn’t do it. Deke doesn’t have a vicious bone in his body. You know he doesn’t.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll make sure Matthias knows that, too. I told Deke to call Eli if they ask more than just what he saw when he got there.”
“You don’t want him to make the same mistakes you did?” Cord asked.
I would have thrown another pillow, but I didn’t have one close to hand. I stuck my tongue out and crossed my eyes, making Cord laugh.
“I don’t know how much I can tell you.” Quin brought my attention from Cord’s teasing and back to the problem at hand. “She emailed him from time to time. Those emails put him in a mood. I’m not used to him getting quiet, but it would pass after a couple days. I didn’t read the emails, he said she couldn’t get it through her head that he’d never lied to her, he just hadn’t figured things out about himself yet. She wouldn’t let that go.”
Quin drew in a breath. “After he got the invitation for the reunion, he seemed agitated more often. Then he met Shea and things seemed to calm down. I don’t know if she was bothering him more as the reunion got closer or what. It could have just been the thought of seeing those people. He didn’t have friends he stayed in contact with from high school.”
Quin gave a small shake of his head. “I told him he should blow the reunion off if he didn’t want to go, but his parents were hounding him, since he skipped the last one.”
“That fits what I observed Saturday night,” I said. Except the parental thing. I didn’t know Deke’s parents, so I’d have to take Quin’s word. “He talked with pretty much everyone, but he didn’t join any of the groups. I don’t think it was just because I was with him. I met this Mayra, and I’ll say I wasn’t impressed. She was nasty to him, in that quiet, cutting way.”
“What are we going to do?” Quin asked. “We know Deke didn’t kill her.”
“We don’t know anyone killed her,” Cord said. “Maybe she just died. I’ll talk to my uncle, see if and when he’s doing an autopsy. We can go from there. No matter what, we stand with him.”
We all nodded. It would have to be a good enough temporary plan.
As long as Matthias was on the case, I could trust him to find the right killer.
Chapter Five
“Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll be there.”
“Are you sure? This is important.”
I leaned against my truck. Then, I jumped away as the heat seared the back of my arm. So, that had been a mistake. “I said I’ll be there. Please tell me you’re not trying to set me up again. I don’t need to meet anyone now. Things are a little—”
“No,” Dad said. “No, it’s not like that. Just please try to make it.”
Dad rarely insisted we attend any of the at least bi-weekly family dinners. He always cooked more than enough food, even when it was only him and Mom eating. He’d still send leftovers to us. The fact he was insistent meant something was up. “I’ll be there,” I assured him. “Now, I need to get to work. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
“I guess your father has given up on me.”
I turned as I ended the call and faced Matthias. I hadn’t heard him walk up, but I also hadn’t been aware I needed to watch my back at the moment. “You do not know my father very well. He does not give up, on anyone or anything.” Something hit me. “I didn’t tell him, if that’s what you’re worried about. It isn’t anyone’s business, so it won’t get back to anybody, not from me.”
Was that a slight smile on his face? Nah, couldn’t be. “That hadn’t even entered my thoughts. I was looking for you.”
My heart rate picked up. We hadn’t done anything about Mayra’s death over the last couple days. We were hoping, as terrible as that sounded, Cord’s uncle, the county coroner, would rule it a suicide. Deke would be off the hook then. We wouldn’t have to worry.
“Yes, we got together and discussed the case,” I said quickly to head him off, “but we aren’t doing anything. Talking to each other isn’t obstruction, I’m sure.”
“That’s not what this is about,” Matthias said. “But, no, I wouldn’t haul you in for talking to your friends about the case.”
“Then, what’s the problem?”
“I never said there was a problem.”
“You wouldn’t have searched me out if that was the case. Please don’t tell me you have officers going to arrest Deke right now. You know he didn’t do anything.”
He flinched. Nails and bolts and screws all tossed around in my stomach. “No. You know he didn’t. You can’t arrest him.”
“I won’t be arresting him. At the moment, nobody is, but you’ll want to be prepared. The evidence started pointing that way before the captain pulled me from the case.”
A long moment passed before I asked, “What do you mean you were taken off the case?”
Matthias pinched the bridge of his nose. He seemed uncomfortable, though I didn’t understand why. What had I done?
“There’s really only one way to mean that,” he said. “Officer Lato, my new partner, told the captain I seemed to have a prior relationship with somebody involved with the case. She worried the victim’s family, who have connections to her own superiors, would use that fact against the department and removed me for having a conflict of interest.”
I kept staring. “What prior relationship?”
He closed his eyes. “You, Lou. He told the captain I flirted with you at the scene.”
I stared some more. This time with my mouth hanging open. “You weren’t.”
“That’s how Callum saw it, and what he reported. I’m working some minor cases, and she gave this case to another officer. If they need help, they might pull me in, but I’ll only be on the periphery.”
“Well,” I said as I processed what this would mean, “as long as they didn’t give it to Mudbrain.”
He grimaced. Before I had a chance to respond, he held his hands up and said, his voice flat, “Officer Brian Morein has the most experience, aside from me, in investigating homicides. He was the best person to put on the case.”
“Did you have to practice in a mirror before you could say those words with a straight face?”
Matthias snorted and rolled his eyes before he slid his sunglasses back on. “He was ordered to go through sensitivity and diversity training after the Olver case,” he said. “Maybe he learned from them and will handle this with the care it deserves.”
I’d dealt with the Morein brothers enough over my lifetime to be sure that was not the way things would happen.
I would definitely have to do something about this.
“Blood loss,” Cordelia said, striding into my kitchen.
“Do you often introduce yourself with a potential cause of death?” Jody asked as ze placed crackers around a plate. We’d been silent, Jody at the table and me trying to process what Matthias had told me, that I’d almost forgotten Jody was there. Ze had zir blond hair scraped back, but the streaks of green were still visible. Ze definitely didn’t look like any librarian I’d known before. Which made zir perfect for it, as far as I was concerned.
Cord looked startled then chagrined. “Hello, Jody. Didn’t know you were here.”
“Got here early and am paying the consequences.”
“Oh, stop,” I told zir even as I laughed. “You asked what you could do to help.”
Jody grinned, then turned to Cord. “Defenestration. This game could be fun, though I’ll need to reeducate myself on all the ways somebody could die.”
Cord shook her head. “You don’t need to worry about doing that.” She pivoted back to me. “Uncle Bobby conducted Mayra Starnes’ autopsy earlier today. He ruled the preliminary cause of death as extreme blood loss. The two deep cuts from the wrist to the middle of her forearm being the source.”
“Suicide?” Jody’s face paled. “Who was this? I don’t recognize the name. Not a library patron, I’m guessing.”
“She didn’t even live here,” Cord told zir, “though she used to. Lived on the snobby side of town and went to a pretentious charter school, just outside town. She was here for the class reunion. There was talk about a book she was writing. Small Town Secrets or something like that.”
“Is that why she was still here?” I asked. “I thought she just wanted to keep harassing Deke.”
“Who is harassing that sweet boy?” Jody looked between us. “What does it have to do with you two?” Ze groaned. “Don’t tell me you’re trying to get yourself killed again, Lou.”
“I’m not doing anything of the kind,” I said. “I haven’t even asked anyone questions.” Yet. I was waiting to learn how she’d died, and if someone helped her to that destination. “Was it?” I asked. “Suicide?”
“Considering the knife severed tendons and nerves in her right wrist, Uncle Bobby said it would be difficult, if not impossible, for her to make that second cut. And they were nearly identical. Not likely unless she was ambidextrous.”
“Someone did kill her.” I should have figured that from Matthias’s news earlier that day. I’d have to figure out a way to tell them and what it meant for us.
“Looks that way.”
Jody glanced between us, then put zir head back and let out a deep sigh. “Guess I’ll need to brush up on my forensic knowledge.”
I arched an eyebrow at zir. “Why’s that?”
“If we leave you two to investigating, you’ll probably get yourselves killed finding the killer. I have few enough friends around here without losing two to their own stubborn pride.”
Cord barked out a laugh. “Glad you have such faith in us.”
“I may not have known you two long, but I’m quick on the uptake. What does this have to do with Deke? How’d the victim know him?”
I looked from Jody to Cord and back. I had planned to keep everyone else out of this. They didn’t know Deke as well as the rest of us. Jody was right, though. Deke was zir friend as well. If ze could help, I’d let zir.
“We should bring the entire group in,” Cord said. “Maybe that was the mistake we made last time, doing it all ourselves.”
“Eli’s not planning on being here tonight. He had a late meeting with a client or something. We’ll be able to talk openly.”
