“You are under suspicion,” he said as if answering my silent question. “You are a person of interest.”
Chapter 19
Icouldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe. Okay, that’s a lie. I could think and I could breathe and I could actually make my way from the police station out the door. It felt as if a fog had surrounded my head, swirling and gyrating around my brain.
Sluggs hadn’t said another word, so I left, taking his silence as my cue to go.
When had this happened? How had I gone from a person who had helped the police to their primary suspect? I’d given them my statement, and no one, at the time, had seemed to suggest that I would be looked at any differently.
I found the nearest bench and collapsed on top of it. How could I have been so stupid? I tell the police that I saw the murder. What did I believe that they would think? I really was psychic?
Oh, what a mess. And the fact that they thought that I had coerced Rufus into it was even worse.
Rufus.I had to call and let him know what was going on, that the police thought he was basically an accessory to murder.
My fingers trembled as I pulled my phone from my pocket and thumbed it to life. I dialed his number and got voice mail.
I shoved the phone back into my pocket and raked my fingers down my face.Okay, concentrate, Clem. What do you need to do?
I needed to find out who had killed Crystal. This wasn’t just about the fact that a killer was on the loose anymore. This was about the fact that I could wind up behind bars because of that killer.
At this point the killer may know that I had a premonition. Boy, had that been stupid of me, or what. They would have heard everyone in town talking about the fact that I knew that Crystal had been murdered.
Was this something that I could use to my advantage?
Think, Clem.There had to be a way out of this, had to be a way to mitigate the damage that I had already done to my own reputation, unfortunately.
The police wouldn’t help me. I knew that. But what were my other options?
My phone rang. I nearly jumped out of my skin as I struggled to get my fingers into my pocket and slide it out.
Expecting it to be Rufus, I didn’t even look at the name. I simply swiped it to life.
“Hello?”
“Clem.”
Malene.
“Yes?”
“What’s wrong?”
I shook my head. “Well, the police think that I killed Crystal. So my day’s pretty much gone to crap.”
“You?” she said, sounding surprised. “They think that you did it, out of all the folks who hated that hussy?”
“That’s the way Tuney Sluggs put it.”
“Hmph. Let me come down there and give him what for.”
“I don’t think that’ll help. I was just trying to come up with a way to get myself out of it.” Idea time! “Maybe you can help me. Can you call an emergency meeting of your quilting bee ladies?”
“Is a pig pink?”
“Actually I believe they’re more flesh-colored,” I replied.
“I believe the answer is yes,” she snipped.
