“And then he was murdered and you put the blame on him,” I said, unable to keep the anger out of my voice.
“Henry was my oldest and dearest friend.But I had to protect myself and the foundation.”The words came slower.More stilted.
I watched his eyelids droop and recover and droop again and thought about Josephine, waiting all those years for someone to listen and believe that Henry didn’t kill himself.
“James,” Dash said.“Did you kill Henry?”
James raised his head just enough to look Dash in the eyes.And then he drew a ragged breath.
“No,” he said.
I wasn’t able to keep my face neutral anymore.
“Someone killed Henry,” Dash said.“It was murder.And the most likely person is you based on the evidence against you.Are you sure you don’t want to change your story?”
“I’ve got nothing…” He took another labored breath and I was starting to worry at the pallor of his skin.“Nothing to lose.
“I didn’t kill him,” he said.“You should ask Jackie.”
And then he collapsed out of his chair and to the floor.
“Mabel.”Dash was already on the ground next to him.“Call it in.Now.”
I called 911 and talked to the dispatcher while Dash gave him CPR.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
Dash calledfrom the hospital parking lot.
I was in the back room of the shop, sitting on the little wooden stool with a cold cup of tea I hadn’t touched, still wearing the yellow dress that had felt like such a good idea this morning.Through the door, I could hear the shop going on without me—the register, somebody laughing at something, the familiar hiss of the espresso machine that didn’t know or care that a man had just died in his own kitchen while the rain came down outside his river windows.
“He’s gone,” Dash said.
I’d known.I’d known before the ambulance made it down the block that he wasn’t going to make it.Hearing it out loud was something different though.It settled into my chest and stayed there.
Dash’s voice was tired in a way that had nothing to do with the hour.“There was nothing to be done for him.He’d taken a bunch of prescription pills right before we’d gotten there and chased it with the whiskey.He’d planned to go out his own way.”
“We still don’t know who killed Henry,” I said.“Unless James was lying.”
“I don’t think he was,” Dash said.“He had nothing to lose with a confession.But he did tell us where to go next.Let’s see how Jackie responds to the police showing up at her door.’
“Do you want me to go with you?”I asked, not sure I really wanted to.
“Yeah, you’ve already established a relationship with her,” he said.“A familiar face puts people at ease.”
“I thought you didn’t want her at ease.”
I could almost hear his smile through the line.“And now you’ve learned about good cop, bad cop.I’m leaving the hospital now.I’ll be by to get you in about forty-five minutes.Maybe an hour if the weather has messed up traffic.”
“Put your sirens on,” I said.
I put the phone down and sat there another minute.Then I got up, smoothed my dress, and went back to work, because there wasn’t anything else to do with forty-five minutes and an uncomfortable feeling in my chest.
The rain was still coming down when Dash pulled up to the back of the shop.He’d changed out of his uniform shirt into a dry one somewhere between the hospital and here, and I knew he always kept extra clothes in his unit.He’d told me the chances of getting some kind of fluid on a uniform at any given point of the day were high for cops.I knew this to be true.My interaction with law enforcement was still fairly limited, and I’d witnessed a deputy have the whole back end of a burrito explode down his shirt.Added to Galloway’s run-in with the septic tank, bringing extra clothes to work seemed like a good idea.
I handed him a fresh cup of coffee in a to-go cup as soon as I climbed into the passenger seat, and put my own in the cup holder while I buckled up.
“You’re drinking coffee?”he asked, eyeing my cup.
