Linwood Barclay - Never Saw It Coming

Since killing Garfield, she’d devoted all of her energy to covering her tracks. Going back for the earring, disposing of her clothes (a problem she hoped would soon be resolved), standing in the shower until the water ran cold, getting Kirk to clean her car. And after an initial panic about her business card, she’d come up with a creative solution involving Gail that she believed could withstand scrutiny.

But having made all these efforts to distance herself from the event, here she was, sitting in this car, heading back to the crime scene.

“I’ll just bet the police put Melissa in a room and browbeat her with questions and that was how they made her confess to something she never did,” Gail continued. “That’s what the police do. We think that kind of thing only happens in Russia or China or Latin American countries, but it happens right here in the good ol’ USA, don’t you kid yourself. The police just want to close cases. It doesn’t matter to them whether they’ve got the right person or not. And I don’t even know what happened to Ellie. If they’re charging Melissa, what is it exactly they think she did to her mother? And what does it have to do with Wendell. I’m telling you-”

“Please stop,” Keisha said.

“What?”

“I… I need to concentrate.”

“Of course, of course you do. I’m so sorry. Here we are anyway. I’ll go in and get your money.” Gail left the motor running as she got out of the car and went into the bank.

Take the car and run, Keisha thought. Or leave the car, but still run.

But where would she go? How far could she get? How long would it take for the police to find her? And if she wasn’t already a suspect, wouldn’t running change that? And how could she even think of leaving Matthew behind?

She’d never do that. Keisha was a lot of things-and she knew it-but she was not the kind of mother who’d abandon her child.

I could take him with me.

Sure, that was a plan. Go on the run with a kid. Keisha told herself to stop it. She was in this up to her eyeballs now, and she was going to have to see how things played out.

Gail returned in five minutes, clutching a plain white banking envelope, the kind used for deposits at the ATMs. She got in the car and handed the envelope to Keisha.

“There you go,” she said, doing up her seat belt. “Good thing I have my own account. Jerry would have an absolute heart attack if he knew I was doing this.”

“Thank you,” Keisha said, putting the envelope into her purse. She’d had to grab one of her other ones as she was leaving, and toss her wallet into it.

“You don’t want to count it?”

“I trust you,” Keisha said.

That made Gail Beaudry smile. She reached over and touched Keisha’s arm. “I trust you, too. I want to thank you for helping me.”

Keisha couldn’t look at her.

“Let’s go over to Wendell’s house now and see if any of the police there will tell us what’s going on. Maybe, as we get close, you’ll start picking up some signals or something,” Gail said.

They could see police cars as soon as Gail turned onto the street. Cruisers had been used to block off the street in both directions about a hundred feet each side of the house. Gail pulled the Jag over to the shoulder and said, “Watch your step. It looks slippery here.”

They came around the front of the car and approached the house together. As they started walking up the driveway, a female uniformed officer came down to meet them.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

Gail said, “I’m Mrs. Beaudry, and this is my associate. We’d like to speak to whoever’s in charge here. Is that you?”

“No, ma’am. What’s your interest here?”

“This is my brother’s house. Wendell Garfield. The man who was killed.”

The officer nodded. “If you’ll wait here, I’ll see what I can do.” Keisha watched her go into the house and close the door.

Don’t want to go in there.

Gail stood with her arms crossed. After a couple of minutes, she said, “This is what they do. They keep you waiting to wear you down. It’s all part of the game they play.”

Keisha thought that if anyone was playing a game, it was herself.

The officer came back out of the house and told them she had reached the detective in charge of the investigation, and she’d be coming by shortly.

“Would that be that black woman?” Gail asked. “Wedmore?”

“Yes.”

“Fine, but can we wait in the house, where it’s warmer?”

“I’m sorry, no, you can’t come in. Not without Detective Wedmore’s approval.”

“We’ll be in the car, then,” Gail said, and the two of them turned to start walking back to it. They were just about to open the doors when an unmarked car pulled up and Rona Wedmore got out.

She recognized the dead man’s sister from their meeting at the station. “Hello, Mrs. Beaudry.”

“I want some answers,” Gail said. “I want some answers right now.”

Wedmore cast an eye at Keisha, then looked back at Gail. “What would you like to know?”

“What happened to my brother?”

Wedmore’s gaze turned back to Keisha. “Who are you?”

“I’m Keisha Ceylon.”

The corners of the detective’s mouth turned up. “I was just talking to someone who knows you.”

“Excuse me?” Keisha said.

“Terry Archer,” Wedmore said, giving Keisha a knowing look. “You offered to help him and his wife a few years back.”

“I remember,” Keisha said. “If Mr. Archer says he knows me, that’s not true. We met twice, very briefly.”

“Fair enough. But you certainly made an impression.”

Don’t be evasive, Keisha thought. Don’t be defensive. Tackle this head on. “I’m sure. I offered to help him and his wife when they were having their troubles and they chose not to engage me. Mr. Archer, in particular, was very skeptical of my gifts. All I wanted to do was help them.”

Wedmore nodded. Before she could reply, Gail said, “I’ve engaged Ms. Ceylon to help me. Clearly you already know her, but if you’re thinking she’s here to help you, she’s not. She’s representing my interests. All you people care about is making sure someone gets charged, whether it’s the right person or not. Do you know who did this to my brother?”

“We’re in the early stages of the investigation,” Wedmore said patiently.

“Are you still holding Melissa?”

“We are.”

“That’s ridiculous. You have to release her. Imagine what she’s going through. Losing her mother, and then her father, all within a few days. And suggesting she confessed! What on earth would she confess to? And where is Ellie? What’s happened to her body? Are you telling me Melissa was able to make her mother’s body disappear?”

Tiredly, Wedmore said, “We can set up a meeting between you and Melissa. From what I can see, you’re the only family she has left. She waived her right to legal representation, but you should get her to rethink that, so she gets the best advice possible as this moves forward. There may be extenuating circumstances that might have an impact on sentencing. You might want-”

“Good heavens, what on earth did she tell you?”

Wedmore sighed. “Melissa stabbed her mother, called her father, and he helped her cover it up. They drove the car out onto a lake and waited for it to go through the ice.”

Wow, Keisha thought. Maybe I really can do this.

Gail was speechless, so Wedmore added, “What we’re trying to figure out now is what kind of connection there may be between Ellie’s death, and what happened to your brother.”

Gail managed to ask, “Is my brother’s body still in the house?”