Miranda James - Murder Past Due

“About what?”

Diesel walked over to Justin and rubbed against his legs.

“What if I found something in the hotel room?” Justin asked. “Something that could get somebody in trouble?”

ELEVEN

“In the hotel room, you mean?” I examined Justin’s face. He was clearly worried.

Justin nodded.

“You should tell the deputies, like we discussed earlier.” My tone was firm. “It’s best to be truthful. What you found could help them solve the case.”

“I’m afraid to.” Justin looked miserable. “And you’re the only person I can talk to about it.”

“What did you find?” I asked. Who was he afraid of incriminating? I had an uneasy feeling I knew.

Justin stuck a hand into his pocket and withdrew something. He held his palm out to me, and lying across it was a gold pen.

“It’s my dad’s.”

“Your dad’s? You mean Ezra’s.” I was so shocked by what Justin had, I didn’t know quite how to respond.

“Yes, sir,” Justin said. “I gave it to him for his birthday last year. I had it engraved.” He held the pen closer, pointing to the letters on the shaft with his free hand.

I suddenly recalled Justin’s question when we were sitting in the hotel restaurant. He’d asked me if I thought Ezra had killed Godfrey.

Now I knew why. The evidence lay in Justin’s hand.

But how could Ezra have left the hospital and made it over to the hotel without anyone knowing he was gone? Julia said she had been with him all day, and surely the hospital staff would have noticed if he had been gone for very long.

“What should I do?” Justin asked as we both stared at the pen.

“You have to show it to the deputies,” I said.

“I can’t,” Justin said. “Even after what he did to me.”

I stared at the pen in his hand, torn. Justin’s fingerprints were all over the pen now, and had probably obliterated any others. Deputy Berry already knew he was in the room.

I made a snap decision—with my heart, not my head. I wasn’t keen on suppressing evidence, but until I knew how that pen ended up in Godfrey’s room, I was going to continue to protect Justin—and whichever of his parents left that pen behind.

“Put it back in your pocket, and don’t say anything about it to them yet. Let’s see how things go with their questions.”

Obviously relieved, Justin nodded. He shoved the pen back into his pocket. “Guess I’d better go downstairs.”

“Yes.” I strode to the door and held it open. “Come on, boys.”

Diesel scampered out, and Justin and I followed. The cat had already disappeared by the time Justin and I reached the stairs.

Back in the kitchen we found Deputy Bates regarding Diesel with awe. “That’s really a cat?”

“Yes,” I said. “He’s a Maine coon, and they get to be as big as thirty or thirty-five pounds.”

“Dang, he’s bigger’n my dog.” Bates shook his head.

Kanesha frowned at her subordinate while I exchanged an amused glance with Julia. If nothing else, Bates’s reaction to Diesel had relieved some of the tension.

“Deputy Berry, this is my son, Justin Wardlaw.” Julia stepped forward, stretching an arm around the boy’s waist and pulling him close.

Kanesha introduced herself and Bates to Justin, then motioned for him to have a seat. “I’d like to speak to Justin alone,” Kanesha said.

“No.” Julia shook her head. “No, I need to be with him.”

Kanesha frowned. “How old are you, Justin?”

“Eighteen,” he said.

Kanesha nodded. “In that case, Mrs. Wardlaw, I have to insist I talk to Justin without you. Justin is an adult.”

Julia bridled at that. She looked like a lioness about to attack. “That’s ridiculous. If you’re not going to let me stay with him, then I don’t think he should talk to you.”

Kanesha opened her mouth, but I spoke first.

“Julia, Deputy Berry is right. Justin is an adult now, and I think it’s best to let her talk to him now. Otherwise, I imagine he might end up doing it down at the sheriff’s department. Wouldn’t you rather avoid that?”

Kanesha shot me a severe look. She wasn’t happy with my interference, but I thought I’d better do something before Julia got really riled up.

“Very well. You’re right. I don’t want that.” Julia let go of Justin after a moment. “I’ll be close by if you need me.” She smiled at her son.

Justin nodded. He might be eighteen, and therefore an adult in the eyes of the law, but when I looked at him, I saw a tired, frightened boy. I hoped Kanesha would handle him gently. He’d had a very difficult day.

I offered Julia my arm and escorted her across the front hall into the living room. She sank into an armchair and covered her face with her hands.

At the moment I wasn’t sure how to comfort her, other than by patting her shoulder a few times.

I pulled a chair close to hers and sat down. “Julia, it’s going to be okay.” I hoped I sounded convincing.

Julia let her hands fall to her lap. Her face was wet with tears. “Oh Lord, what are we going to do?”

“They won’t arrest Justin,” I said, to myself adding, at least not tonight, I hope .

“Please, Lord, no,” Julia said, her voice soft. She leaned back in the chair, looking suddenly older than her fifty years. “Ezra will be so upset when he finds out about all this.”

“He’ll have to know,” I said, and Julia nodded. “And while we’re talking about Ezra, I have a question.”

Julia regarded me warily.

“You were with him at the hospital all day? Until you left to get Justin from the hotel?” I watched her carefully.

Her gaze dropped away for a moment. “Yes, I was.”

“Then there was no way Ezra could have left the hospital?”

Startled, Julia sat upright. “Of course not. Whatever made you ask something like that?” She frowned. “Ezra did not kill Godfrey. You can get that notion out of your head right this minute.”

Julia was getting angry with me again, but I wasn’t going to back down.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll get it out of my head for a moment. But let me ask you another question.” I hated doing this, but Julia was obviously—at least to me—lying about her time at the hospital.

“Well, go ahead.” Julia glared at me.

“If I asked Ezra whether you were with him all day at the hospital, what would he say?”

Julia’s eyes narrowed. “What is that supposed to mean? Of course Ezra would say I was with him.”

“Then one of you would be lying.” I said it as gently as I could. “It’s no use. I know one of you was in Godfrey’s room today.” I paused for a moment to let the words sink in.

Julia paled, and I knew I was right. I felt no satisfaction from it.

“How?”

“Justin found something belonging to Ezra in the room,” I said. “When he went back and found Godfrey dead.”

“Oh dear.” The fight seemed to have gone out of her—for the moment. “Is Justin going to give it, whatever it is, to the deputies?”

“No, I told him not to, for now,” I said. “He’s very worried about it, but I wanted to find out who left it there. You haven’t told him yet that you went there, have you?”

“No, I haven’t.” Julia shook her head. “I see now I should have told him.”

“You have to tell me the truth too, if I’m going to be any use to Justin,” I said.

“I will.” Julia’s tone was firm.

“The question is,” I said, “well, two questions, actually. First, which one of you went to the hotel? And second, when?”

She leaned back in the chair again. “It was me. Ezra never left the hospital. What did I leave there?”

“Ezra’s pen, one Justin gave him.”