Part 21 (1/2)
”You had a choice,” Ambrose said. ”You were just too.. .pigheaded to take it. And today you almost died because of it.”
”Hey, that's not-”
”Tell him about the papers,” Meghan interrupted.
”Papers?” he asked, giving me the evil eye.
”Oh, that's not important. I'm sure-”
”Tell him.”
Meghan still had her back up from her encounter with Grace, and she wasn't too happy that someone had tried to kill me earlier. Fighting her now would be a lost cause.
”We took some papers from Walter's when we were cleaning out his house for his mother. We brought them over here. I thought I could get a handle on his financial situation from them. And I wanted to know why he committed suicide. Then later I thought there might be something that would help figure out who killed him.”
He sighed. ”Knowing full well you were withholding evidence from us.”
”No! Well, not at first. Maybe later I sort of knew you'd want to see them. I planned to bring them to the station today.”
His look said it all.
”I did! And you know, if I hadn't moved those three boxes of papers over here, they would have burned in the fire anyway.”
”Three boxes? So why didn't you bring them to the PD today?”
”Well, for one, someone tried to kill me this afternoon.”
He looked a little sheepish until I went on in a much smaller voice. ”And besides, they're gone now. When the thief took our jewelry yesterday, he took the boxes, too.”
” Thiefl” he said, his voice raising. ”What G.o.dd.a.m.n thief?”
TWENTY-SIX.
”OFFICER DANSON HASN'T HAD a chance to fill you in,” Meghan said, a little too magnanimously in my opinion, and fleshed out the details of the burglary.
”Let me get this straight. You removed paperwork from a possible murder victim's house, which then burnt to the ground, but you didn't see fit to share it with the police. What were you thinking?”
”That you treated me like c.r.a.p,” I snapped. He looked bewildered. ”Calling me down to your office, calling me a suspect. And besides,” I finished lamely, ”I knew you'd yell at me.”
”Yell at you! Yell at you?” He took a deep breath. And another. With careful calm he said, ”Is there anything else you've been doing on your own that I need to know about?”
”No.”
He looked at Meghan. She smiled and shook her head. Darn those two, anyway. I'd had just about enough of their simpatico.
Ambrose drank some coffee, holding the mug in front of his face with both hands. I could almost hear him thinking. After several swallows, he put it down and said, ”Did you find anything in the papers?”
”Walter took blood pressure medication. He went to the Evergreen State Fair this year. And he gave a ton of money away to children's charities.”
He sighed. ”Great”
We sat in silence for a few moments.
”Does anyone want more coffee?” I asked.
Ambrose ignored me. ”Do you have someplace where you can go stay for a while?”
”Me? I can't leave. I have a business to run,” I said.
He thought a moment. ”You've p.i.s.sed somebody off, and I don't know who. Or how. The department doesn't have enough manpower to a.s.sign someone to watch this house. I can ask the patrol cars to come by more often if you insist on staying, but that's all I can do.”
”It'll have to be enough,” I said.
”Are you staying, too?” Ambrose asked Meghan. She hesitated, then nodded.
”Well, it wouldn't hurt to move your daughter someplace else for a few days. If nothing else, it'll mess up any plans your ex-husband might have.”
”We have friends she can stay with.”
”Good. And I want you to call me immediately if anything happens. Immediately. These are my cell and home numbers if you can't reach me at work.”
”Okay.” I took the numbers. ”Thanks. I'll get Deborah Silverman's phone number.”
Meghan said good night to Ambrose and went upstairs, no doubt to talk to Erin about the scene with her father and grandmother. I gimped up behind her, fished the sc.r.a.p of newspaper out of the slacks lying on my bedroom floor, and copied the number onto a fresh sheet of notebook paper. Then I made my geriatric way back down the stairs and handed it to him.
”See me out?” he asked, tucking it inside his notebook.
I followed him to the front door. He opened it and turned back to me. ”I'll share whatever I can with you, just please stop asking questions. Will you do that?”
”I'll try.”
He sighed. ”You've already been hurt. Please, Sophie Mae. Be careful.” Then he hesitated, opened his mouth, and then closed it again. He turned and walked outside without another word.