Part 17 (1/2)
She shouldnt have added that last sentence. It implied that she had something to accuse him of. Which she didnt.
”Can I make a confession, Moonlight? I always thought you were the cutest, and definitely the most together, girl in school. I could never get up the nerve to tell you what I thought. Perhaps I should have, maybe things would have worked out differently.”
”All that is of no relevance,” she said. The night was sharply cold and her coat was unzipped, but suddenly she was boiling hot. Why on earth was Winters not stepping in to give her a hand? He might have turned to stone, for all the help he was.
”Is Lorraine at home?” she said.
”I am.” The girl poked her head through the V between her brothers arm and his body.
”Get back inside,” he said.
”They know Im here. Lets get it over with.” Lorraine pulled her head back.
Gary stepped to one side. ”Sorry Moonlight, cop guy, but Im not inviting you in. Come here, Lorraine. We can talk on the porch as well as any place else.”
”In full view of the neighbors?”
”Shocking, eh? Theyve probably never seen cops at this door before.”
Winters still didnt say anything. Smith cursed him and b.u.mbled on. ”Are your parents at home?”
”Strangely enough, no. My dear step-father has been called away on an important business matter to Vancouver, and Mamas visiting her sisters in, shall we say, Toronto.”
By which Smith a.s.sumed that Gary, fresh out of prison where hed no doubt learned a thing or two about intimidation, had kicked them out of home and out of town.
No loss to anyone. Least of all to the patrol officers of the Trafalgar City Police.
”Whats the matter?” Lorraine asked in her soft voice. She stood at her brothers side clutching a tattered pink robe around her skinny frame. The slippers on her feet had teddy-bear heads. They were clean and looked new. ”Im sorry about last night, Mol. I mean, Constable Smith. But those people...Jasons family, they made me so mad. Are you going to arrest me?”
”No, Lorraine. As I told Gary.” She glanced at the brother. All anger and aggression. And, Smith hoped, protection. ”Were here about Jason Wyatt-Yarmouth. You knew him?”
”We were engaged.” Lorraine pulled a well-used tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose.
”Im sorry,” Smith said. Why the h.e.l.l was she conducting this investigation? ”I need you to think back a bit, Lorraine. On Christmas Eve, I was in the police truck outside the convenience store and you were going into town. We talked for a few minutes. Remember?”
”Yeah.”
”Think back before that. Like around dinner time. Did you see Jason then?”
She s.h.i.+fted her feet. ”Yeah.”
”When?”
Lorraine took a quick peek toward her brother. Then she looked so directly at Smith that the officer knew the girl was about to lie, or at least to dissemble. ”Jason came here around six oclock, maybe six-thirty. I was the only one at home, so I invited him in for something to eat. I put a couple of frozen dinners in the microwave and we talked for a while and then we ate.” She sniffed. ”Im cold, Gary. Do we have to stand here on the porch?”
”Yes we do. These people are not welcome in our house. Not without a warrant.”
”Not a problem,” Winters said. ”Its a pleasant evening.” Somewhere down the street, a s...o...b..ower roared to life. At the bottom of the hill a car spun its wheels searching for traction.
”After you had dinner, Lorraine, did you notice what time Jason left?”
She looked everywhere but at the police. ”Sure. It was nine oclock. I went back inside and turned on the TV. The movie was starting. Right, Gary, the movie was on.”
”I wouldnt know, Lorraine, I wasnt here.”
”Oh, right.”
”Where were you, Mr. LeBlanc?” Winters asked.
”I slept on Donnie Bernards couch. You can check if you want. Id had a disagreement with my father in the afternoon and decided to spend the night elsewhere. I came by the next morning to check on Lorraine. Found that the parents had been drinking at a friends place and hadnt even made it home. They were in the drunk tank and Lorraine alone and in a bad way.”
”Was Jason driving?” Winters asked the girl.
”I dont know. I didnt look outside.”
”Do you know where he went when he left here?”
”Back to the B&B, I guessed. He said hed phone me later and I could come to their Christmas Eve party. Christmas Eve. Like I was part of a real family.”
Chapter Fifteen.
”Shes lying.”
Smith started up the van. ”You think so?”
”Yes, I do.” Like a real family. G.o.d, but that was sad. Lorraine had retreated into the house, in a flood of tears after mention of the aborted Christmas Eve party.
”Does it matter?”
”Does it matter that Lorraines lying to the police in a suspicious death investigation? Dont be stupid, Molly, of course it matters.”
Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel and he could hear her take a sharp intake of breath. ”I meant Jasons activities that night. He killed his friend, and was taking the body to dispose of it in the wilderness when he went off the road. Lots of wilderness around here. Im guessing he found Ewan with Lorraine and they got into a fight over her. Both men are dead. Case closed.”
”Nothing is obvious here, Molly. Does it matter? Yeah, it does. It matters to the law and it matters to me.” He sat in silence as she drove downhill in the direction of town. Hed left her to do most of the questioning of Lorraine because Smith had a rapport, no matter how tenuous it might be, with the girl. Whereas he, obviously, represented authority, Smith, in her handmade red gloves and spiky blond hair, at least knew Lorraine. The brother was another matter. He hadnt needed to say anything out loud to the effect that he liked Molly, it had been written all over his face as soon as he opened the door and saw her coming up the walk. Before the hard guy faade fell back into place.
Winters closed his eyes and thought about what Molly had said. Perhaps he should just write it up as a fight between friends that got out of hand. But suppose there was another reason Jason had been driving around with his friends dead body in the car. He had to know Ewan was dead. Jason was a medical student, for G.o.ds sake. Surely they learned on day one the difference between a dead person and a living one.
Had Jason killed Ewan and been trying to dispose of the body? Or had someone else killed him and Jason was trying to protect him, or her?
Or had Jason, knowing his friend was dead, been taking him to the hospital and gone the wrong way? Why would he do that? To avoid overloading the EMS on a busy night? That sort of consideration wouldnt fit with the impression Winters had gained of Jason Wyatt-Yarmouth.
Smith pulled into the back of the police station. He could tell by the set of her shoulders that she was smarting from his rebuke.
Only eight oclock and he was dead tired. Barney was a night person, and Eliza said theyd be having dinner around nine. Barney was actually a morning, afternoon, and night person. The woman didnt seem to have low gear. Shed pretty much taken over their computer room. She was on vacation, so she was only working half time-twelve hours a day instead of twenty-four.
Smith backed the van into its parking spot. Winters unfastened his seat belt.