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“You did that yourself,” she volleyed back.
“It wasn’t her murder that ruined my life. Heck, I hate to think what that poor dear suffered, but I had nothing to do with it. Katherine didn’t let up though. She put me through endless hours of questioning even after my alibis checked out.”
Amanda wasn’t going to delve into it, as she recalled Trent saying that not every case was for her to solve. Otherwise she might point out that alibis were subject to manipulation. And if Katherine still considered Thad a suspect, Amanda put faith in the fact she had her reasons.
“Well, as I said, Mr.Coffey, we’re not here about Julie Gilbert,” Trent said. “But we do have questions for you about a recent investigation.”
The man’s shoulders relaxed some. “Very well, but let’s go in here to talk. My knees act up if I stand around too long.” He took them to the living room off the entry.
She would guess he hadn’t seen Fraser Reyes’s article or Chief Buchanan’s press release, or he’d be more on guard about discussing Katherine. Amanda stepped forward at the same time as Trent, and they found themselves squeezed together in the doorway.
“Oh, you have to kiss.” Noreen was back from the kitchen and wiping her hands on her apron. She jabbed her gaze above their foreheads.
A sprig of mistletoe.
You’ve got to be shitting me! Amanda smiled at Noreen. “We’re work partners, and that would be inappropriate.” As she spoke, she made brief eye contact with Trent. In that moment, she wasn’t sure how to read him. She’d guess he was going to comply, but he looked away.
“We’re here on business, ma’am.” Trent walked into the room.
Thad was in a recliner, and Amanda and Trent parked on opposite ends of a couch.
Noreen stepped into the room and perched on the arm of her husband’s chair. “What is this about?”
“Katherine Graves was abducted at gunpoint Monday morning. You might have heard this on the news?” Trent waded right in.
“We try to avoid the news,” Thad said. “Ever since, well, I made headlines.”
Thad rolled past the main soundbite and responded only to the question. Amanda said, “Katherine Graves is still missing. What do you know about this?”
“Me? Nothing. But that woman is relentless. She’s convinced that I killed Julie. But I did not.” He reached for his wife’s hand and squeezed it, running his thumb over the back of it. “She’s part of the reason we left New York. Go figure my luck winding up in the same town as her.”
“You didn’t know she lived here when you moved?” Amanda found it hard to believe though he did say he avoided the news. All this was contingent on his word being trustworthy.
“Not until we got here,” Thad said. “Noreen came across archived news at the library where she works part-time. She saw Katherine worked as a police sergeant.”
“Have you had any contact with Ms.Graves since you moved to town?” Amanda asked.
“I saw her a couple of weeks ago at the grocery store,” Thad told them.
According to Katherine’s note that was true. “And that’s all? You saw her and walked away?”
“That woman…” Thad seethed.
“That woman, what, Mr.Coffey?” Amanda pressed.
“She never left well enough alone. I thought for sure when I saw her she was going to come after me and pick up her harassment.” He flailed the hand that wasn’t holding on to his wife’s, and his cheeks flushed bright red.
Amanda chose to withhold that Katherine knew Thad Coffey had moved to Woodbridge long before they bumped into each other at the grocery store. Though her not confronting him could suggest she had relinquished her suspicions about him. How did that reconcile with her notes? Maybe she was searching for more to use against him before coming at him again.
A timer chimed from deep within the house, and Noreen attended to it.
“Were you angry when you saw her?” Trent asked.
“You bet I was. Everything came flooding back. Even though my alibi cleared me, she was having none of it. Told me I was a liar so often that I lost count. She certainly made no bones about coming out and accusing me to my face of hurting that poor girl.”
The man’s anger wasn’t far beneath the surface, and if he was innocent of such atrocities, he’d be justifiably insulted and defensive. But how far would he go to quiet Katherine’s allegations? Was he willing to hire someone to get rid of her or do with her as they saw fit?
FIFTY-FOUR
