Page 34 of Not a Word

“Do you know a Brent Chartwell?”

He nodded. “Oh yeah. He’s the rich asshole she was seeing when she broke up with me. Married guy.”

“You must have been upset.”

“I thought we had a good thing going for a while there. Ups and downs and shit, but it was okay. But you could never make her happy so it’s just as well it’s over. You have to move on, right?”

“Leah ever talk about how she got along with him?”

“Far as I know she’s still seeing him.”

“Who’s Tom?”

“Tom?”

“She has a photo album full of pictures of someone named Tom.”

“I have no— What’s this about, anyway?”

“Leah’s dead.”

His shock appeared genuine. “Dead?”

McCabe nodded.

Stanhope’s entire frame seemed to sag. “Oh shit, that’s awful. Are you serious? She’s really dead?”

“She is.”

“What happened?” His face sagged and his eyes were starting to mist.

“She was shot.”

His mouth opened.

“Oh man. Oh Jesus.”

He lost it, put his hands over his eyes. His large frame seemed to shrink as he bent over in despair. “Oh man,” he said again. When Stanhope took his hands away McCabe saw genuine tears.

“Shit shit shit,” he muttered. “I really loved her.” He lifted his head, fixed his eyes on McCabe through his tears, and asked, “Who did it? Who shot her?”

“Our investigation is continuing,” she said gently. “Did you keep in touch at all? Did you know what her relationship with Mr. Chartwell was like?”

“It was him?” he said. “He did it?”

“That would surprise you?”

He thought a moment, shook his head. “I mean, he doesn’t seem like he’d have it in him. You arrested him? He confessed?”

“No,” McCabe said. “Mr. Chartwell is also deceased.”

Stanhope blinked the tears out of his eyes, as though trying to see McCabe better. “What? Someone shot the both of them?”

“At this time, it doesn’t appear anyone else is involved.”

She let that sink in. Watched Stanhope put the pieces together. He slumped against the truck, using it to prop himself up. “Oh man,” he said quietly.

McCabe asked whether Leah had any nearby next of kin. Stanhope said her parents had both passed, that as far as he knew, she had nobody. He took some persuading, but McCabe got him to agree to come to the morgue within the day to make a positive identification of the body. And she’d still see if she could track down an actual relative to do the same.