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CHAPTER11
* * *
Detective Sparks hung up the phone a little harder than was necessary. Officer Bailey looked up from his desk where he was busy going over the evidence they’d collected so far on the case. “The mayor again?”
“It seems Mr. Davis put in a call to his good friend the mayor to get him to ask us to back off.” She threw down the pen she’d been twirling around in her fingers. The phone rang on her desk and she picked it up.
“Sparks!”
“Detective!” It was the medical examiner who handled autopsies for the three surrounding towns. “Your victim was three months pregnant.” The news made her sit back in her chair with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Two victims and another cog in the wheel!
“Is there any way to tell who the father was?”
“Sure, we can run that test but we’ll need the father’s DNA to match it to.” Her first thought was that if the man didn’t want them going through his wife’s things he damn sure wasn’t about to give them any blood to test.
“I’ll see what I can do.” After she hung up she thought about all the avenues she had open to her. If push comes to shove she could always get a subpoena to make him cooperate, but she was hoping it didn’t come to that.
On the other hand, if the kid wasn’t his…
“Our victim was three months pregnant.” She informed officer Bailey who whistled low and long because he understood that the case had just taken a turn for the worst.
“Maybe this is a good thing. If we can find the father maybe that will get us closer to the killer.” She listened to him go over all the pros and cons of this new development as she turned things over in her own head.
“I guess we need to start looking at the men in town and maybe the next town over as well. There haven’t been any strangers around that I know of.” He didn’t even stop to think that it might be her husband’s child, not the way things were looking.
“Yeah!” If she were having an affair with a married man he wouldn’t want her having a child. Her mind went straight away to Riley O’Rourke. She couldn’t shake the feeling that he was involved, as much as she hated the idea.
Her thoughts were making her crazy and since she had no real way of knowing at this point if her suspicions were true, she couldn’t stand just sitting here twiddling her thumbs while a killer walked around freely.
“Let’s go see those old ladies who bought the acid shall we. I need to take a step back from this thing, maybe then I’d be able to see more clearly.”
“Aren’t you going to tell Mr. Davis that his wife was pregnant?”
“I’ll get back to him after he’s had a chance to cool down.” As much as she wanted answers, she couldn’t forget that the man had just lost his wife. Though if she really was pregnant by another man and he’d found out he could be the one responsible.
On the other hand if the kid was his, wouldn’t he have mentioned it? What if Sonya didn’t know that she was pregnant? Too many variables and not enough to go on.
“We’ll give him two hours and then we’ll head back over there.” Living in the laid back small town had made her soft. In the city she’d have been on him as soon as she hung up the phone, but here, things had to be handled differently.
She was willing to take things at an easier pace but not too much. It was murder after all, and somebody was responsible. But she didn’t want to piss off the mayor and end up losing the case, so she had to walk carefully, something she never had to worry about back in New York.
* * *
They visitedthe women on the list, who’d bought the acid in the last month or so, but since all was accounted for that too turned out to be a dead end. She walked away from the last house no closer to knowing the truth.
The women were more interested in questioning her about the murder than expounding their innocence once she’d established that they weren’t the culprits and she’d barely escaped their expert grilling.
“Let’s go see the widow Connor since we’re out this way anyway and get this latest fiasco over with, then we’ll head back to the Davis house.” It was a short drive to the widow’s home and when they got there they say the two women talking over the shared hedge that ran along between the sides of their houses.
The two women, one eighty the other seventy-eight, had lived beside each other for the better part of fifty years. They’ve long had an on again off again relationship spanning just as long and the local cops were called out here at least once a month if not more to keep the peace between the two.
It was more of a local joke than anything else, but the two women sure did keep everyone on their toes. If no one came out to see about their latest duel things could very well escalate into something more.
Detective Sparks was well aware since her first couple of dealings with the dueling widows that it was just attention they were after and didn’t begrudge them the time it took to calm them down.
“Good morning ladies.” Detective Sparks hid her grin at the way the two women primped and preened when they saw officer Bailey coming. At least this morning it looked like the feud had been put on hold as the two of them expounded to one another about his many virtues and attributes.
“Well now, how you doing little Celia with all this murder and stuff?” They never called her by anything but her given name. “It’s coming along Mrs. Connors, Mrs. Ivory.” She greeted both and stood back out of the way.
