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Even though he’d rebuffed the woman earlier she was sure that he’d have come to his senses eventually and though they may not have reconciled he’d still have some kind of feelings for the woman he loved and had been married to for all those years.
Selfish, that’s what she was, selfish and just a tad bit mad. Detective Sparks couldn’t really drum up much sympathy for the woman but in her professional capacity she owed it to everyone involved to handle things diplomatically.
“What do we have Dr. Peters?”
“Well, it looks like she took a header into the wall. No defensive wounds, not a scratch on her except for where she bashed her head into that wall over there.” He pointed to the far wall and her eyes followed.
Even from here she could see the splash of red against the dirty grey stone of the cell. There was one wound on the deceased’s head where she’d connected with the wall, but it was the eyes wide open in death and that look of madness still shining bright that held her attention.
She left Pete to his job and went back to the others. It was hours before the body was bagged and the chief and M.E. got ready to leave the premises. There was a ton of paperwork to be done and she still had to go out to the farm, something the chief had assured her he won’t be doing when she asked.
She’d have thought with Riley being the town’s leading citizen that he’d have wanted the job. “I’m spending the day with the governor tomorrow, guess what’s going to be the topic on everyone’s lips then. What a monumental fuck up.” He threw the words at her as he moved towards the exit.
She gritted her teeth once more and refrained from reminding him that he’d said the same thing at least twice already. She was in enough shit as it is.
There was no victim services unit, no family liaison, no one to pass the buck to, unless she wanted to burden poor Officer Bailey, which she knew would be a jerk move on her part.
So after the body had been removed and she’d finished typing up her report, she sent him home and prepared to face the music on her own.
“You sure you don’t want me to come with you?”
“No, you go on home, at least one of us should get to salvage what’s left of this weekend. Oh crap, I brought you here didn’t I?” The thought of driving him home and then having to make her way back again was tiring.
“Don’t you worry about me, I’ll just head on over to the pub, someone will give me a ride home from there not to worry.” She walked to the car and got in, suddenly tired to the bone. She’d seen more of Riley O’Rourke in the last few days than she had in the whole time she’d lived here and none of it good.
She tried to brace herself for the upcoming confrontation but nothing could stop the swarm of butterflies in her stomach or the feeling of failure that dogged her heels. Some of her old acquaintances on the force back in the city would call this done and done, but she liked to see things play out in their full course.
She’d much rather have seen Valerie O’Rourke stand trial even if it meant the other woman would’ve walked away with little more than a slap on the wrist. For her that’s when the case was over, it didn’t just end with the chase and capture.
She slowed down when she reached the turnoff to the farm still no closer to a decision on how she was going to break the news to him. Will he be angry? Lash out? Her heart raced sickeningly in her chest.
She knew he must hate her; blame her in some round about way for all this. Add the fact that he hadn’t been exactly welcoming the other times she came out here, and now that she was bearing even worst news she didn’t expect much. “Oh hell!”
This is why she never lets her stupid heart get involved. If it were anyone else she wouldn’t be beating herself up like this. She’d have relayed the news, offered her condolences and be gone already. But here she was, sitting outside his home on a Sunday afternoon panicking like she was about to take the state exam all over again.
She realized as she sat there that she was worried not only about how he was going to take the news about his wife’s suicide, but how he was going to feel knowing that she’d done it not long after he refused to speak to her.
Sergeant Walker had shared that much with her in an aside. The poor man was feeling guilty and scared shitless that he was going to lose his job and his pension for breaking protocol. She’d promised to keep it just between the two of them and didn’t bother warning him against doing it again, she was sure this was a lesson he’d never forget.
