Page 109 of Just Killing Time


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Gwen, a pretty woman with long blond hair, nodded. “I think we’re going to need it.”

Caro sat down and asked Mick for an update.

“She hasn’t been charged. Daniel called and said they took her in for questioning. She’s at the State Police substation in Bridgton. He’s there now, with Sophie’s lawyer and my parents.”

Caro had a basic understanding of the law because of all the cop shows she’d watched over the years. “They have to charge her or let her go, right?”

“They can hold her for twenty-four hours. Then, if they don’t charge her, yes, they’ll have to let her go.”

Caro nodded, relieved the police didn’t have enough evidence to charge Sophie with a crime. Yet. “So, what happens now?”

Mick looked at his cousin. “Jared was just about to fill us in on some details about the victim.”

Gwen, who’d been in the kitchen getting cups for the coffee, returned in time to overhear. “Please tell me there’s another suspect somewhere. I hate to think of Sophie in that place.”

Jared leaned forward on the sofa, dropping his elbows on his knees, staring at Mick. His brow furrowed, his dark eyes grew intense. “Miss Hester has a very secretive past. She disappeared for a long time during her early twenties. When she came back to her family, she was using the name Esmerelda Devane.”

Esmerelda?Thatwasn’t a name she’d picture for the woman.

Mick also looked puzzled, tilting his head. “Something about that name sounds familiar.”

“Apparently Esmerelda was her middle name. She was married briefly to someone named Devane out in California,” Jared explained. “I have my investigator looking into those missing years. But until we know more, we have to look at other options.”

“Local options,” Gwen said, looking thoughtful.

Mick nodded. “Jared’s not the only one with friends. An old friend of mine works as a clerk in the Bridgton substation.” He cast a quick glance at Caro, but she didn’t so much as flinch, despite being certain Mick was referring to a former girlfriend.

He continued. “She says the notes found with the gun mention a woman’s name. And they set up a time and place for a meeting.”

“Was Esmerelda the name? Maybe Miss Hester was being blackmailed,” Caro said.

He shook his head. “No, the name was Victoria Lynn. And my friend tells me the reason Sophie’s being questioned is because a note with the same name, found in another part of the house, has both Sophie’s and Miss Hester’s fingerprints on it.”

Caro sucked in a shocked breath. That was pretty damning.

“How’d they get Sophie’s fingerprints?” Jared asked, looking surprised. “I know Daniel wouldn’t have let her give them voluntarily, and they didn’t bring her in until this morning.”

Gwen had the answer. “She told me months ago she took a fingerprinting class to be sure she could get the details right in her books. Every student was fingerprinted for practice.”

“And the police could have subpoenaed those prints,” Mick said, shaking his head in disgust. “Too bad Sophie was such a detail-oriented writer.”

This was looking worse and worse for Sophie. Caro didn’t know her that well, she’d only met her a few times, but she still had trouble believing the woman could hurt a fly, no matter what she did in her imagination. But, if it were anyone else, she’d at least be wondering because of the evidence mounting up against her.

“Have they matched her prints to the gun?” Caro asked.

Mick shook his head. “No, they haven’t, according to my source. So far, the victim’s are the only prints they’ve officially identified on the gun.”

“Interesting,” Jared mused. Then he furrowed his brow, sitting back in the chair and rubbing the corners of his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. Gwen watched him, as did Mick. They seemed familiar with this deep-thinking mode. Caro fell silent, too, interested in the criminologist’s viewpoint.

Finally, Jared murmured, “Are you certain Louise left the gun in your office that day?”

“Not one-hundred percent,” Mick said after exchanging a quick look with Caro.

“You did tell her to drop it,” she said.

“And I heard a thump.”

Then they both looked at Jared. “So, there’s another very plausible explanation, another way someone could have gotten hold of the murder weapon.”

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