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He laughed, and despite the fact that Fred was suspected of three of the most vicious murders Faith had ever investigated, she had to smile. “I’m sorry for your loss,” she said.
“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Me too.”
He sipped his coffee and said, “You know, I’ve been without her for longer than I was with her, and I still can’t look at another woman. I don’t mean I’m celibate or anything, but…” He shrugged. “I’ve never fallen in love again.”
He met the agents’ eyes and said, “So yeah, I’m happy that asshole’s dead. But I didn’t kill him.”
“What about Dr. Barbara Ames?” Faith asked.
“I don’t know her,” Fred said. “Sorry.”
“Marvin Prescott?”
He shook his head again. “No. I only remember the lawyer who hit her.”
Faith glanced back at Turk. He still watched Fred, but his tail was no longer switching back and forth like a predator’s.
“You know,” Fred continued, “I probably would have gone after him regardless of what happened to Mandy if she hadn’t been acting like a moron and skipping in the middle of the street like that.”
Michael paused with his coffee halfway to his mouth. Faith stared directly at Fred and said, “Come again?”
“Yeah, it was kind of her fault,” he said. He took a deep breath and released it slowly. “I didn’t admit it to myself for years, but I always thought deep down that it was her fault for being in the street, and if she’d just been on the sidewalk where she was supposed to be, that lawyer would never have hit her. Not that that excuses him for being drunk, but it gets him off for murder, I suppose.”
It had, in fact, gotten him off for murder, and was probably what allowed him to keep his legal license.
Then again, hadn’t Caroline Hucksley said that Mandy was on the sidewalk?
“You’re sure she was in the road?” Michael asked.
“Yeah, she was,” Fred said, “the police report even confirmed it.”
“So you weren’t there at the time of the accident.”
“No, I was at home. She was walking home from the bus stop. Her car was in the shop, and she didn’t want me to give her a ride because she wanted to ride the bus. I guess she rode the bus a lot before she met me, so it was some nostalgic thing for her. I think she was a little drunk herself to be honest. She was coming home from a friend’s house.”
Faith made a mental note to look at a copy of that police report. “So you ended up forgiving Hucksley, and you don’t know Dr. Ames or Prescott.”
“I didn’t forgive Hucksley,” he corrected. “Mandy shouldn’t have been in the road, but he had time to stop, and if he was sober, he would have. He’s still a prick, and I’m still glad he’s dead.” He sipped his coffee again. “But it wasn’t me. I wish it was, but like I said, that wouldn’t have been what Mandy wanted.”
Faith leaned back in her chair and considered while Michael continued to question him. He seemed sincere in his answers. He certainly made no attempt to hide his hatred for Hucksley or his joy at the guy’s demise. He seemed just as sincere about his insistence that he didn’t kill Hucksley because it would have been disrespectful to Mandy’s memory.
She felt a touch of desperation threaten to creep into her mind. He was perfect. For the fourth time, they had a perfect suspect who checked all of their boxes, but when they came to question him, he seemed less and less likely with each passing moment.
“Can you tell me what your experience was with Mandy once you arrived on the scene of the accident?” she asked. “Actually, we’ll start just after the scene. Did you ride with her to the hospital?”
“Yeah, I did,” he said. “She didn’t wake up until the next day. I spent the whole ride begging her to stay with me.”
“What was your impression of the paramedics?” Faith asked.
He shrugged. “They were good kids. They were professional. I could tell they thought she was a lost cause, but they didn’t let that stop them. They worked their asses off. So did the doctors at the hospital.”
“Tell me about the hospital. Did you feel Mandy was treated properly?”
“Well, yeah,” he said. “The doctors worked their asses off, like I said. She would never have woken up without their help.”
Faith’s eyes widened and once more Michael’s coffee paused on its way to his lips.
“So she didn’t die right away.”
