AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sam shook his head. “It was related, but it didn’t make much sense. He was rambling. And angry, taking it out on Nurse Roxanne. He was hitting her hard. I distracted him so that she could call his doctor and confirm giving him a sedative. Benny was so wound up that he didn’t even realize she’d given him a shot. Have you spoken to Roxanne?”
“Not yet,” Kit said. “But we will ASAP. Can you remember Mr. Dreyfus’s actual words?”
Sam closed his eyes, replaying the chaotic scene in the visitation room. “He said it was all his fault, that he should have listened to Frankie. But that Frankie was wrong.”
“About what?” Kit asked quietly.
Sam opened his eyes to meet hers and had to remind himself to focus. He could stare into those blue eyes of hers all day. Which made him feel pathetic, given that she didn’t feel the same way. “I don’t know. I tried to make sense of it. Later he said that Frankie had been right, so I tried to clarify. I asked if he meant that Frankie was wrong at first, then right? And Benny said yes. He said that he’d been angry with Frankie because Frankie said that he was naive and lonely. I asked if that was true, and Benny said that he missed Martha—she was his wife for more than fifty years. He also said that he’d believed lies. But he wasn’t specific. I thought he might be ready to give me more, but then he fell asleep.”
“So we know that there was disagreement between Mr. Flynn and Mr. Dreyfus,” Kit said.
Sam frowned. “Benny didn’t kill Frankie. Even if he was strong enough emotionally—which he wasn’t—he was too weak physically.”
“You said that he was hurting Nurse Roxanne,” Kit pointed out, but he could tell that she didn’t believe that Benny was guilty of murder.
“Yes, but she wasn’t fighting back. She was just taking it. She had her hands up, protecting herself, when I came in, but she let Benny take out his anger on her. It wasn’t hard to make him stop. I just gently pulled his fists away from her and hugged him. He collapsed against me right away. He didn’t kill Frankie.”
“We don’t think so, either,” Connor said. “But we will go back and talk to Benny when he wakes up. Perhaps, if you’re available, you can join us? If you can keep him calm without sedation, that would be a big help.”
Sam didn’t miss Kit’s slight tensing. On some level, she didn’t want him involved, but she wasn’t going to say anything to the contrary. At this point, he couldn’t let himself care that she didn’t want him around. This was about getting justice for Frankie while protecting Benny.
“I’d be happy to help.”
Kit smiled tightly. “Thank you,” she said, rising to her feet and heading for the door. “We’ll call if we have more questions.”
Connor followed her, giving Sam a grateful smile. “You’ve filled in a bit more of the picture. Thanks, man.”
“You’re welcome.” Sam stood by his chair, watching them go, his heart already heavy. She was leaving again.
But she did call me Sam.
He frowned at himself. And you are not going to pin any hopes on that.
“Let me know when I can call Mrs. Crawford to give her my condolences. I don’t want to impede your investigation, but I know she has to be hurting. In spite of his cheating, she loved Kent—or at least she did once upon a time.”
“I will,” Connor said, because Kit was already at the elevator, her gaze fixed on the shiny steel doors.
Chapter Five
San Diego, California
Monday, November 7, 5:10 p.m.
Kit waited until she and Connor were back in the department sedan before breaking the silence. Settling into the passenger seat, she fastened her seat belt. Partly because it was the law and partly because Connor drove like he was on a NASCAR track. “That wasn’t a total waste of time.”
Connor laughed. “High praise, coming from you.” He guided the car into traffic, sighing when they immediately hit a rush-hour snarl. “We’re going to be stuck here forever.”
“Stop whining.” Kit opened the secure notes app on her phone. “So Mr. Dreyfus knew something, but we still don’t know what. Whatever it was, it had caused friction between Flynn and Dreyfus. We still need to know what Flynn and Dreyfus were upset with each other about, but we’ll put that on hold until Dreyfus wakes up. Also, Kent Crawford was almost definitely having an affair. Let’s focus on that. If Sam and Mr. Flynn both noticed that Crawford was sleeping around, there’s a chance that others did, too. Someone knew he was in that motel room. Either his killer knew he was meeting a woman or they simply followed him, but we need to find out who knew. And if we can find out who his affair partner was, that person might have seen something useful.”
“What’re the chances that Crawford’s and Flynn’s deaths are unrelated?”
“Small,” Kit said. “Really small.”
“Agreed. Especially since the cameras on Flynn’s floor were out. Crawford would have known how to disable them.”
“We need to find out if he had his laptop with him. If it was possible to disable the cameras remotely, it’s possible that his killer either broke into Crawford’s laptop or forced Crawford to do it himself.”
“At least we know that Crawford didn’t kill Flynn. He was already dead when someone stuck a knife into the old man.”
