AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Where did you go for your run?” Arnett asked.
“Around the neighborhood. It was dark, so I doubt anybody noticed. But I have security cameras that automatically record any time there’s motion. You’re welcome to check them. In fact, you can take the micro SD cards with you when you go.”
“We’d appreciate that, thank you.” Jo shifted in her chair—even if the cards backed up his story, there was still time for him to have killed Sandra. “Do you know of anybody who had reason to be angry with Sandra?”
He tossed back the remaining contents of the glass and set it down with a clank. “Other than the upstanding citizens she prosecuted? That ADA, Patricia Flynn, had it out for her. She put in a hostile work environment complaint with the chief operations officer against Sandra a few months before we separated.”
Jo leaned in. “What happened with it?”
He shook his head. “No clue.”
“What about the incident with your neighbor at the lake house?” Jo asked.
Bruce’s brow creased. “Which neighbor?”
“The Hauptmanns,” Arnett said.
Bruce’s jaw clenched. “Why am I not surprised? White-trash hicks.”
Jo bristled. “White-trash hicks with a million-dollar home?”
He shot her a withering glare. “White trashis an attitude, not a socio-economic status. What did they do?”
“Something about loud music?” Jo asked.
“Must have happened after I became persona non grata.” He shook his head and stood up. “I’m happy to answer your questions, but if there’s nothing more, I have a hundred phone calls to make. She doesn’t have family in the area, so I’ll be handling the funeral.”
Jo and Arnett stood, and Jo handed him a card. “We’re sorry again for your loss. Thank you for talking with us. If you can think of anything else, please let us know.”
CHAPTERSEVEN
“Something isn’t adding up,” Jo said once back in the car. “On the one hand, she’s so eager to retire she has a literal countdown in her calendar. On the other, she’s so dedicated to her work she’s willing to let her marriage crumble despite her husband’s objections.”
“My guess is she had other reasons for divorcing him,” Arnett said. “With the level of resentment he demonstrated, I have no problem seeing him get violent, and she did threaten him with a restraining order.”
Jo fired up the engine and pulled out. “But if there was a deeper basis to it, why did he tell us about the threat? We’d never have known otherwise. He was more concerned with not taking blame for the divorce than with how we might see that.”
“He made a point of saying one of her judge friends suggested it. He probably knows they did, and knows it’s only a matter of time before we find that out.”
Jo grimaced. “Maybe—but he seemed to genuinely think her threat was inappropriate.”
“How many people who get served with a restraining order argue it’s inappropriate?”
“Fair enough,” Jo said. “And I definitely didn’t get the sense he responded well to the rejection. He was clearly upset when he mentioned the new boyfriend. We need to figure out who that was.”
Arnett rubbed his chin. “So, you think when she threatened the restraining order, he gave up hope and decided to take action?”
“He wouldn’t be the first person to decide if he couldn’t have the one he loved, nobody could, but I think it’s more complicated than that. You saw his reaction when I mentioned the early retirement. Once she did that, he’d have had to come to terms with the fact that the problem wasn’t just her job, it was alsohim.”
“It’s possible,” Arnett said.
“Then there’s what Hanson said about why she was leaving the job, her loss of faith in the legal system. I wonder if that has anything to do with Patricia Flynn’s hostile work environment claim.”
Arnett’s eyes scanned the dashboard. “You think she was taking out frustrations on her co-workers?”
“Maybe.” Jo signaled a lane change. “Either way, I think we need to find out exactly what went down there.”
“Lemme call Hanson. He’ll know something about it.” Arnett tapped at his phone.
