A Shiver of Wonder by Daniel Kelley

Author:Daniel Kelley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: womens fiction, literary thriller, literary suspense, literary mystery, mystery action adventure romance, womens contemporary fiction, mystery action suspense thriller, literary and fiction, womens adventure romance

Chapter Twenty-One

“Shit,” David muttered to himself. “Shit! Seriously?”

Detective Ormsby was in front of the Rainbow Arms, leaning nonchalantly against what was clearly his unmarked police car. He was working a toothpick around his mouth with fastidious pedantry, but pushed himself off the vehicle and tossed the toothpick onto the grass as David approached.

“Mr. Wilcott. You made it back.”

“Excuse me?” David was still reeling from his encounter with Clair at the school. “What could you possibly need from me now?”

The detective smiled. The brightness of his teeth terrified David. “Just wrapping up a few details. Tying a ribbon around the box, as it were.”

David halted a few feet away from him. “I read in the paper that you’ve got your murderers, and it’s just a matter of time before you catch them. Shouldn’t you be in Greenville? Shouldn’t you be chasing some real criminals instead of pestering citizens who had nothing to do with it?”

Ormsby’s smile only widened. He had obviously anticipated David’s reaction to seeing him, and was ready to milk the antipathy until the well ran dry. “The newspapers are spewing trash, printing crap! It’s how they stay in business, you know.” He edged a step closer. “Let’s go through some of my questions again.”

David closed his eyes, wondering if the whole afternoon was going to be a nightmare. It had been bad enough walking home from the school, trying to keep his head from swimming after the emotional encounter with Mrs. Jenkins and the latest pronouncement from Clair. Now, he was being baited by a puffed-up authority figure who clearly had a rather large ax to grind with him, for whatever reasons.

“By the way, that is your dog making all that noise in there,” Detective Ormsby said. David opened his eyes to discover that his wish for the sidewalk to be cleared in front of him had not been granted. And indeed, he could hear the muted sounds of Johnson going more than a bit crazy inside apartment 1F. “I knocked. Several times,” he added. “But I knew you’d be back soon if Mr. Johnson was left home all alone.”

“Johnson,” David automatically corrected him. “Just Johnson. Can I at least get him so he doesn’t tear the door down?”

Ormsby’s eyebrows rose. “If you feel you need him here with you.”

And as his face tightened, David berated himself for even asking; he understood as unmistakably as the detective had that Johnson would only have been a crutch for him. “Ask your questions,” he said aloud, his voice thick. “Let’s get this over with.”

Again, a smile. Ormsby was reading him like a book. “You know, I looked you up online,” the detective said, his voice sickeningly pleasant as David’s heart began to sink. “Quite a few hits for ‘David Wilcott.’ Not many folks out there with that name. There were images, too. A lot of them.”

David licked his lips, wondering how far this humiliation would go.

“You were on quite a different career path then, weren’t you?” Ormsby’s head appeared to be growing larger.

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