Additional Attendee: A Paul Whatshisname Mystery by Josh Harper

Author:Josh Harper [Harper, Josh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Propinquity Produces Books
Published: 2024-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

Thirty minutes later, I was holding my head under a steady stream of hot water, vaguely aware that dirt was coursing from my body, sloshing around the old yellow tub and swirling down the drain. Alex had given me refuge just as he’d given Laura refuge a few days ago. When he’d answered the door, I was still feeling like Harrison Ford in The Fugitive, expecting that train on fire to catch up to me at any second. Alex had hastily waved me in while finishing on the phone. I knew how he hated his phone, so the conversation must have been important.

As he put water out for Theo, he explained he’d been talking to Laura’s mother. The police had told her I was now a suspect and that if she saw me, she should tell them. But instead of asking me to leave or calling the police, Alex quietly recommended I get in the shower.

He now knocked on the bathroom door and opened it a crack. “I’m putting clothes for you on the toilet. You’re bigger than me, but I think these should work.”

“Thank you,” I called from behind the curtain. “Alex?” I wanted to talk to him, but water pouring down on me in an anonymous bathtub wasn’t a pleasure I was ready to leave behind.

“Yeah?” he said.

“It was awful the way she died.”

I could hear Alex moving the clothes and sitting on the toilet seat.

Alex: “Why do the police think you did this?”

Me: “Because I confessed. But I did it sarcastically!”

Alex: “Do cops make that sort of distinction?”

Me: “I don’t think so.”

Alex: “Why would you confess at all?”

I turned the water off and grabbed the towel that was slung over the curtain rod.

“Guilt.” I dried off in the tub with the ratty, frayed green towel.

“Did you strangle her?” Alex asked.

“No,” I said, still behind the curtain.

“Someone else made that decision?”

“Yes,” I answered.

In the silence that ensued, I tied the towel around my waist and opened the curtain. Alex was still sitting on the toilet. He looked up at my bare torso. It couldn’t have been a pretty sight.

“Paul,” he said simply. “You did not kill Laura. Maybe you had complicated feelings, maybe you weren’t the most attentive partner. At worst, maybe you cheated on her.”

“I didn’t.”

“Regardless,” he said evenly, “you did not murder her. Someone else did that. So stop being a little bitch and avenge your wife’s death.”

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