Autumn Waters and the Case of the Dead Kevin (Autumn Waters Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) by Chelsea Thomas & Bertie Miller

Author:Chelsea Thomas & Bertie Miller [Thomas, Chelsea & Miller, Bertie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

18

CONSTRUCTING A LIE

“I’m sorry, what?” I said.

“Are you deaf, I said he’s blind,” Catty said, then, “Apologies. That… was not a good joke.”

“Forgiven. What happened to him?”

“Chemical spill, I heard. He hasn’t been back to the site since the incident. Until today. He showed up right before I did, apparently. Raging about how his worker’s comp request had been denied. He was wearing dark glasses and had a support animal with him, which lent credibility to his claim, although I haven’t dismissed the possibility that he’s faking his impairment.”

“Why would he fake it? For the worker’s comp money?”

“Or…” Catty prompted.

“For the alibi,” I said, realizing. “A blind man couldn’t run someone over with his car.”

“Indeed he could not.”

“But… either way… why wouldn’t Jean-Luc tell us his dad got into an accident? Unless he didn’t know… But…” My head was spinning. This did not make a lot of sense, and I didn’t like when things didn’t make sense.

“I have a theory. Would you like to hear it?” Catty asked.

“Of course I’d like to hear it,” I said. “Duh.”

“I think, most likely, Hugo’s injury is genuine. I also suspect Jean-Luc knew what had happened to his dad. And that Jean-Luc lied to us on purpose about his father’s possible guilt in Kevin’s murder. And that means…”

“Jean-Luc is hiding something, and he wanted to divert our attention.”

“Yes,” Catty affirmed.

“Ugh.” I sighed and slouched forward onto the counter.

“Why are you disappointed?” Catty asked, with genuine bemusement. “That’s a good realization. It’s a clue.”

“But I don’t like our current clues! We have a random set of teeth, a couple of missing loan sharks, a really short guy with a threatening demeanor, a bereft ex-girlfriend, and a teenage boy who lied to us and pointed a finger at his own blind father! Those are tangentially connected at best, and I don’t know what to do next. We’re like, at the part of the puzzle where it’s just a bunch of indistinct pieces that don’t look like anything.”

“Oh, Autumn,” Catty said, clucking her tongue at me. “No.”

“So you have an idea, do you? About how these things are connected?”

Catty looked at me with what I can only describe as patronizing sympathy. Like anyone with so little brain power deserved her pity.

“Spit it out,” I said. “If you know, tell me.”

“Jean-Luc needs money to realize his hopes and dreams, right?”

“Correct,” I said.

“But he does not have it. Nor does he have a clear means of earning it quickly enough to meet his goals.”

“Ohhhhhh,” I said, suddenly understanding what Catty was getting at. “You think Jean-Luc borrowed money from the loan sharks.”

“He needed sports equipment. Money for travel games. No doubt other expenses associated with his college aspirations. He and his dad were clearly not on good terms, so Jean-Luc went elsewhere for his financial needs,” Catty said. “Jean-Luc does not want us to know he was associated with the Old Depot sharks. So.”

“He sent us on a wild dad chase.” I sat in quiet contemplation for a moment. Whether or not Jean-Luc had killed Kevin, he had lied to us.

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