Prime Suspect by Virginia Smith

Author:Virginia Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2012-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

After delivering his verbal bomb, the detective swept out of the room. Caleb heard the front door close and tracked the man’s progress through the front window. He slid into the passenger seat of one of the two police cruisers. The vehicles backed out of the driveway and sped away.

Darcie sat motionless on the sofa, staring at the floor in front of her feet. Jaw slack, lips parted, her eyes had the glaze of disbelief. He exchanged a glance with Brent, who lifted his shoulders in a shrug. The news had taken them all by surprise, though it made sense for Fairmont to provide for his niece in his will, since he had also provided for her during his life.

“Half a million dollars,” Darcie repeated the figure in a distant voice. “Wow.”

“It’s a lot of money.” Lauren dropped to the couch beside her. “He must have cared about you very much.”

“I wish he’d told me years ago. I’d have liked to get to know him.” She splayed the fingers of her right hand in front of her, and Caleb realized she was staring at her ring. “But Mama wouldn’t let him. And now it’s too late.” Tears sparkled in her eyes.

Caleb seated himself in the chair Samuels had occupied, the one facing her. “Let’s keep a cool head. We need to focus on getting you out of this.”

“Do I need to hire a lawyer like he said?” She shook her head. “I don’t know where to start.”

Brent took the armchair next to Caleb. “We know a couple of good ones. I’ll make some calls.”

She turned a grateful look on him.

“In the meantime,” Caleb said, “this cranks up the heat on our investigation.”

Her head snapped toward him, disbelief clear on her features. “You mean you’re going to keep investigating even after Detective Samuels told you not to?”

“Do you want us to stop?”

Her eyes went round. Silently, she shook her head.

Lauren relaxed, and Brent slapped his hands together, eagerness plain on his face. “Great. We move forward.”

“Don’t worry,” Caleb told Darcie, “we’ll stay out of Samuels’s way. We don’t want to interfere with the police. And if we find something relevant—”

“When we find something relevant,” Lauren corrected.

Caleb acknowledged the comment with a nod. “We’ll turn it over to him. What we need to do is figure out what rocks they won’t look under. That’s where we’ll focus our efforts.”

Tears once again glittered in Darcie’s eyes, and she turned a quivering smile on all of them. “I can’t thank you enough.”

When she looked at him, Caleb held her gaze. “That’s what friends are for.”

Lauren and Brent both nodded. Darcie’s smile softened, and Caleb’s pulse did a weird quickstep in response.

Brent broke the moment. “All right then. What’s our next step?”

“Let’s start by figuring out what questions we need to have answered.” Lauren held up a hand. “I mean besides the obvious, who killed Richard Fairmont?”

Caleb threw out the first one. “Did the same person who killed Fairmont also kill Lewis?”

Brent nodded. “Good one, but we can’t answer it yet.

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