The Dog Days of Murder by M.K. Dean

Author:M.K. Dean [M.K. Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Redclaw Publishing
Published: 2022-03-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

I might have broken the current land-speed record on my way to the sheriff’s office.

As usual, however, my mother had been exaggerating.

“We haven’t arrested her,” Joe said when I blew into his office, breathing fire. “We’re merely holding her for questioning.”

“Based on what grounds?”

Joe indicated the chair across from his desk, which I took with barely contained fury. He sat down in his own chair and picked up a pencil from a notepad on his desk. He rolled it between his fingers and tapped it on his notebook a few times before speaking. “Before I get into that, I have a few questions for you as well.”

That took me aback. I recognized his casual interview mode from the time he’d questioned me about Amanda’s death. Relaxed, conversational. A discussion between friends.

It was the playing with the pencil that gave him away. The tap-tap-tap of the pencil on his notepad underscored the tension he tried to mask.

“I’ve already given you a statement about finding Dr. Burnham.”

He nodded. “Yes, but I’d like to know more about how you were hired in the first place.”

“What can I say?” I held up my hands, palms outward. “She needed someone to cover for her while she went out of town. It’s not like there are that many people she could have called on to fill in.”

“I suppose not,” Joe agreed. “Any idea why she had to go out of town?”

“She didn’t tell you?” I lifted an eyebrow. “She said it was your idea to call me.”

“Really?” The pencil hovered over the pad a moment, then resumed tapping. “She didn’t talk to me about this trip. If we discussed your covering the clinic at all, it was more in general terms. Did she tell you where she was going?”

I narrowed my eyes with a slight purse of my mouth. “It’s not like we were BFFs. She didn’t say, and I didn’t ask.” Remembering Montanaro’s outrage the morning of her death, I added, “Check with Montanaro. He was looking for her yesterday morning. Said she was supposed to meet him and hadn’t shown up.”

“Yes. So he said.”

I just stared at Joe. If he’d already spoken to Montanaro, then he had to know what the out-of-town meeting had been about. Something to do with a Board. Perhaps in relation to CVC’s ownership of the clinic? Either way, Joe wasn’t looking for answers. He was looking for my answers.

I sat in silence and waited for him to break it.

When he did, it wasn’t what I expected.

“Can you tell me what you were doing the night before last? Say, between eight and ten p.m.?”

“Tuesday night?” I frowned as I thought about it. I know I’d taken advantage of the fact my mother had gone out. “I got home around seven thirty or so. I ordered takeout from the Chinese place and had it delivered.”

I checked my phone. “They texted me at ten after eight to say they were almost there. I probably met them at the door by eight-fifteen at the latest.

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