The Twelve Murders of Christmas by Jane Bennett Munro

Author:Jane Bennett Munro [Munro, Jane Bennett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781663202727
Publisher: iUniverse
Published: 2020-09-22T04:00:00+00:00

21

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!

It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock

The meat it feeds on.

—Shakespeare, Othello

I called Elliott as soon as Pete left, and Jodi answered. She told me Elliott had a full day in court the next day. Then I told her Mum and Nigel were visiting, and she said they’d be right over.

Not ten minutes later, they were stamping snow off their boots in the garage. While Nigel was preparing libations at the bar, I introduced them to Piper.

While she repeated her story to Elliott and he took notes, I curled up on the couch with Geraldine and my scotch. When she had finished, I told Elliott what Pete had told us about Lorenzo Collins and his anger issues.

“Where is he now?” Elliott asked.

“He’s in custody,” I said. “He had an ice pick on him. He could be the Jury Killer.”

Elliott gave me an eye roll. “Lots of people carry ice picks at this time of year, you know. It doesn’t make them the Jury Killer.”

“What happens now?” Piper asked.

“Now,” Elliott said, “we go to the police station. You’ll have to tell them your story, sign some papers, and let them take pictures of your arms.”

“How long will that take?” Hal asked.

“At least an hour,” Elliott said. “Maybe more.”

Hal took out his cell phone. “I’ll let Pete know you’re coming.”

“Have you guys eaten yet?” Jodi asked.

“Not yet,” I said.

“I’ll order pizza when you get back,” she said. “Okay?”

“More than okay,” Hal said. “Fiona? Nigel?”

Mum and Nigel assented.

“Order it now,” Elliott said. “We won’t be gone that long. You want to ride with me, Piper, or come with Toni?”

“I’ll go with you,” Piper said.

“Toni, you want to come with me or drive yourself?”

“I’ll come with you too,” I said. “I’ve already had a scotch.”

“Good call,” Elliott said. “Let’s go!”

Pete met us at the station and took us into a conference room, where a court reporter waited. She transcribed both Piper’s and my statements about the incident and printed them out, and Pete had us sign them. A police photographer took pictures of Piper’s arms for the record.

“What happens now?” Piper asked.

“Now,” Elliott said, “there’ll be an arraignment.”

“What’s that?”

“We go to court, and they decide whether a crime was committed and if it should be decided in county court or remanded to district court, and they set bail.”

“Do we have to testify?” Piper asked.

“Not unless we’re subpoenaed,” I said. “They’ve got our statements, right, Elliott?”

Elliott nodded. “They’ll also set a court date and let us know.”

“So he’ll stay in jail, right?” Piper asked.

Elliott shrugged. “Unless someone bails him out.”

Piper shivered.

Pizza was waiting when we got home. The others were already eating.

“How’d it go?” Hal asked.

I glanced at Piper. She still looked as spooked as she had at the police station, in spite of our conversation in the car. “It went,” I said, “as well as could be expected.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Hal asked. “What happened?”

“Calm down, Shapiro,” Elliott said. “They gave their statements and signed them, and that was all there was to it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.