The Unquiet Dead by Stacie Murphy

Author:Stacie Murphy [Murphy, Stacie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2022-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Once they were on the sidewalk, Jonas strode away from the laundry gates, too agitated to notice Amelia was all but trotting alongside him until she hauled back on his arm with an exasperated noise.

He grimaced and slowed. “Sorry.”

They’d gone another block before Amelia voiced the question that had been plaguing him since the moment Steele acknowledged that Amos might have known Ginny.

“What if he did it?” The words hung in the air.

“He couldn’t have.” He meant for the denial to sound confident, but it came out weak. Unconvincing.

“Couldn’t he?” Amelia’s voice was leaden. “He couldn’t have done the three in Brooklyn. Fine. But we already know there are differences. What if that was a different killer? Amos had a connection to Ginny. What are the chances that he’d also be the one to stumble across her body? And he confessed, Jonas. He—”

“They beat him,” he objected. “Anyone would have confessed.”

“Yes, anyone would have,” Amelia said. “That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be true.”

“What about the assault? Amos confessed to it, but the autopsy showed Ginny wasn’t assaulted.”

Amelia looked grim. “The autopsy showed she wasn’t raped. That doesn’t mean there couldn’t have been some sort of molestation. We haven’t seen the confession. We don’t know exactly what he did or didn’t confess. And maybe,” she went on, forestalling Jonas’s reply with a raised hand. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe he didn’t touch her and that part of the confession was false. But now we know he could have known her. And some of the girls told me he was late to work the morning Ginny went missing.”

Jonas brushed that bit of news aside. “She was held somewhere after she was taken. Amos doesn’t have anywhere he could have kept her.”

“That we know of. Jonas, I’m not saying it’s certain, but we jumped into this so quickly we never asked ourselves if he might have done it. We assumed he was innocent. I don’t think we can keep doing that.”

Jonas felt ill. Miles said Amos was innocent. Tommy said he was a good boy. Jonas had trusted their judgment and never bothered to use his own. He’d taken the case to Sidney, knowing it would be difficult for him, believing he was doing a good thing. “All right,” he said finally. “We need to talk to Miles and Polly again.”

They reached 6th Avenue and turned toward the Alstons’ home instead of heading back to their apartment. Sarah answered the door when they knocked and greeted them before returning to the stove, where something was simmering.

Polly sat in the main room beside a basket of mending, Silas playing on a blanket beside her feet. She looked up as they entered, hope on her face. “Any news?”

Jonas glanced at Amelia. “We’re not sure,” she said.

“Is Miles here?” Jonas asked.

Polly shook her head. “He left early. He wanted to take another basket over to Amos before he went to work. My brother and sister-in-law were here, and she brought some of the cookies Amos likes.

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