Accidental Death (A Dennis Haggarty Mystery, #1) by B.E. Sanderson

Author:B.E. Sanderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: revenge, serial killer, small town, noir, hard boiled crime
Publisher: B.E. Sanderson
Published: 2021-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

An Open Book

DENNIS TOOK A LONG, slow gulp of his drink. He couldn’t be sure whether Jillian was pulling his leg or playing some kind of game, but his sister didn’t strike him as anyone’s supporter. Unless you counted being her own biggest fan. The idea she could’ve supported Scott Underwood seemed ludicrous. Even though he hadn’t seen her in years, she couldn’t have changed that much.

When he finally digested Jillian’s bombshell, he simply said, “Come again?”

“I know how bizarre it sounds. I’d think it was insane, if I didn’t know it was true. Kimmy has always backed Scott, even when Jimmy couldn’t say enough bad things about my husband.”

She sounded sane enough, and she didn’t look like she found any of this amusing, which only ramped up Dennis’ temper. “What are you playing at now?” he said between clenched teeth.

“I’m not playing at anything.” She stepped sideways to position the easy chair between them. “I said you wouldn’t like it. I didn’t want to tell you, but you insisted. Remember?” She crossed her arms over her chest like she expected a full frontal assault. “This isn’t a game, Dennis. For some strange reason, your sister stood behind every decision Scott made. No matter what.”

“That doesn’t sounds like Kimmy,” he said, trying to get his anger under grips. As capricious as Jillian had initially seemed, she’d been a fairly straight shooter with him since. He couldn’t see what she could gain by shifting the suspicion onto his sister—especially when he no longer considered her a suspect. Unless his words about finding a way to convince others of her innocence motivated her to grasp at straws.

“Like I said, it’s insane, but it’s true. She even took some heat from the library committee. I heard they got into a big fight about the sale of that old building the week before Scott died. Kimmy told those old biddies off. Said he made a sound business decision. Hell, I heard she even insisted that the town needed the money more than ‘some dumb pile of crumbling bricks’.” Her hands rose to put air quotes around her words, like she feared he’d think she was putting her own words in Kimmy’s mouth.

Unfortunately, her claims were the exact opposite of the ones Kimmy had made days before.

“I didn’t ask for this, you know,” she said, moving out from behind the chair. If she’d been a cat, all the fur would’ve raised along her spine. “I wanted you to leave it alone.”

“Everyone wants me to leave it alone. Hell, including my damn captain. I have to be in Denver on Monday or risk losing my job. I might still lose it even if I do show up.”

“Then why are you still here?” Her posture told him she had joined the side who wanted him gone.

He didn’t blame her. He couldn’t explain it to himself without sounding like Dudley Do-right.

“Don’t you see? That’s exactly why I can’t leave? If everyone in Serenity is so hot to push me out of town, I have to wonder why.

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