Natural Causes by B.E. Sanderson

Author:B.E. Sanderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: small town, murder, serial killer, noir, Colorado
Publisher: B.E. Sanderson
Published: 2017-04-06T00:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

Connections

ONLY SECONDS AFTER Dennis closed his car door, when he was reaching to click his seatbelt, the older man offered what he probably thought was a pearl of wisdom.

“I was waiting for her to rip off your head and shit down your neck, Kid.” Pat laughed. “I thought Japanese girls were supposed to be quiet, unassuming, sweet little things.”

“You’re thinking of geishas,” he replied. “Kaitlin Nakajimi is no geisha.”

“Got that straight. I was just surprised. When I saw her, I was thinking she’d be one of those paint-faced doormats you see on the big screen.”

“You need to stop believing everything you see in the movies, you old fart.” He turned the ignition and reversed out of the parking space. “I don’t care about her personality as long as she gets the job done.”

“I didn’t get any sense she would mess it up.”

“If you’d asked me last week about her performance on the job, I wouldn’t have questioned whether she was first-rate. But last week, I never would’ve believed Niles Croft would botch an autopsy.”

“Maybe he didn’t botch it.”

“You mean, maybe he fudged the data on purpose?” The thought had occurred to Dennis, but he didn’t want to accept it. “Which would mean he had a reason to want people to believe Adele Hobart hadn’t been murdered.”

“Maybe he was acquainted with the killer. Maybe he was the killer.”

Either one could be a possibility, but Dennis didn’t want to think the county medical examiner was capable of murder. “He doesn’t seem like the type.”

“Everyone is capable of murder,” Pat said.

Not everyone. He didn’t bother giving voice to his thoughts. They’d had this debate before. Usually when they were stuck on a stakeout and bored with staring at a doorway waiting for a suspect. He understood a lot of people believed anyone could become a murderer if they had the right motivation. He didn’t subscribe to the notion. Rational people didn’t simply go out and kill other people.

But you killed Kim. He hadn’t been expecting to hear the voice he’d been fighting since he pulled the trigger ending his sister’s life. But there it was.

Except it wasn’t murder. I didn’t plan it. I didn’t to want do it. I had to do it to save Jillian. I had to do it to save myself. If he asked Pat, even the old man would back him up.

Pat’s voice nudged its way in after Dennis had been lost in his own thoughts for a while. “I didn’t mean to say it the way I did.”

“Yes, you did. It’s what you’ve believed for years.”

“But I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. I wasn’t trying to imply—”

“I know you weren’t.” Dennis patted the older man’s shoulder. “Hell, you’ve been hammering away at my guilt over the shooting since the day I did it.”

“You don’t have a damn thing to feel guilty for, eh.”

“I know that, too.” And when he said it this time, he almost felt as though he meant it. Maybe time really did turn the mental wounds into scars.

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