Say it was Murder: A McShan Thriller by Stephen Mertz

Author:Stephen Mertz [Mertz, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781685490829
Publisher: Rough Edges Press
Published: 2022-06-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Beauregard spotted me when I was fifteen feet away.

He immediately forgot about whatever he’d been so intently sniffing in the weeds. He forgot about Janine. He scurried in my direction, an unkempt charcoal blur beaming another of those silly doggie smiles, the tongue wagging from the side of his mouth. He raced up to me and rolled onto his back, legs waving excitedly in the air, begging for a tummy rub.

I leaned over and accommodated.

A jolt of sudden sadness washed through me. Marna had possessed a spirit that had reached out and touched me. How many others had been blessed to know that spirit along the way? Gone from the world forever. So damn sad. I buried the thought. This was no time to contemplate the sadness of our world. It was time to do something about it.

Janine came over to greet me. Still a pretty teenage girl from a distance but, up close, you could see a haunted expression. Tense and dark.

She said, “Did they let you see her?”

The flat tone matched her expression.

I nodded.

“I’m sorry, Janine. How are you doing?”

A shrug as only a teenager can shrug. Her eyes were on the doorway of her mom's tipi.

“I don’t know. My dad came out to the commune to tell me. They want to talk to me but they won’t let me see her body.”

“You don’t want to. Remember her the way she was.”

“That should be easy,” she said with another of those shrugs. “I was here to see her last night.”

“Is that right?”

“I was upset. Stan Sweetson drove me here from the Ranch. He didn’t want to, but I made him. I was wound up. Real upset.”

“What about?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It did last night. It will matter to the police today. It matters to me.”

At our feet, Beauregard scampered about excitedly from one of us to the other. Janine picked him up in her arms and held him close. The little guy nestled right in, happy to be safe.

Janine said, “What do they say happened? No one’s told me anything. All I know is that Mom is dead. Shit. I should have gone with her on that trip to scatter Grandma’s ashes. Shit.”

“Tell me about your visit here last night.”

“I had to see her. We talked.”

“Did you call ahead and tell her you were coming?”

“No.”

“How did she feel about that?”

“She was surprised. But she was glad to see me. We hugged. We cried.”

“What did you talk about?”

She averted her eyes.

“Things. We hadn’t seen each other in a while.”

“And she didn't know you were coming to see her?”

““No. I told you. I was upset.”

“And she was alive when you left?”

She blinked.

“Of course she was. What are you saying? You mean . . . do you mean that you think I . . . that I killed her?”

“Relax. No one says anyone killed her . . . yet. It could have been an accident. But let’s say someone did murder your mother. The police are going to want to determine who did it.

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