So either Tabitha had told Carl everything, or he had figured it out on his own. I felt slightly relieved even though I didn’t know what it would mean for Tabitha moving forward. My mother always said the truth will set you free, although I guess in this case it had had the opposite effect, given that Tab was being held in the county jail.
He went on. “And Thad’s brother, David, 9 can’t confirm Thad’s alibi because he was working late at the hospital. So what am I supposed to do here? I have a guy who fought with the victim, stood to gain financially from his demise, has no verifiable alibi, and had access to the murder weapon . . .”
“Then why don’t you seem convinced?”
Carl again rubbed his forehead, and I could practically feel his headache from across the room. “It doesn’t matter what I think. I’m paid to follow the evidence, and so far it is leading straight to Thad Davenport. Do you know the kind of pressure the mayor is putting on me to wrap this up ASAP?”
“I heard.”
“That Toby calls over here every hour asking if we’ve set the charges yet.” Carl looked like a man being squeezed between two heavy books. He leaned forward and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Honestly, my gut is telling me there’s more to the story here.”
I had the same gut feeling, despite the evidence. “What if I do some digging around? I have to talk to people for the obit anyway.”
Carl was quiet for a long moment. And then he took out a slip of paper from his desk and wrote his personal cell number on it. He slid it over to me the way people made job offers in old movies. The implication, if I was reading him right, was that he wanted my input, just not officially. That was good enough for me, so I grabbed the slip of paper and went on my way.
CHAPTER 9
I was a little rankled by how hard Mayor Lancett’s office was pushing Carl and the newspaper to close out the Davenport case. I guess I understood why she’d want it to go away, but shouldn’t she be more interested in seeing that justice was served? In any event, I reminded myself that her agenda had nothing to do with mine. My job was to find out as much as I could about Arthur Davenport’s life, and if the information I turned up just happened to shed light on who might have wanted to kill him, then so be it.
The first person I needed to talk to on both scores was Thad’s brother, David. I got his number from Tabitha’s file and texted to see if he could spare a few minutes. He texted right back that he had a break coming up soon and if I could get to the hospital right away, he’d be happy to talk to me.
I flew over to the hospital and ran inside, large iced mocha in hand. I wasn’t four steps inside the building when I tripped over a cord running across the floor and promptly fell flat on my ass. My mocha went all over the place, the ice cubes making the sound of shattered glass and skittering across the highly polished floor. Several people gasped as all eyes in the place turned to me.
“I’m okay!” I called out as brightly as I could manage. I was wearing a yellow sundress, now covered in brown splatters, that I hoped provided ample coverage as I crawled around on hands and knees trying and mostly failing to pick up the ice cubes and put them back into my cup.
“I’ll get that,” a man wearing dark blue coveralls said as he walked up with a mop and one of those rolling buckets. “That was quite a fall. Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
“Just my pride,” I said, standing up and smiling weakly. “Sorry about the mess.”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” the man said. “I’m sorry about having that cord there. I was just fixing to start working on the floor.”
“Nope, it was my fault. I was rushing.”
The man looked at me intently for a moment. I was starting to get uncomfortable when he said, “Are you by any chance that reporter from the Times? The one who busted Sheriff Tackett?”
This had happened a few times over the past month. Ours was a small town, and my picture had been in the paper after Holman and I had helped send the sheriff and county prosecutor to prison.
“That’s me.” I stuck my hand out to shake his. “Riley Ellison.”
“Jack. Nice to meet you.” He shook my hand. “If you’re in a hurry, you can go on ahead. I’ll get this taken care of.”
I hated to leave him with the mess I’d made, but I didn’t want to miss my opportunity to meet with David. “Thank you so much, Jack. I really appreciate your coming to my rescue!”
I made my way to the hospital caffeteria and scanned the room for a slightly younger version of Thad, which was what I expected David Davenport to look like. I was wrong.
“Riley?” A ridiculously handsome guy stood up from one of the small tables by the windows. He gave me a wide smile as he reached to shake my hand. “David Davenport. Sorry to make you come all the way down here, but this is my second home these days.”
I could already tell this guy had more charisma in his right dimple than his brother had in his whole body. His eyes flicked down to the mocha-colored Rorschach on the front of my otherwise sunny dress.
“I, um, had a little spill,” I said, feeling the heat creeping into my cheeks. And then I quickly changed the subject. “I’m so sorry about your father.”
David ran a hand through his thick, dark hair as
