Page 14 of What Happened Last Night

“I know who you are, Sharon,” I said, unable to keep the smile out of my voice.

Dr. Karloff had been the main coroner for the state for as long as I could remember, and I spoke to Sharon regularly.

“Sorry.” She laughed. “Force of habit. Dr. Karloff wanted me to call you to let you know the autopsy of Candy Xavier is scheduled for six o’clock tomorrow evening. He thought you might like to be present.”

“I would. Thanks for letting me know, Sharon. Have a good day,” I said, and then I ended the call.

I wasn’t sure what the autopsy could tell me that I didn’t already know, but I knew it was part of my duty to be there either way. And besides, it would be good to catch up with Dr. Karloff. A lot of the detectives found him to be insufferable. He was loud, boisterous, and somewhat eccentric, but I liked the man. He was a good guy, and we were friendly enough that we caught up outside of work for a drink or two now and again. He was reliable, and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to see if he had any insights he could let me in on, things that wouldn’t make it to the record but could help in some way.

I knew I was clutching at straws, but sometimes, in a case like this one, straws were all you had.

Chapter Eight

William

Icalled the office and let them know I wouldn’t be in today. I didn’t tell them why. I was sure they'd find out soon enough, but until then, I’d preferred not to have to answer a bunch of questions. Once in a day was enough for that shit, and I’d had my fill of it from the station. Carlotta and I were finally allowed to leave at around two p.m. with warnings not to leave the country and that we needed to be available if they need anything else from us. I was kind of tempted to just hop on a plane and ignore what Officer Dumont said, but deep down, I knew that would only make me look guilty and I had nothing to hide.

Well, nothing except for my affair with Candy. And I knew how to hide that. I picked my cellphone up and began going through everything. I started with my call log and then moved on to my text messages. I had to get rid of any trace of Candy from my cellphone. I deleted all the texts, all the sexts, and all the calls. Next, I knew I would have to delete the sexy nudes she had sent me, as much as I knew I would regret that once they were gone. I would also have to delete her phone number from my contacts list.

“Who are you texting?” Carlotta asked me.

I had almost forgotten that she was there. I glanced at her, trying to bite down my anger at her. So much of this was her fault, and she didn’t seem to see that at all. Who I was or wasn’t texting was none of her business, but I didn’t think I had the energy for another fight with her, so I decided to just tell her the truth.

“No one,” I said. “I’m erasing all of my texts from Candy. I don’t want a single trace of her left on my phone when I’m done.”

Carlotta rolled her eyes and shook her head, looking at me like I was a child who had said something so stupid, she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“The cops will know you’ve done that, William. They’ll get access to your calls and texts from your cellphone provider if they want them. And then when they see your cellphone, they’ll know you erased them all. It’ll make you look guilty.”

“Then I’ll erase all of my calls and texts and they’ll think I just like a clean inbox,” I fired back.

“They won’t believe that’s normal. Seriously, William, just stop it,” she insisted.

I knew suddenly what she was trying to do. She was trying to confuse me and make me panic. She wanted me to leave everything on my phone so that the cops could find it and it would make me look like the guilty party.

“You’re incriminating yourself by trying to hide this,” Carlotta added.

I laughed, a bitter sound that I didn’t like one bit.

“You mean you’re trying to incriminate me by trying to convince me to leave a ton of circumstantial evidence behind that all points to me,” I said scornfully.

Carlotta’s eyes filled with tears. She blinked and they started to run down her face.

I sighed. “Oh, here we go. The water works.”

She glared at me through her tears.

“You know what, William? You do what you like. And when you incriminate yourself, don’t say I didn’t warn you, all right?”

“For fuck’s sake, Carlotta. You’re so damned manipulative,” I said, shaking my head.

I put my phone down, letting her think she had won this one, when in reality, I had finished deleting everything I wanted rid of. I kept a couple of Candy’s naked pictures, ones where her face wasn’t in them. I needed something to look at to remind me of better times when Carlotta started like this again.

“Screw you, William. I’m done with all of this,” Carlotta said.

She picked up a book from the small table beside her. She stared intently at the pages, but her eyes didn’t move. She wasn’t reading the book. She just wanted to cut off our conversation. Well, screw that.

I got to my feet and crossed the floor to Carlotta. She didn’t even look up until I snatched the book out of her hands and put it back on the table.

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