Page 32 of What Happened Last Night

“Dammit, Carlotta,” I shouted. “This isn’t a fucking game. What did you do with the knife?”

“I didn’t do anything with the stupid fucking knife,” Carlotta shouted back.

She stood up abruptly.

“Where are you going?” I demanded. “What about your breakfast?”

“I just lost my appetite,” she snapped.

She practically ran from the room, and I sat eating in silence, my mind ticking over again. She soon jumped from saying she didn’t remember anything to denying moving the knife. She was lying. It was obvious to me that she was guilty. She must have had something to hide or she wouldn’t have run out like that.

I debated my next move as I finished up my breakfast. I tried to convince myself that the police learning I had gotten Candy pregnant meant nothing. But if Carlotta had killed Candy for revenge, what if she decided to get her revenge on me by pretending she remembered something and blaming all of this on me? I didn’t want to drop her in it for the murder if it wasn’t going to come to that, but I knew I had to cover my bases.

I thought for a moment, and then I picked up my cellphone and called the precinct. I asked for Detective Del Rey, but I was told he was out. The lady on the phone asked me if I wanted him to call me back, but I decided against that. It would actually be easier to get this message to the detective without having to actually speak to him. He might hear something in my voice that raised his suspicions of me.

“No, thank you. Could you please just get a message to him? Can you tell him William Alden called to report to him that my wife, Carlotta, is acting strangely? He’ll know who we are. Don’t worry.”

I hung up before she could answer. Perhaps the best-case scenario for me now would be if the woman forgot to pass on the message. If Carlotta did try to pin this all on me, then I had myself covered to say that it was her and I’d tried to report it sooner. And if she didn’t, well then, there was no harm done.

Chapter Sixteen

Jamie

Iwas just parking my car when my cellphone rang. It was the precinct, and I took the call. It seemed too quick for it to be the results of the DNA test, but Dr. Karloff had told me he would make the test a priority and to expect the results today sometime, so I was optimistic with the call coming from the main switchboard rather than one of the team.

“Detective Del Rey,” I said, taking the call.

“Hi, Detective Del Rey. It’s Joan from the front desk. I have a rather odd message for you. A William Alden called in and asked me to tell you his wife is behaving strangely. He said you would know what it’s about.”

“I do. Thanks, Joan,” I said.

I ended the call and sat in my car for a couple of minutes. I obviously knew who the message was from and who it was about, but what the hell did William mean by saying his wife was acting strangely? And what was his agenda? Was he trying to push suspicion onto Carlotta now that we had taken a DNA sample from him?

It was just one more thing to file away in the strange events file for now. As soon as I got the results of the DNA test, if they proved William was the father of Candy’s baby, I would be going to see him. Now, I guess I would be going either way. And finding out what the hell his cryptic message was meant to mean while I was there.

For now, though, I had to focus on the task at hand, finding an employee willing to risk getting in trouble for talking shit about their boss behind his back.

I went into the building and asked at the desk for William’s secretary, Juliette. She seemed like the best place to start. I was directed to her desk. I introduced myself and asked her if we could talk. She went off to find someone to cover her and took me into William’s office.

“Mr. Alden is out sick after being hit by a car, so we won’t be bothered in here,” Juliette said. “Is this about Candy Xavier? Terrible business, all of that, isn’t it? Mind you, I’m not sure how much help I’ll be. I barely knew the girl. But I’ll sure try.”

Maybe this wasn’t going to be as bad as I had thought it would be. Juliette was a talker. I just had to convince her I was a friendly ear and she would likely spill every secret William had ever had.

“It is about Candy. And yes, it’s a terrible business,” I said. “So young, her whole life ahead of her. And now she’s gone, just like that. I can’t help but wonder how Mr. Alden is taking the news. I mean, he acted like he wasn’t upset, but I could see that he was a little shaken.”

“Why would Mr. Alden be upset about it? Candy didn’t work directly under him,” Juliette said.

She was testing the water, seeing how much I knew. I knew exactly how to play this now.

“Well, I thought with their being a thing, he might be a little upset,” I said, feigning surprise as though I believed Juliette didn’t know.

“What do you mean?” she said, wide-eyed and full of fake innocence.

“Oh, I’m sorry. God, I’ve really put my foot in it here, haven’t I? Mr. Alden mentioned something about him and Candy seeing each other, and I assumed with your being his secretary, you would know. But maybe he didn’t share stuff like that with you. Never mind. I’m sure I can get what I need from one of the other interns who knew Candy.”

I started to stand up, and Juliette reached out and touched my arm.

“Wait,” she said. “I knew about the fling. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I approved of it, but I knew about it.”

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