Page 37 of What Happened Last Night

“You knew all along, didn’t you?” a voice said.

I frowned. The voice was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place it. It definitely didn’t belong to either of the Aldens. And I had no idea what the voice was talking about. What had I known all along?

“Excuse me?” I said.

Maybe it was a wrong number and they had just launched into their accusation without listening to my name as I took the call.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Detective. I sat there and poured my heart out to you about the monster who corrupted my daughter, and you pretended like you didn’t know what I was talking about. Well, there’s no denying it now, is there? It’s all right here in black and white.”

It hit me immediately who it was then. Morrie Xavier, Candy’s father. And of course I knew what he was talking about. The affair he knew Candy had been having and how he’d somehow figured that we should arrest William for Candy’s murder based solely on the affair.

My day was just getting better and better. I found myself wishing I were still in Amsterdam. Even being at home in bed would do.

“Mr. Xavier, please calm down,” I said. “As I told you yesterday, having an affair with someone is not a crime. We can’t arrest anyone for that.”

“Fine. So arrest him for killing my daughter then. Him and that no-good wife of his. She’s covering for him, Detective. You mark my words.”

I sighed and ran my hands over my face.

“Mr. Xavier, again, we can’t just arrest people with no evidence that they’ve done anything wrong, and your assertions have no evidence to back them up.”

“Oh, come on, Detective. Even the so-called journalist at the rag knows it was one of those two who killed my girl. Just arrest both of them. One of them killed her and the other one lied about what happened. Surely, that’s a crime in itself,” Morrie went on, his voice loud enough to make my ears ring.

My cellphone beeped. I pulled it away from my ear and glanced at the screen. There was a call waiting. It was the coroner. I really needed to get Morrie off the line and take that call. Of course, that was easier said than done.

“Mr. Xavier, please stop shouting,” I said. “Of course it’s a crime to lie to the police and cover up a murder. But until we find evidence to prove who killed your daughter and who did the lying, there’s nothing we can do. We can’t just charge them both for murder and hope it sticks. It’s a sure-fire way to get them both acquitted and then no one pays for your daughter’s death.”

“I’ve told you before, Detective. If you’re not willing to deal with this, then I will,” Morrie said as I put the cellphone back to my ear. “I have a good mind to go over there and talk to this bastard myself. I’ll get a confession out of him. You mark my words, I will.”

“I’m going to pretend like I didn’t hear that,” I said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Mr. Xavier, I have an important call waiting regarding your daughter’s case. I assure you that you will be the first to know when we find out who did this. And we will find out.”

“Yeah. You’d better,” Morrie snapped, and then he ended the call.

I sighed again. The man was grieving, and I was trying my best to keep my patience with him, but he wasn’t a nice man and he was making my life more difficult with his constant interruptions. He couldn’t seem to work out that for every minute of my time he wasted, it was a minute I wasn’t able to work on the case.

I didn’t really think he would turn up at the Aldens’ place. He had to know that wouldn’t help anything and would more likely than not end up in his own arrest.

I tried to put Morrie out of my mind. I went to my call log and hit Call beside the missed call from Dr. Karloff’s office.

Please give me something I can use. Anything, I thought to myself as I listened to the call connect. It rang a few times and then Sharon picked up.

“Coroner’s office, Sharon speaking. How can I help you?”

“Hey, Sharon. It’s Jamie Del Rey. I just missed a call from Dr. Karloff,” I said. “I was waiting for some test results from the lab. Any chance you have the results for me?”

“Hi, Detective. I don’t have the results here. Dr. Karloff must have them himself. Can I just pop you on hold for a second while I see if he’s free?”

“Sure,” I replied, but I was too late.

The hold music was already playing as I answered her. I had to admire Sharon’s style, how she made it sound like there was a choice about being put on hold but didn’t actually wait to hear the person moaning, if that’s what they were going to do. I didn’t have to wait long before Sharon came back on the line.

“Dr. Karloff is free, Detective. I’ll pass you through now,” she said.

“Thank you,” I replied.

I heard a couple of clicking sounds on the line and then Dr. Karloff’s voice filled my ear.

“Hey, Jamie. How’s things?”

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