Page 50 of What Happened Last Night

“So now you understand, Detective? Why I am so sure that William Alden killed my daughter. And if you don’t get that yet, then believe me, you will when you’ve read her diary.”

“I promise that if William is the killer, he’ll go to prison for a very long time,” I said.

“You still don’t get it, do you, Detective? Your promises are not enough. I need justice, revenge, and I need it now. I thought that telling you how Candy changed so much after William Alden broke her heart would make you see it, but it hasn’t, has it? I still need to do this myself. But that’s okay. I knew it might come to this, and I’m willing to do what I have to do for my girl.”

I felt my heart lurch. As much as I felt for the man, that was a definite threat to William’s life, and I knew I had to start taking this seriously. I couldn’t arrest him—it wasn’t illegal to say something, only to actually do it—but I could hopefully prevent another tragedy.

“Please, Morrie, just let us handle this, okay?”

Morrie didn’t reply, and I knew nothing I said at this point would help matters. It would only agitate him more. I stood up.

“Thank you for the diary,” I said.

Morrie nodded.

“Make sure you look after it,” he reminded me again.

“I will.”

He didn’t come to see me out. I glanced back at him as I pulled the front door closed. He was sitting where I had left him, his head in his hands. I had a really bad feeling about this, and I decided to put a call in to the chief and tell him I needed an officer on Morrie. It was only a precaution at this point, but I felt it was prudent to make sure Morrie didn’t get anywhere near the Aldens, particularly William.

I walked back to my car and drove away from Morrie’s house. I waited until I was out of sight of the house and then pulled over and got my cellphone out of the glove box. I found the number for the chief and hit Call. I had already briefed him on everything that had happened with the case, and he approved of the tactic of laying heavily on Carlotta until she broke and told us what had really happened, although he was still antsy and still wanted answers quickly. In some ways, he was almost more of a nuisance to me at this point than Morrie was, but at least I didn’t think the chief might go off and hurt someone. Well, except maybe for me if I didn’t get him some answers soon.

“Hello?” the chief said, taking my call.

“Hey, Chief. It’s Jamie. Listen, I need an officer on Morrie Xavier at all times. I’ve just been to talk to him and he’s getting impatient. He’s convinced William Alden needs to pay, regardless of whether he actually pushed Candy out the window. He is saying she died inside when he ended their affair. He’s unstable, Chief, and I’d like him watched just to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere near William Alden.”

“No can do,” the chief said.

“What?” I demanded. “Didn’t you hear what I just said?”

“I heard you, but we’re stretched too thinly as it is at the moment,” he said.

“You told me to just let you know if I needed more manpower,” I reminded him.

“I did say that, but I thought it was clear that I meant if you needed more manpower to actually solve the case, not to babysit a grieving man. You know how grief works, Detective. People say things they don’t mean. If I put men on everyone who said something off in these circumstances, I’d have no one left to actually solve any crimes.”

“I really think he could be dangerous, Chief,” I said.

“Then might I suggest you get your thumb out of your ass and solve this damned thing and stop Mr. Xavier from feeling like he has to take matters into his own hands?” the chief said. “Once you have William behind bars where he belongs, then you won’t have to worry about Mr. Xavier being able to get to him, will you?”

He ended the call, leaving me sitting alone and frustrated with a deadline pressed against my ear. I shook my head. I knew what the chief was saying about grief making people say things they didn’t necessarily mean, but he wasn’t there when I had spoken to Morrie. He hadn’t seen the quiet desperation that gripped Morrie. He hadn’t seen the way his eyes changed when he said William Alden’s name. I needed him to believe me on this one, to trust my instincts, but it seemed that was too much to ask.

I couldn’t just leave it like this, though. Generally, in these circumstances, I would keep the knowledge to myself to avoid causing any sort of panic, but in this case, I was so worried Morrie would actually try to harm William that I knew I had to warn him. It wasn’t enough that I had spoken to the chief. If I didn’t warn William and something happened to him at Morrie’s hands, then his blood would be on my hands every bit as it was on Morrie’s hands.

Chapter Twenty-Six

William

Ifrowned to myself when my cellphone rang, and I saw Detective Del Rey’s number on my screen. Getting a call from the detective couldn’t be good. I almost ignored the call, but then I realized that maybe the detective was just calling me to inform me of how the case was progressing.

Now that I had given one of his officers the information about Carlotta, it seemed only fitting that they were treating me as a witness now rather than a potential suspect. That had to be what it was. I picked the cellphone up and took the call.

“Detective Del Rey. What can I do for you?” I said.

“Did you ever meet Morrie Xavier? Candy’s father?” Detective Del Rey asked, throwing me completely for a moment. “Or at least, have you seen him enough to recognize him again?”

Had I met the man? No, of course, I hadn’t. It’s not like I thought of Candy as my girlfriend or anything, and I certainly wouldn’t have been in a rush to meet her parents. I had seen him once or twice when I dropped Candy off at home after one of our sessions and he was peeking out the window.

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