Page 68 of What the Wife Knew

I crossed my legs then uncrossed them. Getting comfortable proved impossible. “You’ve kept that little nugget of information well hidden.”

“Peter Cullen’s first stop after his son’s funeral was my office.” The detective shrugged. “I’ve been dealing with the man for months.”

The dismissive tone pissed me off. Peter Cullen, the grieving father. A man who deserved better. “You mean you’ve been ignoring any negative information about Richmond and focusing on me instead.”

Elias took a seat on the couch. “Let’s listen—”

The detective talked over Elias. “Mrs. Dougherty, I have two children. I can assure you I didn’t ignore Mr. Cullen’s pain.”

I barely thought of the detective as a functioning human let alone a dad. I’d worked the gossip angles, blending in while in town and listening, looking like a tourist and not attracting attention, in those days before I approached Richmond for the first time. My focus had stayed on my target, but an overview of the town’s inner workings might have been helpful before setting off on this wild misadventure.

Engaged and ready for whatever accusation the detective lobbed in my direction, I sat forward on the edge of the couch cushion. “Then you know Peter thinks Richmond didn’t perform Ben’s surgery.”

“Yes.”

Huh. This might be some new ploy to get me to talk. “And that August or Richmond’s negligence, or some combination, killed Peter’s son.”

Elias frowned. “Hold on. That hasn’t been established.”

“Yes,” the detective said at the same time.

I wrapped my fingers around the edge of the couch cushion and squeezed. “Then why have you been all over me?”

“Because if I learned that my supposedly perfect new husband—the one I clearly married for his prestige and bank account—was a fake, didn’t have nearly the surgical skills he claimed and everyone in his practice pretended he had, and that his actions likely led to the death of a child, I’d be pissed. I might just kill that new husband for ruining everything.”

The constant thrum of questions and rethinking stopped running through my head.

Elias whistled. “That’s quite a hypothetical, Nick.”

“You’re agreeing that Richmond’s reputation was based on a lie?” It was but I needed the detective tosayit. I needed everyone to know it, and this was the way to begin that process.

“Overblown, according to August. Richmond’s name brought a lot of attention to the medical practice and the hospital. There’s a suggestion that being in the spotlight interested Richmond more than keeping his skills sharp, so the practice used him for PR.”

“In other words, Richmond got lazy, to the extent he was evensuch a big expert to begin with, which I now question.” Lazy. Negligent. Narcissistic. Dangerous. A jackass, in general, and a killer without doubt. Richmond wore a cloak of charisma he could throw off or cling to, depending on what he needed to be in the moment. His objective good looks covered the rest of the rot and decay underneath... until you got to know him.

Richmond both lived too long and died too soon. He deserved to wallow in the defeat of his crashing downfall. He also deserved to be dead, so in a way, things worked out fine.

“August says the rest of the team covered for Richmond to keep the accolades coming and the money rolling in,” the detective said.

“Which means the good Dr. Thomas Linfield, head of that practice, knew the truth and is covering it up.” I glanced at Elias. “A lot of your friends suck.”

“He’s not a friend or a client.”

The detective nodded. “Good to know since he’s the next person I’ll be talking to.”

“Peter didn’t kill Richmond.” I needed to say that. State the line as a fact and be clear. The man had been through enough. “There’s no reason for Richmond to let him in this house. That leads to a new problem. Why would August want Richmond dead? To clear his own name, August needed Richmond alive.”

“Careful, you might just discount all of the potential suspects except for you.” The detective moved on, clearly not wanting a response to that comment. “You’re sure about the scent during the attack?”

Elias winced. “It’s distinctive.”

“It was the amount. At the time of the attack, August had it slathered on like a high school senior looking to get laid at promrather than a professional man who wanted to smell nice. This time was much more subtle, but it lingered.”

The detective nodded, taking it all in. “Things are about to blow up and go public. Seems to me if you have anything to add about who Richmond really was, now’s the time to do it.”

“No. I’m good.” Nice try but we weren’t friends. The detective wasn’t on my side. He needed Richmond’s murder solved and it sounded like he had scattered theories about what might have happened and nothing to support any of it. No way was I getting sucked into that.

Detective Sessions didn’t say anything else. He nodded to Elias and walked out, leaving my head spinning and the stack of possible murder suspects more jumbled than ever. A woman could get whiplash.

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