Page 71 of Wham Line
Jethro froze.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” I said, “but it’ll come out eventually.How do you think it’s going to look that Mal’s son didn’t identify himself after Mal’s death, and not only that, but he inherits everything?That’s a big motive, Jethro.And you can give me that story about going to sit out in your car that night, but that doesn’t hold water.I’ve got an eyewitness who saw you going back into the restaurant at the exact time you claim you were quietly sitting in your car.”
Jethro pushed himself up from the bed again.He folded his arms.“I think you should leave.”
“You’re not doing yourself any favors,” Bobby said.
“Do you know what I think happened?”I asked.“I think you did shoot Mal.I think you hated him because he’d abandoned you and your mom, and I think you played along with the whole reconciliation scenario until you knew you were going to get everything.Then you decided to get rid of him.”
“No, I didn’t,” Jethro said; it verged on a shout.
“I think you hid the gun somewhere, went back and got it, and instead of getting rid of it, you brought it back here because you already knew you needed to get rid of Sparkie.You were going to hold on to the gun so that you could use it to frame her.”
“That’s crazy!”
“But instead, Indira found it.You saw her break into your room.You saw her take the gun.And that made things even easier for you because now you had a suspect who had incriminated herself.You made an anonymous call to the sheriff’s office to tell them about the gun, and then you followed me around to make sure I didn’t get too close to the truth.”
“None of this is true.I wouldn’t have hurt Mal!I never would have hurt anybody!”
“Then where were you when Mal was being shot?And don’t give me that story about being out in your car, because we both know it’s a bunch of horse-plop.”
(I didn’texactlysay horse-plop.)
Jethro set his jaw.He was trembling.A second passed.And then two.He blinked his eyes to keep the tears from falling.
And then the bathroom door opened, and Nalini stepped out.
“He wasn’t in his car,” Nalini said.“He was with me.He went out the front, like he was going to his car, and then he came in through a side door.We were—we were in one of the storage closets.”She tilted her chin, the gesture defiant, and in its own way, it reminded me of Indira.“Together.”
Bobby looked at me.
I said, “I was wondering what it would take for you to come out of there.”
Nalini blinked.
Jethro’s shoulders sagged.And he blurted, “You knew?”
“For heaven’s sake,” I said.“I have an eighteen-year-old living in my house, and his girlfriend practically lives there too.Do you think I’ve never heard somebody try to hide the fact that he has a girl in his room?”
Jethro looked at Bobby.
Bobby said, “It’s a lot.”
“One time,” I said, “she was wearing roller skates, and I don’t even want toknowwhy.”
“Back on topic,” Bobby urged quietly.
“Right.Well.The point—”
“The point is that Jethro has an alibi,” Nalini said, crossing the room to stand next to him.“And I do too.We were together when Mal was shot.Neither of us had anything to do with it.”
“Or you’re in on it together,” Bobby said.
Nalini didn’t exactly have the same witchy energy as Indira, but let me tell you: that girl’s gaze could have melted stone.
Bobby, of course, was unfazed.
“What about the gun?”I asked.“How did it get into your room?”
