Page 34 of Deathtoll
“Did you just dump garbage on my desk?” The captain snapped his eyebrows together.
Murph dropped into a chair and nodded at the crumpled burger wrapper in the plastic bag he’d rescued from the carrot muffins. “All I’m saying is, you didn’t put this in Betty’s garbage the day you were there. Gabi didn’t have a burger either. I asked her. And the first time I checked that trash can, the wrapper wasn’t in there.”
Bing gave his long-suffering police captain sigh, kicking his feet out in front of him and leaning back in his chair. “You think you remember every piece of garbage in a nearly full can from a glance?”
“Linda Gonzales says Betty cut out fast food. She was watching her blood sugar.”
“I’m watching what I eat too.” Bing looked pointedly at the half-eaten grocery store coffee cake on the corner of his desk, not that far from the garbage. “We all slip up now and then.” He pushed the bagged-up burger wrapper back toward Murph.
Murph left his potential evidence where it was. “What would it hurt to dust it for prints?”
“If you miss police work so much, I hear Avondale PD is hiring.” But then the captain’s next words were said with concern. “You had a rough deployment a few years ago. You lost friends in Afghanistan, then you came home and got caught up in Kate’s mess. It’s not healthy to live in a constant state of hyperawareness.”
“Kate is safe. Mordocai and Asael are gone. That’s all in the past.”
“You had to use deadly force to save her from Mordocai.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. I’d kill the bastard again.”
“I’m not implying that you didn’t do the right thing, the same thing I would have done under the circumstances. I’m trying to tell you that you’ve been under considerable stress before you headed off for three years in witness protection with Kate, every second of which you spent looking over your shoulder. Living like that would make anyone a little paranoid. Listen, you’re back in Broslin. Relax. The PD is on the job. You don’t have to keep up this level of vigilance.”
The man was starting to tick off Murph. “You think my brain is bored, so I’m making up shit.”
“I’m saying you might be seeing things that aren’t there.”
He didn’t want to fight with Bing, who’d always been a friend, but he couldn’t let this go either. “What if Betty’s fall wasn’t an accident?”
“Who would push her? Why? Can’t think of anyone who had problems with her. Nothing was taken from her house. What’s the motive?”
“Maybe someone—” Murph began to say, but the captain’s phone interrupted.
Bing glanced at the screen. “The coroner.” He picked up the call and listened with an unreadable expression, before saying, “I appreciate the heads-up. Thanks.”
Then he hung up and flashed an extended, assessing look at Murph. “He’s sending over his report within the hour.” He paused for a moment, then another, and then he finally spoke. “Betty had some subcutaneous bruising on her chest.”
“Consistent with a hard shove.” Murph rubbed the heel of his hand over the armrest of his chair. “I’d rather have been wrong.”
Bing snapped up the plastic bag between them, then pushed a button on his desk phone. “Could you come into my office, please?”
Harper Finnegan popped in two seconds later. He had a new energy lately, an almost palpable contentment.He used to be Officer Casanova. Then he’d fallen hard for Allie Bianchi, settled down with her, and these days, he was fifty shades of happy bastard. Murph tried not to envy him too bad.
“Captain,” Harper said. “Murph.”
The captain handed him the bagged burger wrapper. “I need you to dust this for fingerprints. Top priority. Betty Gardner’s case.”
“I’ll get right on it.”
When Harper was gone, Murph asked, “Are you upgrading the case to suspicious death?”
Bing gave the idea consideration. “Not yet. The bruise could have any number of causes. Betty could have fallen against anything inside. A doorframe, the fridge, whatever. Maybe she was dizzy. Then she went out for some fresh air, a loop around the house. But her blood pressure dropped again, and she fell out there too, the wrong way this time, her head against concrete.” Before Murph could protest, Bing added, “We have no proof that says otherwise.”
“I want to help.”
“I want you to stop investigating.” Bing pronounced his words with a slow care that spelled a warning. “You are no longer a member of this department. If therewasfoul play involved, the perpetrator’s lawyer is going to have a field day in court with your civilian interference. It’s going to discredit my case.”
The tension between them was new. The captain tended to be a reasonable man. The general mood at the PD was friendly camaraderie. Of course, Murph hadn’t been a part of the PD for a while. They were no longer on the same team, didn’t have the same goals. The captain wanted all rules and regulations obeyed, while Murph wanted to keep Kate safe, whatever that required.
He didn’t want a fight, though, so he stood. “I’d better get to work.”
