Page 10 of Death on Riddle Road
“—but youwillkeep me informed.And youwillbe careful — my idea of careful and Ned’s idea of careful, not the amount of caution you think is good enough.In fact, try using the amount of caution that will let Ned and me relax.”
Clara snorted.“That would be sitting at home knitting and not talking to anybody ever.”
“That would be a start,” he said solemnly.
But he gave Clara’s elbow a friendly squeeze as he went past her and kissed me on the forehead as acceptable PDA.
Then he paused at the door.“With me working all hours on this case, Murphy—”
“I’ll get him,” Clara said immediately.She might be irked at the human, but she wouldn’t take that out on his dog under any circumstances.She had a key to Teague’s place for such contingencies, as well as impromptu play dates at the dog park.
“He could stay here,” I said.
Teague’s brows rose slightly at me.Possibly because I’d sounded possessive.
And I felt possessive.A little.Understandably, though.Why should Murphy always go to Clara’s?He was as much Gracie’s friend as LuLu’s.
And that, of course, was all this was about.
Clara sailed past that and any other subtext.“Either way, Murphy’ll be fine and we’ll let you know where he is.”
“Thanks,” Teague said.“Both of you.”
Right after the door closed behind him and Gracie gave a solitary bark to express disapproval of her flock diminishing, Clara said urgently, “You’re not going to back out now, are you?Ned and Teague worry needlessly, because wearecareful.”
“No, I’m not backing out.”Even if her urging and my curiosity didn’t do the trick, the novelty of Teague tacitly encouraging us might have.
Especially after what felt to me like Clara’s unfair — if oblique and/or secondhand — aspersions on the sheriff’s department and, by extension, on Teague.If this was how I could show him support, that was good, too.
Still...we’d made no promises about spilling all to him.
Yeah, it was complicated.
It was strange to have Teague not resisting our asking questions about a murder.Though his departing reminder about being careful did return us to familiar territory.
As for being careful, he might have a whisper of a point there.We certainlyintendedto use caution.Always.In retrospect, we might have pushed the envelope a time or two in the heat of the moment.
Clara, not being privy to this meandering thought stream was satisfied with my statement that I wasn’t backing out, and moved on.“There was something else you didn’t say to Teague, wasn’t there?”
“Uh-huh.”
“What?No, wait.Don’t tell me outright.Tell me what made you think about it, first.The more I understand, the more I might be able to think of these things myself.”
“It’s nothing brilliant—”
“I bet it is.Tell me.”
“I was wondering why someone who was going to die soon anyway would be murdered.”
Her frown of concentration cleared.“Because someone didn’t want to wait.Or they couldn’t get to him when he was in prison, but they can now.Or because someone thought dying naturally was too good for him.Or they thought he deserved to be murdered.Or all of those.”
“See?That’s all really good, Clara.”
“But there’s more, isn’t there?I can see it in your face.”
“Well, there is the possibility that beyond being happy that Derrick Dorrio is dead — murdered — they had something to do with it.In other words, someone could be reluctant to talk to the sheriff’s department because they know they’re predictable suspects or even because they’re guilty.”
“Of course, of course, of course.You’re saying there are two sides that’ll talk to us.People like Robbie and Dova and the rest of Derrick’s family will talk to us because we’re no threat, when they know the sheriff’s department will suspect them.”
