Gloria snorted and rolled her eyes. Zachary was taken aback by her response.
“They… weren’t close, then?”
“My mother is close to Rhys. He idolized Papa. But Robin? No. She didn’t have much use for him and he didn’t have anything to do with her.”
“You took him to the hospital to visit her, didn’t you?”
“Yes, of course. That was the right thing to do.”
What had Rhys thought of that? Had he been happy to go see her? Had he understood that she was dying? There was no indication that he was slow, so he must have understood that she was dying of cancer.
“That wasn’t difficult for him? He didn’t object to going?”
“Of course he didn’t want to go. But that doesn’t mean he was going to get away with not going. If I told him he had to come to the hospital with us, he had to come to the hospital with us. Sometimes he had homework or other things he had to do and I’d let him off, but most of the time… he came with us. He could sit quietly and patiently and visit like a grown-up.”
“He could visit with her?” Zachary was getting more confused about Rhys’s condition and abilities rather than less.
“He could sit with her. Hold her hand. Get things for her. Answer basic yes or no questions. I expected him to do his part, just like anyone else.”
“I’m sorry for acting like a dunce,” Zachary apologized. “I was told that he couldn’t talk at all, and I had formed this picture in my mind about what his capabilities were… I don’t mean to insult either of you by asking stupid questions.”
Gloria’s expression softened a little and she attempted a reassuring smile. “Of course not. They’re not stupid questions. You’re just trying to understand. Think of any teenage boy. You know how they tend to give closed, one-word answers to everything you ask? How was your day? Fine. How was the math test? Good. Did you do your homework? Not yet.”
Zachary had to smile. “Yes.”
“Well, Rhys is just the same, except most of the time he doesn’t bother with the answer. You know what it is anyway. Just like you know that the average uncommunicative teenager is going to say ‘fine’ when you ask him how his day was. But you ask it anyway.”
“Does he understand why Robin’s death is being investigated?”
Gloria shook her head slightly, scowling. “I’m not sure I understand why it’s being investigated. We haven’t talked to him about it.”
“I’d like the opportunity to talk to Rhys, if I could. I’d like to see what he thinks of all of this.”
Her expression was immediately closed. “I don’t see what good that would do you. How would talking to Rhys help you? He can’t tell you anything. He doesn’t know anything about what’s been going on. No. There’s no reason for you to talk to him.”
Vera shuffled back into the room.
“Is he okay?” Gloria asked. But she didn’t, Zachary noted, make any sign she would check in on him.
“He’ll be fine,” Vera assured her. She looked at Zachary. “It’s all been very hard on him. He’s already had to deal with one murder in his young life, so all of this is very disturbing. He doesn’t like everything being so disrupted.”
“Nobody likes it,” Gloria snapped. “I wish they would just say everything is fine and send her back to the funeral home, so we can have her cremated and have the funeral. At this rate, who knows how long it will be before she’s released? It could be months or years before we can lay her to rest.” This comment was aimed at Vera, obviously intended to get her wound up.
“Years?” Vera reacted immediately. “How could it take years? They can’t just keep her for that long. That’s not right! How are we supposed to deal with this if we can’t move on?”
“It won’t be that long. Probably just a couple of days. The coroner is doing the autopsy right away,” Zachary reassured her. “They’ll release… her remains back to the funeral home very quickly.”
“Can you guarantee that?” Gloria challenged. “You’re not in charge of the police department or coroner’s office. They don’t answer to you.”
“I’m just telling you what’s likely to happen. They don’t keep bodies for that long.”
“But they could.”
Zachary squared his shoulders and didn’t argue with her any further.
“I wonder if you could tell me some details about your husband’s murder,” Zachary said to Vera.
“His murder?” She looked confused, peering at Zachary and then looking uncertainly over at Gloria. “Why would you need to know that?”
“I know there probably isn’t any connection between his murder and Robin’s death, but it’s just one of those things that I try to explore. You don’t want there to be any loose ends.”
“Robin was not murdered,” Vera said.
“I didn’t say she was. I just want to know the history. The big picture. Then I can tell Bridget that I’ve looked at everything. I haven’t left any stones unturned.”
“I don’t know.” Vera again looked at Gloria, trying to determine what she was supposed to do. “It was so long ago, I don’t see how it could help you.”
“I’m sure there’s probably no connection,” Zachary repeated. “I just want to cover all of the bases.”
“Well… Clarence… that was my husband… he was home one night with Rhys. Just the two of them. Gloria and I were out. Clarence was babysitting. I mean, not that it’s babysitting when it’s your own grandson. When we got home… well, it was Gloria who discovered Clarence… Clarence’s body.”
Zachary looked over to Gloria to see what she had to contribute. She shook her head.
“It was the most awful thing I’ve ever seen,” she said, her voice flat and unemotional. She could have been announcing the weather or the moves in a chess match. “He was there, at the kitchen table. He’d been shot at close range. The police said that he was probably startled by a burglar who thought the house was empty.”
“Sitting at the table?” Zachary repeated. “No struggle?”
“No.” Gloria shook her head. “Papa didn’t hear too well. They were probably in the house and he never heard them… until they walked in on him.”
“And Rhys? Where was he?”
“He was in his bed. He didn’t see what happened.”
Zachary frowned. If Rhys hadn’t seen anything, then why had he been so deeply affected by it? And how did Gloria know if he saw anything or not if he had been uncommunicative since then and withdrew any time they asked him about it?
“Just stop it,” Vera said. “That’s all Rhys would say for days after it happened. Just stop it. Just stop it. Any time anyone tried to ask him about it, that was all he would say.”
“But eventually, he stopped saying that too,” Gloria sighed.
Zachary let a few moments of silence pass, waiting to see if there was anything else Vera or Gloria might have to offer. He let out his breath slowly. He wasn’t sure he’d made any forward progress.
“There was one other thing I wanted to follow up on.” He looked from one face to the other, watching them for any change. “I understand there were some domestic violence reports and a restraining order.”
Their eyes widened and they turned toward each other simultaneously. Fear and anxiety. This was not something they had been expecting. Gloria recovered first.
“That was a long time ago,” she said. “Ancient history.”
“I see.”
“I don’t know why you’re bringing it up. It doesn’t have anything to do with Robin’s death.”
“Maybe not,” Zachary said. “Just covering all bases. Was Lawrence abusive toward Robin?”
“Lawrence?” Gloria was incredulous. “No, no, certainly not Lawrence. All of that business… that was when she was dating Stanley, not Lawrence.”
Zachary remembered the family picture with Stanley in it. “Robin’s fiancé.”
“Yes. They were engaged, but then they broke up. Probably a good thing.”
&
nbsp; “Was that before or after Clarence’s death?”
Gloria frowned in concentration. She looked over at Vera. “Ma, do you remember? It was after, wasn’t it? Stanley was still around when Papa passed.”
Vera’s eyes were vague and misty as she searched the past. Eventually, she nodded. “Yes. It was after Clarence died.”
“Was there something particular they broke up over? Was it because of abuse?”
“People change,” Gloria said obliquely. “Robin wasn’t the same person before she died as she was… ten years ago when she was with Stanley.”
“A lot of women keep picking the same kind of men over and over again. They get rid of one abuser, only to pick a new one. But Robin straightened things out? She didn’t pick another abuser?”
Gloria and Vera again exchanged a look.
“No, Lawrence wasn’t abusive,” Vera assured Zachary. “He’s gentle as a kitten. He would never have hurt anyone. He is an artist.”
“Sometimes people hide their real personalities, bury them deep down, so you don’t see it unless you do something that triggers them. They might seem perfectly normal and reasonable on the surface, and it isn’t until you’re close to them that you discover their demons.”
Zachary should know, he’d been there enough times.
“No. Not Lawrence. He doesn’t get angry.”
“What about emotional abuse? A woman might move from someone who is physically abusive to someone who is verbally and emotionally abusive and not understand that they’re living with someone who is unreasonable and just perpetuating the cycle of abuse. Because he doesn’t hit her, she thinks he’s different, and that she’s just not adequate.”
Vera and Gloria shook their heads. Zachary watched them closely. They were hiding something. Those looks had meant something. But if Lawrence had been abusive, why would they hide the fact? If there were any chance she had been killed by an abuser, wouldn’t they want it to be known? Wouldn’t they want him to be put in jail?
Abusers could be charming to everyone outside their immediate family. They could fool everyone into thinking that the victim was lying or exaggerating about the abuser’s behavior. Vera and Gloria might think that Lawrence was perfect, but the chances that he had never lost his temper were slim. Just because they hadn’t seen it, that didn’t mean he had never gotten angry and physically or verbally abusive.
“That all happened a long time ago,” Gloria repeated. “It doesn’t have anything to do with Robin’s death.”
Maybe. Or maybe it was a pattern. But Zachary agreed in order to put their minds at ease. “I understand. Sorry, I just have to make sure everything has been investigated. I want to be able to tell Bridget conclusively that Robin died as a result of the cancer, there was no outside interference. That’s what you want too, isn’t it?”
They both nodded, relaxing as he abandoned the topic.
“Those last days in the hospital… have you thought of anything that happened that was unusual? Any little thing that concerned you, even if it was just for an instant?”
Vera shook her head, staring vaguely into the distance. Gloria gave an exaggerated shrug. “Nothing. Don’t you think we would have told the police?”
“Sometimes the things that bother us can be so small that we think they’re not of any value. Or we think that no one will believe us or will think anything of it. So we just brush it off.” He looked at both of them carefully, looking for any flicker of doubt.
“No,” Gloria insisted.
“None of the nurses did anything that concerned you? None of them treated you like they didn’t want you there?”
“We would have told the police.”
Zachary nodded his understanding. He prepared to get up.
“Do you mind… could I use your facilities before I go?”
Gloria scowled and seemed to be about to deny him access, but Vera nodded, always the gracious host. “Of course you can. The bathroom is just in this hallway,” Vera gestured, “to the left. Last door.”
“Thanks. Too much coffee today, I’m thinking!”
Zachary headed for the bathroom before Gloria could try to override her mother and tell Zachary he’d have to find a public restroom on his way home. He found the bathroom, shut and locked the door, and turned on the exhaust fan to help muffle any noise.
He opened the medicine cabinet behind the mirror and scanned the rows of bottles of liquids and pills. It had occurred to him that even if all of the hospital’s insulin was accounted for, Vera or Gloria could be diabetic and have their own insulin prescriptions. A few bottles had prescription labels, most of them in Vera’s name, but he didn’t see any insulin. Zachary had no idea if any of the prescriptions would be poisonous in the wrong dose. He had to assume that they would be.
He turned a few of the bottles so that all of the labels were facing out, then used his phone to take pictures of a few at a time. There were some nonprescription sleep aids, painkillers, vitamin and mineral supplements, and one of the same immune boosters as Zachary had picked up from the hospital pharmacy. Nothing unusual. Nothing he wouldn’t find in any other medicine cabinet in any other home. Zachary closed the cabinet quietly and turned on the water.
While he ran the tap, he opened and closed the drawers of the vanity. Bandages, tweezers, toothpaste, razors, feminine products. Nothing unexpected or unusual. Not that he’d expected to find a prescribed lethal dose or anything with a skull and crossbones on it. There was no sign of rat poison, household cleaners, or any chemicals that would have made more sense stored in a garden shed.
He hadn’t expected to find anything, but he was still a little disappointed. It would have been nice to turn the murder weapon over to the police. A big ego boost.
But that wasn’t going to happen.
Chapter Seventeen
Z
achary checked his voicemail as he got back into his car to see whether Bridget had called. He was also hoping for a call back from Bowman. Zachary had left a message for him early in the morning before he actually got on shift, asking him about the police incident files on Robin. If the records went back ten years, they would have to pull files back from storage. They wouldn’t still be on site. There were computer files, or Campbell wouldn’t have known any details. Hopefully, Zachary could get printouts of those. But he wanted the physical file too. He knew from experience that there could be important reports or notes on the file that hadn’t made it to the computer. A computer record from ten years before would only be a summary, not the full documentation.
There were no messages from Bridget or from Bowman. But there was one from Kenzie’s work number. Did they already have preliminary results from the autopsy?
Zachary got comfortable in the car, then listened to the message, which only told him to call Kenzie back, with no hint of what she wanted to talk about.
Zachary tapped to call back, and Kenzie answered in a couple of rings, obviously not in the middle of assisting with an autopsy.
“Hi, Kenz. It’s Zachary.”
“Where’ve you been?”
“Uh… interviewing witnesses. Joshua Campbell visited last night last night and—”
Kenzie cut across him. “I was trying to get ahold of you.”
“Did you find something?”
“Well, we can’t be sure yet. There are still plenty of slides and fluids to be tested. We didn’t identify anything that confirmed foul play on gross visual examination. There are some organ abnormalities; we have to test to see whether it is cancer or something else.”
“Okay. I guess we didn’t really expect to find anything until the labs are done. But insulin wouldn’t show up, right?”
“No. For that, you’ll have to wait for the results of the hospital inventory against the charts.”
“I checked in the family’s medicine cabinet in case they had insulin.” Zachary was proud of himself for thinking of this. “But there wasn’t any in the cabinet.”
There was silence for a
few seconds from Kenzie before she broke the news to him. “Insulin wouldn’t be in the medicine cabinet. It would be in the fridge.”
“Oh.” Zachary’s face grew warm, and he was glad she couldn’t see him. “I didn’t realize that.” He looked at the house. Did he dare go back and say he needed a drink? Even that wouldn’t get him access to the fridge. He’d need some other ruse, and he couldn’t think of any that would work. “I guess we’ll have to wait to see if the police can get a search warrant.”
“Yeah,” Kenzie agreed. “But so far there isn’t any reason to suspect the family of anything, so I doubt they will.”
“So that’s why you called me? Just to let me know the autopsy was done and you were waiting on the labs?”
“Yes… and I wondered if you wanted to do something. Maybe take in a movie…?”
Zachary was startled. Usually, the most he could get Kenzie to do with him was to go to dinner. And then only when he had medical documents to go through with her. It seemed that it didn’t rain, but it poured. On one hand, he had Bridget back in his life, however peripherally, and the chance that he might somehow be able to get her back, and on the other he had Kenzie, suddenly interested in more than just a free meal and friendly chat. He was reluctant to lead Kenzie on, in case he could work things out with Bridget.
“I’m not sure when I’ll be free. I’ve got this case to work, and I still have some other surveillance and insurance jobs I need to put some time into.”
“You still need to eat.”
“Well, yes, you just said… a movie.”
“If you don’t want to do a movie, we can do dinner, like usual. That would be okay, wouldn’t it?”
“Uh…”
“What? Come on, Zachary. You’re breaking for dinner at some point.”
“No, probably just grabbing something on the run. I have a lot of work to be done.”
“Fine. I get the message. I guess we’ll talk again when one of us has something to say.” Her tone was hard and brittle Zachary couldn’t fail to hear her disappointment and confusion over being turned down.
But he couldn’t lead her on when he might still have a chance to get somewhere with Bridget.
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