Rooted in Murder

by Emily James

The fact that I thought about saying it meant I had more latent resentment to work through than I’d realized. It might be time to give my counselor a call again.

  “Grady’s the one who hired me,” I said instead.

  Her mouth formed an O shape.

  Yes, Alice, you are in Wonderland.

  She pressed a button on the phone. “I’ll let the chief know you’re here.”

  When Grady said Chief McTavish brought Daphne in for questioning, I’d assumed he meant it in a “royal we” sort of way, where Chief McTavish stood in for the department. It wasn’t a good sign if McTavish chose to question her himself. He didn’t usually go hands-on unless the crime was serious and he thought he had the perpetrator. Otherwise, Erik tended to handle interviews.

  I’d mentally prepared to face Erik, not McTavish. It wasn’t so much that I’d been banking on my friendship with Erik to earn me any leeway—Erik was too by-the-book for that. It was more that Erik never played dirty. McTavish would cut a suspect’s heart out and set it on a plate so they could watch it beat if he thought it would get him the truth.

  Dealing with an interrogator like McTavish required a different level of trust between a client and their lawyer. Last I spoke to her, Daphne hadn’t wanted a lawyer. In fact, I wasn’t entirely sure she even knew I was coming.

  Joel Platten, Fair Haven’s newest police officer, came to the front and escorted me back. My brain hadn’t quite gotten used to seeing him there. It made it jump back to how many officers we’d lost in the past year. And how we’d lost them.

  Even stranger was that he didn’t know me. He didn’t know my Uncle Stan when he was alive. He hadn’t even grown up in Fair Haven. While that was likely the best for objectivity, it made for a quiet walk to the interview room. With almost any other officer, I’d have had a nice chat on the short walk. To Joel Platten, I was just another defense attorney—sort of the enemy.

  I sneaked a glance at his impassive face. Maybe that was for the best, though. Maybe that was the mindset I needed. I was a criminal defense attorney. I could stand up to McTavish and protect my client.

  Officer Platten opened the door into the interview room for me. Daphne wore a pink blouse and black dress pants that reminded me of a work uniform.

  McTavish glanced up, and a quick frown ran across his forehead. “Dawes. I didn’t expect it to be you.” He motioned toward the seat next to Daphne. “Or is it Cavanaugh now?”

  “Fitzhenry-Dawes when I’m practicing. Cavanaugh everywhere else.”

  I made sure to emphasize the Fitzhenry part. My mom was just as good at what she did, and had played an equal role in who I was, as had my dad. McTavish just liked to cut my name in half because he found it a mouthful to say.

  I couldn’t read the expression on McTavish’s face, but my ingrained lawyer instincts said he was trying to decide what he thought about the fact that I was keeping my maiden name for practicing law. My parents were nearly unbeatable in the courtroom. The impression that could make on McTavish could go one of two ways. He could think I wasn’t a strong enough lawyer to make my own name. Or he could think I was trying to follow in my parents’ footsteps.

  I was going to hope he thought the latter.

  Daphne’s gaze switched between us. It settled on me in the end, with a look that asked Are you really on my side? I couldn’t blame her. It was clear McTavish and I had a history, some of it friendly.

  I touched a hand to her shoulder and took the seat next to her. “I know we’re here because of the recent discovery of the bones of Lee Mills, but my client had nothing to do with his death. She already gave her statement to the police when Lee originally disappeared, and there’s nothing new she has to add to that.”

  McTavish opened the file in front of him. A little chill crept into my feet and made my legs want to shake. The last time I’d faced McTavish in an interview room with a client, I’d made a miscalculation. He had information I didn’t, and it made me look incompetent. For some reason, I couldn’t help feeling like I was walking into another similar ambush this time. Daphne and I hadn’t talked much. Almost everything I knew I’d gotten secondhand from Grady.

  Grady, who thought his sister was lying about Lee being alive the last time she saw him.

  But Daphne had insisted that Lee was alive when they parted ways, and she hadn’t seemed to think she needed a lawyer. Gentle as a dove and wise as a serpent, the Bible said. I’d trust her unless she showed me I couldn’t, but I’d also walk carefully where McTavish was concerned.

  He flipped through the papers, and I waited silently.

  He tapped his finger on a page as if he’d found what he was looking for. “In your statement, you told the police that the last time you saw Mr. Mills was outside of Hops. You two had a very public argument.”

  “That’s right,” Daphne said.

  McTavish shifted his gaze, just enough for it to edge toward me.

  Oh no. He’d expected I wouldn’t let her confirm that statement. It was happening again. I was coming into this blind. This was all Grady’s fault. I shouldn’t have let him push me the way he had. I should have insisted that I couldn’t defend Daphne until she agreed. I should have done a proper intake interview with her first.

  I dug my nails into my knees. As much as I wanted to throw something at Grady right now, I wanted to smack some sense into myself as well. This wasn’t entirely his fault. I should have insisted I be able to speak with my client before McTavish started the interview. I’d foolishly believed that she’d told me the truth last night when Grady and I showed up at her door. She might have lied to me last night because she hadn’t thought she’d be considered a suspect this time around.

  McTavish’s gaze locked firmly on Daphne. “If that was the last time you saw him, then how do you explain the witness we have who saw the two of you together a few hours later?”

  5

  Whatever else might be said of me, I tried to learn from my mistakes. Claiming to have a witness might be a bluff to push Daphne into confessing something. I wouldn’t know how to proceed until I could ask her.

  I held a hand up in the stop position. “I need a few minutes alone with my client.”

  Making the request would tip McTavish off to the fact that I wasn’t sure whether he was bluffing or not, but it was better than being blindsided by what he planned next.

  McTavish left the room, but he took the file with him. I’d partly been hoping to sneak a peek at it to see if there really was a witness.

  The door whooshed shut behind him.

  I angled in my seat. Daphne stared down at her hands instead of turning to face me.

  “I think we can both agree you do need a lawyer,” I said softly.

  She nodded and shrugged at the same time. “I do, but I’ll need a public defender. I looked up your name. There’s no way I can afford you.”

  She’d likely found information on my parents. I didn’t charge their prices. “No charge. I owe your brother a favor, and this is it.”

  She ran her nail along a crack in the table and nodded again. Whatever she was thinking, she wasn’t the same woman as last night. The change made me think last night’s air of nonchalance might have been an act.

  “I have some rules that I require my clients to follow. I need the truth. I can’t defend you if I don’t know what I’m defending against.”

  She sucked in a long draw of air and blew it out so slowly I wasn’t sure how her lungs could have held that much. “Outside of Hops wasn’t the last time I saw Lee. We fought there, but he called me later to apologize. We met up afterward.” She finally looked up at me. Her eyes were completely dry, but tightness pinched the edges of both her eyes and her lips. “I swear he was alive when I left him later, too.”

  We’d had an easy case to make when there’d been a restaurant full of witnesses who saw him drive away. We had a much more challenging task if someone saw them meet up again later, but no one saw Lee leave that meeting alive.

  “Do you know i
f anyone saw him after you left the second time?”

  She shot me a look that said she was contemplating a sarcastic comeback like Other than the person who killed him? The family resemblance to Grady popped to the forefront, across the gender divide—the cocky angle of her jaw, the set of her eyebrows above her eyes.

  It vanished as quickly as it’d come. She dug at the crack again as if she wanted to dig all the way through the table. It made her seem younger than her age, like she’d gone back to that high school kid she’d been when Lee disappeared. “We were alone when I left him.”

  I wasn’t my parents’ daughter for nothing—I liked a challenge. I also liked to win, and this time the two might not go hand in hand. “We don’t have much more time before Chief McTavish returns. Do you know who saw you together the second time?”

  Her body turned slightly away from me. She probably didn’t even know she was doing it. A shift like that was often a subconscious defense mechanism.

  “I know exactly who saw us. Lee stopped to buy some beer. The guy who sold it to us saw me in the car. He even waved.”

  Had I been off about their ages? Daphne didn’t look like she could have been over twenty-one at the time. That would make her older than me. But it was possible. Some people always looked younger than their age.

  That wasn’t the most important question I needed to ask in the few minutes we had left, though. “Do you have any idea why he would have lied about it back then and confessed to seeing you and Lee together now?”

  Her hand moved to her throat as if she needed to convince the words to come out. “I blackmailed him to stay quiet. Lee and I were underage, and he sold to us all the time. I told him that if he spoke to the police about seeing us together, I’d tell them about his side business selling to minors. I told him if I ended up in prison, I’d take him with me.”

  A hairline fracture slithered through my trust in her. Blackmail wasn’t an action of an innocent woman.

  It might be the action of a panicked teenager, though, my logical side reminded me.

  Teenagers weren’t always the most rational. If she’d been frightened of the police blaming her for Lee’s disappearance and she was innocent, she could well have done something to ensure more evidence didn’t pile up against her.

  At least she’d admitted it. And her admission answered why the witness spoke up now. Even back then, Daphne had exaggerated while blackmailing him. For a first offense, he probably would have gotten off with a fine and community service.

  With how much time had passed, the statute of limitations was up. He couldn’t be charged anymore. Daphne’s old threat wasn’t a threat anymore.

  McTavish no doubt knew about the blackmail. And for all I knew, it wasn’t the only additional piece of evidence against Daphne that he’d dug up.

  If McTavish had anything else, I might not be able to get her out of here.

  6

  Not only did I not what to essentially lose this case so early, but I also didn’t want to have Grady Scherwin banging on my door tonight, demanding to know why I wasn’t able to keep his sister from being arrested.

  When you run out of other options, my dad used to tell me, stall. You could find a way out of a lot of seemingly inescapable problems if you had a little more time.

  McTavish came back in the door and dropped the folder onto the desk. It hit the table with a whap. “I hope you’ve convinced your client to stop lying to us.”

  I wasn’t even sure I’d convinced her to stop lying to me.

  I leaned forward and laid my arms on the table. “The only thing my client is guilty of is underage drinking. She lied because she thought she could still be punished for it now. I explained to her that wasn’t the case, and so she willingly admits she and Lee Mills met up later for a few beers.”

  Daphne’s chair creaked as if she’d shifted her weight. Crap. There was definitely more she didn’t tell me. She was a good enough liar to get away with it verbally, but not a good enough one to hide all her physical tells.

  McTavish shifted his gaze to Daphne. I couldn’t be sure if he’d seen her movement as well or if he was just going to continue to try to rattle her.

  “If she lied to cover up a misdemeanor, why should I believe she wouldn’t lie to cover up a felony?” he said.

  I didn’t glance at Daphne. I didn’t have to. I couldn’t almost feel fear radiating off of her like heat waves off asphalt in the middle of summer.

  I rose to my feet. “Because she’s a responsible mother with ties to the community. The fact that she was afraid of what a small infraction like underage drinking could do to her life now speaks to her law-abiding status.” Some of the most vicious killers lived the life of a responsible citizen and caring spouse or parent on the surface. McTavish knew that as well as I did. He also knew that most juries didn’t. They’d need more than vague accusations to be convinced that Daphne could progress from underage drinking to murder. I motioned to Daphne. “Let’s go. There’s no need for you to miss any more work today.”

  She peeked at me and then at McTavish as if she wasn’t sure we could actually leave without his permission. No doubt she had an inflated view of what the police could do. Grady would have made sure of that to give himself an ego boost.

  The look McTavish shot me suggested he was trying to figure me out. From our past interactions, he knew I only defended people I believed were innocent. And yet, if my client was innocent, why had I stonewalled him after my talk with her?

  “Daphne,” I said in a firm voice. “Time to go.”

  She slowly rose to her feet.

  McTavish rose with us. “Stay available. I’m sure we’ll have more questions as the investigation progresses, and I know you want to find out the truth about what happened to Mr. Mills as much as we do.”

  The sarcasm in his voice made me feel like a layer of grime coated my skin. I was used to working parallel to the police, seeking my own answers for a crime. I wasn’t yet used to feeling like I was working against them.

  I had to remind myself that I defended innocent people. Daphne claimed to be innocent.

  I only wished I could change that from Daphne claimed to Daphne was, at least in my own mind.

  I marched Daphne straight out to my car. Since she didn’t tell me she had her own, I had to assume she’d gotten there some other way.

  I waited for her to climb into my car and close the door. “I’m going to ask this once more. Did you kill Lee Mills?”

  She shifted in her seat, and the seatbelt tightened across her chest as if it would force the truth out of her. “I didn’t.”

  Her voice was solid, without a wobble or crack. She didn’t sound nervous at all.

  She also didn’t quite meet my gaze.

  Maybe that was why Grady thought she was lying. She might be telling the truth that she hadn’t killed Lee, but she was also hiding something.

  “Do you know who did kill him?” I asked.

  She shook her head.

  She might possibly be my least talkative client to date. I’d had clients who hid things from me before, but most of them still shared enough that I could catch the inconsistencies in their story. Daphne seemed to instinctively know that the less she said, the fewer chances she had of being caught in a lie. It was too bad the one thing she’d said earlier to Chief McTavish had been a lie.

  I turned my engine on so we’d have heat. I didn’t want to rush this conversation because I was cold. This was the drawback to having my office in White Cloud. Running my car this much wasn’t good for my budget or the environment. I couldn’t even blame Ashley for it this time.

  “I need you to tell me what happened that night, in detail, so that we don’t have any more surprises.”

  Daphne ran a hand underneath the seatbelt. “Lee was like a bad addiction that I couldn’t kick. I met him when Grady and I were in separate foster homes, and I was feeling really alone.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from reacting. Had I made a guess
about Grady Scherwin’s past, I wouldn’t have guessed he’d been in the foster care system. Maybe it explained a lot, though, about why he put so much emphasis on his position and status as a police officer.

  Daphne let the seatbelt go. “Grady hated him. He thought Lee was making me do things I otherwise wouldn’t have done.”

  I knew about the underage drinking. I could guess that another of Grady’s complaints would have been sex. She was his little sister, after all.

  For the first time in her story. Daphne met my gaze. The intensity of it felt like a slap.

  “And before you ask,” she said, “Grady didn’t kill Lee. He worked six to six that night, and he had a partner since he was still new.”

  The fact that Daphne felt the need to defend him made me suspect him when I hadn’t before. It was the opposite effect she’d been going for.

  At least, I thought it was. Part of me couldn’t shake the feeling that she was playing me somehow.

  I nonchalantly raised my hands to the vents and let the warm air take the chill out. “So what happened that night?”

  “The fight that everyone saw was because Lee cheated on me again. He called me later and apologized. Said I was the only one he cared about and it wouldn’t happen again. He wanted to make it up to me.”

  She rolled her eyes like she’d been the stupidest person alive to believe him. I wouldn’t have said stupid. I would have said young and desperately needing to feel loved.

  “So you went?” I said.

  She turned her face away from me. “So I went. He bought the beer, and we drove out into a corn field where we wouldn’t be seen from the road.”

  I couldn’t be sure, but I thought her neck flushed.

  “We hooked up, and afterward Lee cracked open the beers. He got suspicious when I wouldn’t drink any. He kept pushing until I admitted I was pregnant.”

  Her daughter, Gina. I must have been right when I thought the voice I’d heard over the baby monitor was from a child in their tween years. The baby monitor was kind of weird, but it was possible Gina was sick with the flu or Daphne had some other reason for it.