by Kate Flora
I took a breath, inhaling the scent of those roses. I could almost feel the warmth and love I’d put on that canvas. I hoped little Aurora would.
I was so deeply into my thoughts that the opening door startled me. Chief Sheehan took the seat across the table.
“Rory,” she said, “how have you been?”
We knew each other, of course. You can’t be almost killed by your own husband and not get involved with your local police.
“It’s getting better.”
She nodded, then flipped open the folder she’d brought. “Jay Hanrahan,” she said. “You know him?”
“No.”
She raised an eyebrow. That’s all. But it was an eloquent gesture. Dorothy Sheehan was a minimalist. Crisp hair. Quiet clothes. Even the frames of her glasses disappeared, leaving only the clean, hard lines of her face. She stared at me with her X-ray eyes.
“I met a man in a bar last night. He seemed nice. He told me his name was Dan McCarthy. Later, he drove me home. When we got to my place, he started feeling unwell. I said I’d drive him home and get a friend to pick me up. When I was taking him home, he told me his name was really Jay Hanrahan. I guess he figured I’d find out anyway.”
“You recognized the name?”
“I don’t watch much TV, Chief, but I’m not totally isolated.”
“Your friend’s name?”
Reluctantly, I divulged Tess’s information. She and I had already agreed on the story.
“Wasn’t feeling well…” She tapped her pen twice on the table. “Could you elaborate?”
Another piece of lead was pressing on my chest. “He took some pills at my place. Yohimbe, he said it was. It was shortly after that he said he felt sick. By the time we got to his place, he’d started sweating and kept pressing his hand against his chest. I asked if he wanted to go to the emergency room or if he wanted me to call 911. He said no, I should just leave. So I did.”
“Yohimbe. Do you know what that is?”
I knotted my fingers, then unknotted them. “When I got home, I looked up yohimbe. It’s herbal Viagra.” I shook my head. “Herbal Viagra and Jay Hanrahan. Guy who date-rapes Ellen Corso thinks he’s going to get lucky with me. I guess this is just more evidence that I have no judgment when it comes to men.”
A nod. Another tap. The pace of this was driving me nuts. I was sure she knew that.
“What time did you take him home?”
I shrugged again. “Sometime between 1:00 and 2:00, I think. What’s this about?”
“You took him home and…?”
“He was kind of unsteady on his feet. We—Tess had come to pick me up so she helped—got him into his living room. He sat down on the couch. He was flirting with Tess in the elevator, but he was getting agitated and belligerent. He insisted he’d be fine. He told us to go. So we left.”
“How did you feel when you learned the man was Jay Hanrahan?”
“I expect you know the answer to that, Chief. I wanted to stop the car and roll him out into traffic. But I didn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to hit my husband hard enough to kill him, even after he’d slashed me with a knife and said he was going to kill me, and I didn’t have the guts or the necessary meanness to dump Hanrahan in the street. Like I said, bad judgment about men. I’m too damned soft to be allowed out.”
Her eyebrow shifted again. “You looked like you and your pal were having a good time.”
So there was a surveillance camera.
We’d had a good time all right. But that was before he inconsiderately got dead. I looked at the chief and shook my head. “Just humoring him long enough to get him home, Chief. Like I said, he was getting nasty and belligerent.” I let it go a beat, then added, “If you’d seen me with my husband, you’d probably think I was having a good time then, too.”
Doing the abused wife’s delicate dance. Reminding her that I was a victim. The chief knew all about that. But getting off this hook was not going to be easy.
She tipped her chin. “You’re friends with Ellen Corso.” That was not a question. “When is the last time you saw her?”
“Wednesday. No. Thursday. I went to her office at MIT to see how she was doing.”
“And how was she doing?”
“She blames herself. Said she probably deserved it for being so gullible.”
Another very slight nod. “She’s angry?”
I wasn’t letting her put words in my mouth. “She’s hurt. Damaged. In pain. What would you expect? She stood up for what was right and got totally humiliated.” Careful, Rory. Don’t overdo here. “And anyway, what does that have to do with anything?”
“You met Hanrahan in the same bar where Ellen met him.”
Breathe, Rory. Breathe.
I didn’t say what I was thinking—that a smarter predator would have changed locations. That this time the prey had been smarter. I just stared at her. “Ellen met him in a bar? Ellen doesn’t go to bars. And I’m still waiting to hear what this is all about.”
She tapped her pen three times. “Jay Hanrahan is dead, Rory.”
Last night, dead hadn’t meant anything except a situation to handle and friends to protect. I kept dead at an arm’s length, having come so close. I would have been dead if I hadn’t run bleeding into the street and flagged down a car. Now the weight of it hit me, and I let that creep into my voice.
“Hanrahan’s dead?”
“Dead.”
She snapped the file shut. “I am not going to ask any more questions about last night, though I expect there’s more to this than you’ve told me. Let’s just leave it like this. We won’t know until the toxicology results come back, but the ME believes that Hanrahan died of a fatal interaction between herbal supplements and illegal club drugs that stopped his heart.”
She gave me a level look. “Hanrahan had a bartender friend who helped him spike drinks. Under questioning by the Boston police, the bartender…a gentleman called Mad Dog Kelly…admitted that he had made two Cosmos for Hanrahan and an attractive woman and spilled the contents of a capsule Hanrahan gave him into the drink intended for the woman. He doesn’t think he mixed the drinks up but admits it could have happened. Kelly claims to have no idea what the substance was.”
She pushed back her chair and stood. Six feet tall. Lean as a marathon runner. Her face utterly opaque. “It appears that Jay Hanrahan, with a little help from a clumsy bartender, accidentally caused his own death.”
At the door, the chief paused. “Go home, Rory. Paint beautiful pictures. Stay out of bars. There must be better ways to meet decent men. And just be grateful you weren’t his next victim.”
As I walked out, I wondered. Was the quick twitch I saw as she left the room a wink?
Reading Guide Questions
1. Have you ever read about a crime and wondered what you’d do if it happened to you? Or have you experienced such a crime and thought about revenge?
2. Is there a situation you can imagine in which you might move beyond your normal moral boundaries and do something that might shock your more proper self?
3. Do you think the scene with Hanrahan and the ladies is over the top?
4. What did you think was going to happen when Rory was taken to the police station?
About the Author
Mystery and true crime writer Kate Clark Flora’s fascination with people’s criminal tendencies began in the Maine attorney general’s office. Deadbeat dads, people who hurt their kids, and employers’ acts of discrimination aroused her curiosity about human behavior. Her books include seven “strong woman” Thea Kozak mysteries and three gritty police procedurals in her star-reviewed Joe Burgess series. Redemption was the 2013 Maine Literary Award winner for Crime Fiction. Her Edgar-nominated true crime story, Finding Amy, has been optioned for a movie. Flora has also published 15 crime stories in various anthologies.
When she’s not writing or teaching at Grub Street in Boston, Flora is in her garden, waging a constant battle against critters, pests, and her hus
band’s lawn mower. She’s been married for 35 years to a man who still makes her laugh. She has two wonderful sons, a movie editor and a scientist, two lovely daughters-in-law, and four rescue “granddogs,” Frances, Otis, Harvey, and Daisy. You can follow her on Twitter @kateflora or at Facebook.com/kate.flora.92.
Also by Kate Flora
Thea Kozak series:
Chosen for Death
Death in a Funhouse Mirror
Death at the Wheel
An Educated Death
Death in Paradise
Liberty or Death
Stalking Death
Joe Burgess series:
Playing God
The Angel of Knowlton Park
Redemption
And Grant You Peace (October 2014)
True Crime:
Finding Amy: A True Story of Murder in Maine
Death Dealer (September 2014)
Suspense (as Katharine Clark):
Steal Away
Plus 15 published crime stories
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