Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Nana put up a blank piece of paper and drew a figure. “Who’s this?”
“The unknown. We don’t know everything,” I said.
She sat back and tapped her lips. “These are the suspects, huh?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t have a picture of Richard or Imogen, so I nodded toward a blank piece of paper. “Would you write their names on there, Richard Basanelli and Imogen Wilson?”
“Sure.”
“Secure them above everybody. Once we get colored pencils, we’ll draw lines to show how the people are connected.”
She chewed on a nail. “I don’t see much of a connection.”
“I know. It’s also possible that Richard was seeing other women in town. Do you remember any rumors?”
She shook her head. “Not really, but I’ll get right on that. I mean, our agency will get right on that.”
“That’d be great.” With a couple of phone calls, she could probably find out more than I ever could.
“What else do we have on the case?” She frowned.
“Not much. According to Pierce, there was blood found at the scene, but that’s all he’ll tell me. My guess is it’s not just Richard’s or Imogen’s, or Pierce wouldn’t care so much.”
Nonna leaned against the dryer. “So, it belonged to the killer.”
“Maybe. You have to remember that it could be one of the Basanelli’s. There was a bit of a scuffle before Richard left.”
She sighed. “That’s not good news.”
No, it really wasn’t. I needed to call Pierce again and see if he’d received any of the DNA results. Hopefully he was still in a sharing mood.
Chapter 21
Aiden drove me to work on Thursday and dropped me off with a promise to pick me up around four or five. My leg felt much better, and I could put weight on it now, so I only slightly limped into my office.
“Morning.” Oliver handed me a stack of messages from the afternoon before, the muscles in his chest rippling. “Clark’s in court, and Pauley’s in class.”
“Thanks, Oliver.” As soon as we earned some decent money, I needed to give the kid a raise. I made my way back to my office and worked on paperwork for a while. My phone buzzed just as I started to crave caffeine. “Albertini,” I answered.
“Hey, it’s Pierce.”
“Hi.” I’d called him two more times, and the guy hadn’t returned my calls, yet I kept my tone chipper because I needed information.
“What’s up?” he asked.
Like he didn’t already know. I forced a smile because, supposedly, that transferred over the telephone. “I was wondering if you had any news.”
“I’m not supposed to share news with you, Albertini.”
That wasn’t necessarily true. “Come on, Pierce. We both want the truth here.”
“Fine. You want the truth? I already received the DNA test result for Wayne Wilson.”
I leaned forward, hope clashing through me. “Yeah?”
“He’s clear. None of the DNA at the scene belongs to him.”
My shoulders sank. “It doesn’t?”
“Nope. Not even close.”
That meant the blood wasn’t his brother’s either because there would be a familial hit. So, Wayne and Spencer weren’t tied to the dump site. “Wait a minute. Just because it wasn’t Wayne’s blood doesn’t mean he didn’t kill them.”
“I’m aware of that,” Pierce said curtly. “There’s no evidence that he did. None whatsoever.”
“Except nobody knows where he was that week.”
Papers shuffled across the line. “Plenty of people saw him around town putting up posters and asking everybody he could find about his wife.”
I sat back in my chair, wanting to raise my leg again because it was starting to throb. “That’d be a good cover, wouldn’t it?”
“I suppose so,” Pierce said. “I pulled in Lisa Robinson this morning. She’s in the interrogation room. Are you willing to drop the charges if she cooperates?”
“Absolutely,” I said. “I’ll do anything you want. You have free license.”
His voice warmed. Slightly. Very slightly. “Great. I’m hoping to get her to submit a DNA sample as well as fingerprints.”
“You haven’t fingerprinted her yet?” I asked.
“No, my machine’s down,” he said. “It’ll be back up in probably an hour. Plus, I didn’t want to scare her too much. We both know you’re not going forward with this.”
I’d never been all that vindictive. “Oh, I might. She ruined my good coat.”
“Right. I have to go. Bye.” Pierce clicked off.
Darn it. I was really hoping the DNA at the scene had belonged to Wayne Wilson. Things would be so much easier if it had, but the man had seemed devastated to discover that his missing wife of fifteen years had been killed.
I quickly dialed Nonna.
“Hi, honey. I’m on the job. What do you need?”
I could imagine her on the job with her dark glasses and trench coat. She did look adorable and tough, to be honest. “Ask around about Wayne Wilson, would you? There’s no evidence against him, but I would like to know if anybody in Silverville thinks he might’ve killed his wife.”
“You’ve got it,” she said cheerfully. “After that, I think I’m going to turn my attention to that Cupid case.”