Lia Farrell - Mae December 02 - Two Dogs Lie Sleeping by Lia Farrell Read Free Book Online

her head. “I realized then who it was. It was my old boyfriend, Tommy Ferris.” She closed her eyes.
    “He’d been shot,” Detective Nichols said.
    She stared at him. “God, I hate it that somebody did this to him. Who could have done such a thing?”
    She looked angry now and not so pitiful. He hadn’t heard a false note yet. Maybe the sheriff was right.
    “I’m very sorry for your loss.” The detective looked at her searchingly. “Let’s go back to where you were when you heard the bang. There’s a staircase from that back entry leading up to the second floor, is that right? One of two staircases in the house?”
    July nodded.
    “And you can get to the nursery from either staircase?”
    She nodded again.
    “When you heard the door closing, did you think it was a door to one of the rooms or the main entry door?”
    July was quiet for a minute. “I think it was the front door, and I remember being startled that someone was leaving the house. Until then, I assumed I was alone. There was only one other car in the driveway when I got there and I thought it belonged to one of the landscape designers—they wouldn’t have been inside.”
    “It’s possible that you heard the person who shot Tom Ferris leave. Among the designers, who tended to stay late at the house?”
    “It couldn’t have been one of the designers .” July looked at him with a knitted brow.
    “Why do you say that?”
    July shook her head. “I just can’t believe any of them would have been involved.”
    “Did you shoot him?” Detective Nichols kept his voice low and even, watching her carefully.
    “No. I would never kill anyone. And it was Tommy . I love him, loved him.” Tears shone in her eyes.
    “Who else could have been in the house?”
    “I really don’t know, Detective. Have you looked at the video footage yet?” July had regained her poise. “The Booth Showhouse committee installed a closed circuit camera at the front and the back doors in case there was a robbery or something, so they’d know who’d been in the house.”
    Now she tells me. “Okay, good. I’ll get the discs and we’ll check it out. Just one last question, did you think Mr. Ferris recognized you?”
    She closed her eyes and nodded.
    “Did he say something? Anything?”
    She paused just a fraction of a second too long and then shook her head.
    “Are you sure?”
    July nodded her head again but didn’t meet his eyes.
    “All right, I need you to give me the key now,” he told her. After a brief hesitation, July took an iron key out of her shorts pocket and handed it to him. Deputy Fuller turned off the tape recorder. July started to get out of her chair. “We’ll show ourselves out,” the detective told her, and she slumped back without saying another word.
     
    When they got outside Rob cleared his throat. The deputy’s smooth skin and short, golden brown hair made him look younger than he actually was. The silver frames of his glasses reflected the sunlight. He wanted to become a detective and had informally apprenticed himself to Wayne.
    “Do you have a question, Rob?”
    “Why did you take July’s key away from her?”
    “I don’t want her going back in there.”
    Rob nodded. “Do you think she was telling the truth?”
    “Yes and no,” Wayne answered. “C’mon, it’s too hot to stand out here.” They walked back toward their cars. A tiny blonde girl wobbled past on her pink bike. The cicadas buzzed in the trees. Wayne put his hand on the car door handle tentatively. It was hot, but not hot enough to burn. He opened the car door to release the heated air from the interior and then turned back to the young deputy.
    “She seemed genuine to me,” Wayne told Rob.
    “Yeah, I thought so too, except at the end. I think the victim said something to Mrs. Powell that she didn’t want to tell us . Still, she was obviously upset about him dying.”
    Wayne clapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll be a good detective someday. Trust those