A tension headache built at the base of my skull. “What’s wrong?”
“Grady was put on administrative leave. Effective immediately. Sheila gave me his cell phone number but…”
But we wouldn’t need it. If Grady had been relieved of duty, too, he couldn’t get us another copy of the file.
My ruse to hide the papers from Rigman must have failed. It had to have been him, both who ran us off the road and who reported Grady to keep him away from the file going forward on the off chance we survived. Perhaps he’d also done it because Grady had shown loyalty to Chief McTavish by searching for him during his off hours. Someone who would do that might have examined the file himself if Mark and I had died in that crash.
We might never know Rigman’s full reasons unless he confessed once we had solid evidence against him.
His reasons didn’t matter as much as proving his guilt, though. We had to get that file.
Unfortunately, there was only one man left who could give it to us—Detective Dillion.
22
Elise insisted on grabbing a wheelchair even though I told her I could walk to Mark’s room. We needed to catch Detective Dillion before he left. He could already be done taking Mark’s statement.
Once he left the hospital, our chances of convincing him to allow us to see the file shrunk significantly. Asking him over the phone—assuming he’d even take our call—had the same odds of success as I had of becoming a prima ballerina. I also doubted we’d be able to convince him to come back and speak with us.
Elise rolled me down the hall so fast we got a dirty look from a nurse and a personal support worker.
Detective Dillion was coming out of Mark’s room as we rolled up.
“Change your mind?” he asked.
“About Mark causing the accident? Nope.”
The wheelchair twitched underneath me like Elise’s hands had spastically closed on the handles. She clearly hadn’t realized the detective hoped to pin that on Mark as well.
I placed a hand on one wheel. “But you said if I thought of a reason anyone might have wanted to kill us, I should let you know.”
He let out a this-better-not-be-a-waste-of-my-time sigh and swept a hand toward the door.
Elise pushed me in, and Detective Dillion followed us. Mark raised an eyebrow. Elise scooted around the bed and whispered in his ear.
Detective Dillion couldn’t have failed to see it, but Mark shouldn’t be blindsided by what was coming. He nodded at me. I took it as a go for it.
At this point, we didn’t really have anything to lose.
Detective Dillion stayed near the doorway, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed.
Elise spun me around to face him better like she’d read my mind.
“Mark has been helping Chief McTavish investigate a corruption ring that former Chief Wilson was a part of. Chief McTavish gave Mark a file on the death of Chief John Zacharius, the man Wilson took over the role of police chief from. Chief McTavish felt Chief Zacharius’ death was connected somehow. The file was stolen from Mark’s house the night Troy Summoner was killed.”
Detective Dillion made an exaggerated show of checking his watch. “I don’t have time to listen to you argue why I shouldn’t have arrested Cavanaugh for Officer Summoner’s murder.”
Of course not, I wanted to say. Heaven forbid you might have to admit you arrested the wrong man.
But I didn’t, because if we could get a copy of the file, it might give us the evidence to prove Mark’s innocence strongly enough to force the district attorney to drop all charges before the case went to trial. At that point, Detective Dillion’s opinion wouldn’t matter.
“I told you all that because we got another copy of the file shortly before we were run off the road. We believe they did it to stop Mark from seeing whatever was in it.”
“And you want me to give you a fresh copy?”
The tone of his voice already said no way.
He pushed off the wall. “Can you tell me there’s no other possible reason someone would have tried to kill either of you? Because unless you can, I’m not handing confidential material over to a man who stands accused of murder.”
I started to say that there couldn’t be any other reason. But there could. Isabel’s husband for one. Someone else one of us had angered in our past investigations for two and up.
Detective Dillion wagged his head. He must have read it in my expression.
“Cavanaugh will have his day in court. Save your stories for then.”
When she dropped me off at my house the next afternoon, Elise wanted to stay and make sure I was alright, but I convinced her to go home and see her kids. The truth was that Elise’s body language screamed I’m a cop even when she was out of uniform. Isabel would take one look at her and escape out a back window if Elise came inside.
Isabel and the dogs met me at the front door. I tried my best to dodge Velma and Toby’s whip-like tails as they welcomed me. Taking a blow from their tails hurt on the best of days, and my whole body still felt like I’d fallen out of a second-story window.
I used one hand to pet each dog at the same time. “How did it go with these two last night?”
“They were angels.”
My dogs were a lot of things, including sweet and loveable. Angelic, though, wasn’t one of them.
One corner of Isabel’s mouth twitched like she was trying not to smile. “Mostly. The black-and-white one did eat my dinner. But I did an Internet search to make sure nothing in it would hurt her afterward.”
