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When we were both seated, Chris said, “I don’t know who killed them, Sergeant, but this I know. I loved Holly. I’ve loved her for decades. What happened to Holly destroyed me. Thinking how she was gunned down! That she had time to realize she was going to die. I wake up every morning wanting to kill myself.”
His voice broke and tears came. He covered his eyes with his hands and cried. I didn’t speak. I. Just. Waited. Him. Out.After he mopped his face with a cloth napkin, he said “Sorry” three times.
“It would be a relief to join her in death, but I can’t,” Chris said. “People depend on me.”
A waiter put a charcuterie board of cheese and sausage in front of us. Aromas from the kitchen filled our small space. I quashed my hunger pangs and did a gut check.
I believed Chris had told me the truth about his feelings for Holly and his grief at her loss. But I felt just as strongly that he was leaving out the answer to who killed her and Jamie.
I tried him on as the killer.
If Chris had killed Holly for rejecting him, if he’d killed Jamie for winning the prize so long ago, it was hardly even a theory. I had nothing to support it.
That really ticked me off.
CHAPTER 107
I STOPPED OFF at MacBain’s for a take-out BLT and cursed myself for declining a meal at Bonhomie. I had a small brown bag with the sandwich in hand when I breezed through the gate to the squad room. I said “Hey” to Bobby Nussbaum, our gatekeeper, as I passed his desk on my way to our pod just beyond him, but he stopped me.
“Sarge, I’ve got a message for you.” I turned and he told me, “Anonymous tip.”
I groaned, “Great.”
He said, “I think this one’s good.”
“Hit me,” I said.
“It was a woman. Her voice was muffled, like she was whispering or blocking the receiver with her hand. She asked for you, then gave me a message but not her name. Says she saw you at Bonhomie and won’t ID herself.”
“I’ll take any old scraps, Bobby.”
He said, “I know, I know, Lindsay, so I took it down verbatim. I didn’t hear every word, but …”
He handed me a sheet torn from a message pad.
The handwritten note read, “Chris is shielding his son who’s threatened people at school. You should check him out.”
Bobby asked me, “Does this help?”
“Maybe. Is Brady in?”
“He’ll be back in five.”
I thanked Bobby and set course for the pod, where Alvarez and Conklin were having sandwiches together. I squeezed in behind Alvarez and claimed my spot between them.
“Is Christophe the man?” Alvarez asked me.
I leaned back in my chair and rocked a little. “I can’t nail him and I can’t clear him,” I said. “But a tip came in for me while I was out.”
I handed it to Alvarez and she passed it across the desks to Conklin.
“Check out Brock,” he said. “Uh. As our killer? Why? Christophe gave him an alibi for Jamie’s shooting, didn’t he?”
“Right,” said Alvarez. “Christophe told you that he and Rae and Brock were together. Venice Beach.”
I said, “Yep. So says Chris.”
“I’m sure Brock was at Holly’s funeral,” she said. “He gave a eulogy.”