Page 60 of Nobody's Fool

“And?”

“Ansell lied on the stand. That’s what I thought for a long time.”

“And now?”

“Now I wonder,” she says, her voice breaking. She struggles to sit up. I don’t go to help her. “Did you ever think that maybe it was a setup?”

I say nothing.

“Tad went to Pennsylvania to buy a gun,” she continues. “Maybe someone knew about that. Maybe someone followed him and stole the gun and dressed like him.”

“Mrs. Grayson,” I say. “I think I should leave now.”

“She came here two days before she was murdered. Did you know that?”

I stop.

“Nicole, I mean. She came to visit me.”

I try to slow my pulse. “Why?”

“Because Tad was acting out. Nicole didn’t love him anymore. We both knew that. But she still cared about him. Nicole… she was that kind of person.”

Part of me wants to slap her silent. The other part of me wants to hear anyone who knew Nicole and could talk about her because, outrageous as it seems, the world has moved on from her.

Me, the love of her life, especially.

“Nicole and I were close,” Mrs. Grayson says. “You know that, Sami.”

I don’t like her using my first name. It enrages me. But I need tokeep myself steady. The man who murdered Nicole is right outside my door. Between his release and Victoria/Anna’s return, my emotions are ricocheting all over the place. I’m not thinking straight. I know that.

“So,” I say, trying to be analytical, “Nicole came to you because she was worried about the violent threats your son was subjecting her to—your son, who had just purchased a gun that was used to kill her. Do I have that right?”

No reply.

“I don’t know how to break this to you, Mrs. Grayson, but this information hardly clears him.”

“That’s not all she said.”

“Oh?”

“Nicole told me about a case.”

“A case,” I say, arching a skeptical eyebrow.

“Yes. She was investigating someone she thought might harm her.”

“How convenient,” I say. “Mrs. Grayson—”

“Patricia.”

“Mrs. Grayson,” I say, “Nicole was a cop. We looked into all her cases to see whether there was anyone who held a grudge who might have done it. We checked every lead in that direction. There was nothing.”

“It wasn’t a police case,” Mrs. Grayson tells me.

I try not to roll my eyes. “You don’t say.”

“It was something personal. Something involving her own family.”