Page 61 of Nobody's Fool

“So she came to you to tell you that your son was threatening her—”

“She wasn’t scared of Tad. She knew he was harmless.”

“—and then say, ‘By the way, I’m looking into a case that isn’t a police case but it involves my family and I’m really scared about that too.’ That just about do it?”

Her bright eyes flash dark now.

“And, just so I have this story completely straight,” I continue, “you never told anyone about this visit, correct?”

“Correct,” she says. “And you know why.”

I spread my hands. “I really don’t.”

She coughs into a handkerchief. She turns and looks at the water next to the bed. I don’t know if she’s expecting me to help her get it or what. I don’t move. “If I told the police that Nicole came to me about Tad’s texts, the prosecutors would have twisted what I said to use against him. Like you just did. But listen to me. I won’t last much longer. Tad was with me that night. I have never wavered from that. Not once. Someone… maybe someone Nicole was investigating and worried about… they’re the ones you should be after. You need to find out what Nicole was working on.”

I nod, more than ready to leave. “Is there anything else?”

Patricia Grayson is growing exhausted. Her head is back on the pillow. She is no longer looking at me, but the ceiling above her. “What if you’re wrong?”

I don’t reply.

“What if you put my son in that hellish prison for eighteen years and left him the husk of a man you see today because you wouldn’t face the truth? And what if a small part of you now knows it, knows you did some grave injustice, but simply can’t let yourself see because it would be too horrible for you to ever admit? How will you live with yourself, if it ends up Tad didn’t do it?”

I say nothing.

“I’m a dying woman. This is my deathbed confession. My son was with me the night Nicole was murdered. He didn’t do it.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I don’t say a word to Tad Grayson. I just hustle out of there and catch the ferry back to Manhattan. The New York Harbor air feels good—I suck it in through the twenty-five-minute ferry ride. When we get off at South Street in Lower Manhattan, I walk north along the East River. I don’t know how long. Hours for certain. I am in no rush. I have nowhere to be. Molly took Henry to some sort of Mommy and Me hour in the park. They won’t be home yet. So I try to walk and shake off the feel and stench of the Graysons’ house.

I replay what Tad Grayson’s mom said to me. All of it. Repeatedly. She was lying to save her son, just as she had on the stand. I know that.

But there are parts of what she said that I must admit have the ring of truth.

For example, I know Nicole liked Patricia Grayson. Tad’s mom had been kind to Nicole during her parents’ contentious divorce. Nicole had spoken fondly of her on more than one occasion. She’d had it rough, Nicole had told me. The woman’s crooked nose, the sunken cheeks—they had broken under an onslaught of fists from her husband, Tad Grayson’s father. So I’m not surprised Nicole might have visited Patricia Grayson. I know Nicole took her to lunch sometimes. I know Nicole invited Patricia Grayson to our NYPD academy graduation.

Nicole never told me about the most threatening texts from Tad. I get why, of course. She feared I would do something. She could handle it herself.

So how would Nicole have handled it?

She might very well have tried to reach Tad through his mother. She might have gone to Patricia so they could figure a way to get Tad help before he went too far.

If she had, they had both obviously failed.

I don’t know what to do with all this. Tad Grayson killed Nicole. The evidence proves it. But am I being stubborn? There was a serial killer caught recently who would set up innocents to take the fall, many serving life sentences when the real killer was caught. So is what Patricia Grayson proposing that far-fetched? If I’m being objective—if I step back and try to look at the facts from a distance and coldly…

No, sorry, it doesn’t change my mind.

“How will you live with yourself, if it ends up Tad didn’t do it?”

Just fine, thank you. I followed the evidence. A jilted man sends the woman I love horrible, violent texts. He threatens to shoot her in the head. He buys a gun. That gun is used in the murder. Those are facts even Tad doesn’t dispute. So even if he didn’t pull the trigger…

Hold up. Am I actually entertaining this insane idea?

I am not. Patricia Grayson is lying to protect her son. But maybe I can use that. Maybe if I can prove that she is lying, maybe if I can get close to her and listen to her and see when she stumbles in her defense of her son and reveals a deeper truth…

Did I rush out too soon? Should I go back?