Page 21 of Nowhere to Hide
“Good luck doing that. He died thirty-some years ago.”
“Oh.”Thirty-some…His gut picked that apart.Can that be a coincidence?
Todd pointed at him. “That right there. I don’t like what I’m reading off you. You’re not that good at hiding your thoughts. You never have been. Am I being interrogated here? As if I did something wrong?”
“It’s not like that at all.”Isn’t it…
“No? I’d say it’s exactly that. You have some nerve coming in here and attacking me.”
Eric held up his hands, but before he could respond, Todd steamrolled ahead.
“Are you suggesting that I didn’t do my job back then? That I dropped the ball and failed to investigate properly?”
Eric took a few measured breaths. “I never said that once. I’m just asking questions. Nothing more than doing my due diligence here.” It took all of his willpower to muster a calm, level voice. His back was up from Todd’s defensiveness, from a new glimpse he was getting into his mentor. “How did Roger die?”
“Well, I didn’t kill him.”
“He was murdered?” Eric volleyed this back lightly, refusing to let Todd see how he was getting to him. Or at least trying to mask that much. He was going to need to down a few antacids when he left here.
“No. If I remember right, it was a hiking accident.”
Theaccidentsare piling up…The thought fired through Eric’s mind.
Todd smiled tightly. “You’d do well to learn there’s not always some grand conspiracy at play.”
Eric stiffened. “And I never said there was. All I’m looking for is the truth, nothing more, nothing less.”
“Then I think we’ve about covered it. If there aren’t any other questions, I should get back to work.” Todd grabbed a folder and made a show of flipping it open.
“Actually, I do. The MPD lot doesn’t have any record of ever logging Crawford’s Chevrolet Cavalier sedan.”
“Poor record keeping? It’s not like I towed the car myself.”
Todd wasn’t meeting Eric’s eyes again. “No, of course not.” Eric hoped his acting skills were serving him now, or Todd’s back would really go up. “Just one more thing. Are you aware of a connection between Susan Crawford and Timothy Hanson?”
“No. Though how could I be? I didn’t know either of them personally.”
That was the first honest thing Todd had said since Eric came into the room. “Fair point. Thanks for your time. I won’t keep you any longer.” Eric had reached the doorway before Todd said his name, causing him to turn around.
“The Hansons have more money than God, so tread carefully. Also, just a little life lesson, take it from me that nothing good comes from digging into the past.”
“Noted.” With that Eric stepped into the hall, a hand over his stomach. Todd had done a poor job of disguising his threat as a warning. But why such hostility if Susan Crawford’s accident was nothing more than tragic and straightforward?
THIRTEEN
1:10 PM
Lieutenant Coleman called Cindy just as she finished wrapping things up at Ryan’s apartment. Not that there was a lot to wrap up. All she was walking away with was that mutilated article about Timothy Hanson. There wasn’t any sign that Ryan owned any electronic devices. Not even a single charging cable, so unless he had all of that with him inside the Hanson home… Though what would be the point of that?
Her next stop was to talk with a woman named Mary Ellison, who reportedly was the executor of Teresa Crawford’s estate.
She climbed the stairs to the woman’s third-floor apartment and knocked. Nothing at first, then some stirring, something bumped into, and a woman cursing. The door flung open.
“Can I help you?” A mature woman was balancing on one leg with the other bent and hovering above the floor, resembling an awkward flamingo.
“Are you Mary Ellison?” Ellison was sixty-three according to her background, but the woman in front of her looked seventy.
“I am.”
