With thirty minutes to spare, Ellie sped into the police station parking lot and pulled her car into the first spot available. Beau raced along beside her as she jogged into the squat, square brick building that made up the tri-county area’s sole police station.
The police station was bland at best. With plain off-white walls, desks that had been purchased in the seventies, if not earlier, and a secretary who’d been there long enough to probably have been the one who purchased the desks in the first place, it was nothing to write home about. Still, it served its function and didn’t need to be pretty.
“Can I help you?” the woman with blueish hair and a three pack a day voice asked as she eyed Ellie and her dog suspiciously.
“Yes, I need to see Will,” Ellie said and then corrected, “Detective Will Murphy.”
“Is he expecting you?” the woman asked with a wrap of her long fingernails on the desk.
“Yes,” Ellie told her. It wasn’t exactly a lie. She’d told Will she’d have something before noon and it was getting pretty close to her deadline. “Could you just tell him that Ellie Reid is here to see him?” she asked, and then she added, “Please.”
The aging secretary gave her one final once over with her sharp blue eyes and then pressed a finger to the button on her intercom. “Murphy,” she barked into the microphone.
“Yeah?” Will’s voice crackled back a moment later.
The secretary’s eyes didn’t leave Ellie as she replied, “An Ellie Reid is here to see you.”
“Send her back,” Will replied.
With no more instruction than that, Ellie was allowed to make her way behind the reception desk and into the pulpit of Dundurn and its neighboring towns’ only police station. The place itself was fairly empty, with only a couple people sitting at desks and the musty smell of old coffee hung in the air.
“Ellie, hey,” Will’s voice greeted her. “And I see you’ve brought Beau,” he added.
“We’re kind of a package deal,” Ellie said and then she quickly added, “I think I have the information I need to keep you from arresting Dave.”
Will’s eyebrow rose and he said, “We’re not arresting him, only questioning. There’s a difference.”
Ellie knew that, but she knew how bad it would look to have him officially brought into the station, too. She didn’t feel like arguing semantics and so she just asked, “Is there someplace private we can talk?”
To Ellie’s chagrin, Will led her back into one of the station’s only interrogation rooms. It was a lonely, cold steel box with one large mirror on the wall and a simple steel table in the center. It was exactly like the ones she’d seen in countless movies and not a place she’d ever expected to be herself. It definitely didn’t leave her feeling at ease.
“Okay,” Will said as he took one chair and Ellie took the other across the table from him. “What did you find?”
Ellie spent nearly a quarter of an hour going over everything with Will. She was certain she’d found reasonable doubt, or at least enough doubt to convince Will that Dave Ainsley wasn’t their man. She knew that bringing him in for questioning was only going to waste valuable time. Time that could be spent looking for the real killer.
She’d even shown him the bracelet, the one with the name Paige engraved on it and told him how Stella still wanted to go through with the adoption. If that wasn’t enough to show him how much Dave wanted a family with Abbie, nothing would.
“I’m sorry, Ellie,” Will said when she was finished. “We still have to consider Dave a suspect, that’s just how this works.”
With those simple words, Ellie was sure steam was about to rocket out of her ears. It couldn’t be possible, Dave was innocent!
“Then find more evidence,” Ellie shot back at him. “There has to be something that proves it was someone else, or at least proves it wasn’t him.
“We have all the evidence that Abbie’s body was able to give us,” Will sighed. “Dr. Thyne got the results back and yes she was poisoned intentionally. Sadly there isn’t much else we’ve been able to get. We’ve released the body and her wake is tomorrow.”
“I refuse to believe Dave Ainsley had anything to do with this,” Ellie insisted. “He was about to have a daughter and if I were him there is no way in the world I’d do anything to jeopardize that.”
Anger bubbled up in Ellie’s cheeks. She’d done so well to work through the anger issues her diagnosed infertility had brought out in her. She knew that most people couldn’t understand that horrible need she felt. The one that was always tugging at her. Will couldn’t understand and she shouldn’t expect him to, but the word vomit bubbled up and came out before she could stop it.
“I really don’t expect a bachelor like you to understand,” she told him and there was venom on her tongue.
To her surprise, Will’s face wasn’t angry or frustrated or anything like that at all. If anything, he looked amused.
“You think so?” he asked with a sarcastic laugh. “Would it surprise you to learn I have a daughter?”
Ellie blinked. And then she blinked again. It took her a second to finally say, “Sorry?”
“I have a daughter,” Will told her. “Her name is Olivia and she’s two years old. So yes, I can definitely understand the desire and love for a child. Even one that isn’t born yet.”
“I’m sorry,” Ellie told him. “I didn’t realize. I’d heard you were single.”
“That isn’t wrong either,” Will told her. “My wife and I split up not long after Liv was born. Allison, my ex-wife, is a journalist. We met when she was working the police beat in Milwaukee when I was a rookie. Not long after we had our daughter she got the assignment she’d been dreaming of. Now she travels the world as a war correspondent. Our marriage didn’t last long after her first tour.”
“So it’s just you and Olivia?” Ellie asked.
He gave her a gentle smile. “Not quite,” Will told her. “My mother lives with us here in town. She helps out while I’m at work. It was a big part of why we left Milwaukee for Dundurn. I was finding that my mother was more of a parent to Liv than me and I knew I needed to change that. My daughter couldn’t really have two absentee parents, could she?”
“I guess not,” Ellie agreed. “Sorry I assumed.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he assured her. “I keep my personal life personal. But Ellie, you need to trust me on this. We need to follow procedure. I want to find Dave innocent as well, but I can’t let my desires get in the way of my job. And not just that, but questioning him is important in finding out if he is guilty or innocent. Remember, everyone is assumed innocent until proven guilty.”
Ellie had to admit she hadn’t thought of it that way. If Will wanted to make sure Dave was innocent, he’d need to question him for that, too.
“I understand,” she said. “But can you do me a favor? Can you bring Dave in as inconspicuously as possible? Just so more rumors don’t start. Having so many people gossiping about him can’t be doing him any good.”
“I agree,” Will said. “We’ll do our best.”
“Thank you,” Ellie said as she stood to leave.
“And Ellie?” Will said as he led her to the door.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Stop snooping. You’re not a cop.”
Ellie bristled, but she didn’t reply as she made her way back to the front door of the station. She didn’t even utter a word until one swear slipped out as she got into her grandmother’s car. Being told what to do, or what not to do, was never something Ellie did well with.
So she was going to do the opposite. But first she needed to go see Dave Ainsley again.
***
With Beau beside her, Ellie gently knocked on the front door of Dave Ainsley’s home. His car was in the driveway, but with everything else going on she wasn’t sure if he would be home or not.
A minute later the front door opened and Ellie was relieved to see Dave looking a little better. Not great, and not devoid of grief, but it appeared that he’d at least been eating some of the food that had been brought over for him by concerned neighbors.
“Dave, hi,” she greeted him and hoped he wasn’t still sore at her after how her last visit went.
“Hey Ellie,” he said and then looked down at Beau who wagged his tail happily. “Hey buddy. You want to come in?”
“Just for a few seconds,” Ellie told him. “If that’s okay.”
“Sure,” Dave said. If he was carrying any animosity toward her, Ellie couldn’t sense it.
Once Ellie was inside she realized that casseroles and baked goods weren’t the only things people had given to Dave during this difficult time. Flowers and edible arrangements covered every surface in the entry way and living room. The smell of roses and other flowers were thick in the air.
“It’s nice to see people are thinking of you,” she told Dave as she took a seat on the couch.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Though I kind of wish they’d stop. The money they’ve spent on flowers is going to keep Rhonda’s flower shop open for years, but I think there are better uses. Ellie’s obituary was published today and I’ve asked that people donate to a few children’s funds instead.”
It was just another sign for Ellie that Dave was truly a good person. Abbie’s death had visibly changed him and he was no longer the loud and boisterous man she knew, but perhaps with time he would get back to that place. Or at least close enough to it.
“That’s part of why I’m here,” Ellie said as she reached into her bag. From it she pulled out the small, pale pink box from Dearly Mine. “I went in to get a treat for myself and kind of stumbled upon what Gerald and Hilda were working on for you. I felt terrible after our last conversation, so I thought I could pay you back with this.”
“Ellie?” Dave asked as he opened the box, but then his eyes glistened when he saw the bracelet inside. “Oh Ellie, you didn’t have to do this.”
“Yes I did,” she told him. “I know about Stella and the adoption.”
“You do?” he asked, and suspicion lurked behind his tear filled eyes.
“I’m trying to find out who did this to Abbie,” she told Dave. “I know it wasn’t you, but so far all I’ve done is come up with reasonable doubt in your defence. I hate to admit it, but I’m no closer to the real suspect than when I started.”
“I hope you get closer,” Dave said with a soft laugh. “I want to find out who did this and show them how much they’ve ruined our family, right when we were so close. I don’t know what will happen now, but if Stella would still be up for it, I’d still want to adopt Paige.”
“Really?” Ellie asked, happily surprised.
“Of course!” Dave told her. “I know it might sound silly to you, but I already love our little girl. I’d do anything for her. The adoption, it wasn’t closed, but we, Abbie and I, we thought the bracelet would be something nice for Stella. Something to keep Paige close to her heart, even when she wasn’t there.”
Ellie didn’t say as much, but she knew exactly what he meant. She’d never even gotten pregnant, but had fallen so deeply in love with the idea of having a baby at all had made finding out the news of her own infertility that much more heartbreaking. She wanted to tell him she understood, at least somewhat, but knew it wasn’t the time.
“I am going to find who did this,” she told Dave. “If the police come to talk to you, don’t worry. They have nothing solid against you and I won’t stop until I find Abbie’s killer.”
Abbie meant those words. She knew she was going to have to find out the real killer and quick.
Which meant it might be time for her to turn her attention to the members of the book club.