My best option seemed to be to go back downstairs and sit with Russ and Tony. Not only wouldn’t I be alone, but I didn’t want to go home until I knew Stacey and the baby were okay anyway.
My phone wouldn’t pick up a signal in the elevator, so I waited until I reached Stacey’s floor again. I called Chief McTavish, explained everything, and gave him Griffin’s name and address. I also let him know that Elise was going to stay with her cousin.
He didn’t even lecture me. Instead, all he said was “I’ve got kids myself. They’re both off at college, but I understand.”
I hung up, texted Mark, and came around the corner to where I’d left Tony and Russ. Tony’s shoulders slouched forward, and Russ’s hair stood on end as if he’d been tugging it.
My heart felt like it tumbled from my chest and hit the floor. “Any news?”
Tony didn’t even blink in response to my question.
Russ set a hand on his shoulder. He’d probably been the closest thing Noah’d had to a real dad. It felt right that Russ had stayed, not only for Tony’s sake but also for his own.
“They told us we could wait here,” Russ said, “but they had to take her for a c-section. Her blood pressure was spiking, and the baby’s heart beat had turned erratic.”
A sudden weight in my chest pressed me down into the seat. The rational lawyer side of my brain knew there’d be some risk to the baby being born early, but I hadn’t considered that Stacey might be at risk as well. Women had babies all the time. Many of them were much older and much younger than Stacey. She was fit. She was healthy. All her check-ups had been good.
I wanted to ask how much danger they were both in, but I didn’t want to be the thing that pushed Tony over the edge. The man looked like he was barely holding it together as it was.
Tony’s head turned in my direction. “Will you pray for them?”
As far as I knew, Tony and his wife didn’t attend church. If someone had asked me, I couldn’t have said whether they believed in God or not. But there was that old saying about there being no atheists in foxholes. Maybe the truth was closer to there being no atheists when the life of someone you loved was at stake. When your hands were bound, it opened your heart to the hope of someone more powerful who could do what you couldn’t.
“Do you want me to pray out loud?”
Half an hour later, my phone rang. Tony had his head resting back against the wall, and he jerked hard enough that his skull made a thud.
I glanced at the caller ID. Fair Haven PD. That had to be Chief McTavish.
I signaled Russ. “I have to answer this. I’ll be around the corner. Find me if there’s any news.”
I answered the call before it went to voicemail.
“I have bad news or good news depending on how you look at it,” Chief McTavish said.
“Don’t tell me he’s dead,” I blurted.
“Have you considered therapy, Dawes? That’s not a normal response.”
I was already in therapy, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. He’d said there was news that could be either good or bad. Considering my history, that meant my suspect was dead—a good thing in that he couldn’t hurt Arielle and Cameron, but a bad one in that Dean could go to prison for a crime he didn’t commit…assuming he survived.
But I wasn’t in the mood to argue with Chief McTavish or defend myself right now. I wanted to know the news and get back to waiting for word on Stacey. “If he’s not dead, what happened?”
“He’s in police custody, but he’s been there over twenty-four hours.”
This afternoon Dean was seen by his neighbor working on getting rid of the plants I’d ordered him to dig up. Griffin couldn’t have attacked him. He might still have been able to poison his food. “Could you ask the officers in charge of the investigation to have the doctor test Dean’s blood for poison? If Griffin poisoned him, he could have done it prior to going into custody.”
Chief McTavish sighed. “I’ll ask, but it’s going to be a battle. Your suspect wasn’t brought in by the police. He came in to cut a plea deal for identity theft. He’s turning over all the names of the other people involved and everyone they’ve sold an identity to in exchange for complete immunity.”
Double crap. That made it look like Griffin was innocent concerning Dean’s attack. Dean had told him he was leaving the business, and instead of coming after Dean or coming after Elise and the children the way he threatened, he covered his own backside. It was a much smarter move than following through on his threats would have been. I didn’t know whether to be grateful or not that he was a smart criminal rather than a stupid one.
If he was spilling his secrets, now was the time to get him to alibi Dean, though. That would give Elise peace of mind, and she could honestly tell Arielle and Cameron that their dad wasn’t a killer.
“If nothing else, please have them ask Griffin if he was with Dean the night of Sandra’s murder. Dean claimed they were together, but Griffin threatened to hurt his kids if he told the police.”
“I’ll do what I can. The chief over there’s not a reasonable man.”
Russ called my name, and my phone slipped halfway out of my hand. I couldn’t remember if I’d said goodbye to Chief McTavish or not, but I stuffed the phone and ran.