twenty

“You’re kidding, right? There’s been a mistake. Or you’re joking around. I mean, that’s ridiculous, isn’t it? Why would Detweiler shoot her? And with his own gun? That would be totally stupid. You know him. He’d never, ever do anything like that. Ever. Come on, Robbie. Get real.” I couldn’t even focus, the shock was so great. My stomach convulsed and I thought I’d vomit on the craft table, right then and there. Instead, I raced to the john, rinsed out my mouth and splashed my face with cold water. Then I grabbed a Coke for Robbie and a Diet Dr Pepper for me.

On second thought, I decided the artificial sweeteners might not be good for my baby, so I grabbed two regular Cokes. Robbie gratefully took his from me and turned his head as the pop-tab sizzled.

“As much as I find this hard to believe, the evidence speaks for itself. The lab couldn’t have made a mistake. They are spent casings from bullets fired out of Chad Detweiler’s gun. The marks prove it. And rational people can do irrational things in the heat of the moment. It happens every day of the week.”

“What?” I yelped, and I spilled a bit of my Coke. “Robbie, you don’t believe that for a minute!”

“You’re right; I don’t. But what else can I think? There’s no question that the striations on the casings are a match. Maybe Chad thought her body wouldn’t be found. With that electric blanket around it, the time of death is nearly impossible to pin down. If a real estate agent hadn’t wandered in, Brenda’s body might have been there for months. Decomposing. Making it harder and harder to tell what happened. Maybe in the heat of the moment he forgot to search for the spent casings. Who knows? Stranger things have happened.”

“But not to Detweiler! You know him, Robbie. He’d never do anything like this. Ever!”

“Be that as it may, they are planning to take him into custody about now.” Robbie rubbed at a spot on the leg of his navy police uniform. Even after the spot disappeared, he kept rubbing the same place, over and over.

I hopped up and down like a deranged bunny rabbit, all the while waving my arms as if to get his attention. “You can’t let this happen. You have to stop them! A cop in jail? You know how dangerous that’ll be for him? He’d never do anything like this! You know it! You have to do something! Robbie? Are you listening?”

I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. Correction: Tried to shake him. He’s too big and solid for me to have bothered.

Batting away my hands, he said, “Kiki, here’s the thing. You can’t imagine how upset he was when he heard you’d been hurt. He was furious. I’ve never seen him like that. Ever. At the scene, two state troopers had to restrain him. He even took a swing at one of them! Chad’s usually one of my more level-headed officers, but even I was worried about him when he found out what happened.” Robbie paused to pinch the bridge of his nose. “And threatening Brenda when the Crime Scene guys were there? It wasn’t smart. Not at all. Chad was definitely on a rampage.”

“Maybe you misunderstood him. What exactly did he say?” I perched on the stool so I could steady myself by gripping the craft table. Stars swam across my field of vision. This was too much to handle coming on top of Dodie’s meltdown.

Suddenly my environment seemed silly. Trite. Meaningless. The pretty paper. The cute embellishments. What was I doing here? The guy I loved was going to jail. For life. Falsely accused. Whatever the ballistics testing said, I knew that Detweiler couldn’t have hurt Brenda. That wasn’t like him. No way.

But then again, I’d only seen him angry twice. And I couldn’t imagine how upset he must have been over Brenda’s participation in tricking me—and in the shootout at the slough. Worse yet, I shivered as I imagined how he might have reacted when he realized that she’d endangered our baby.

“Have the Detweilers hired an attorney for him? I mean, they need to get him out as soon as possible.”

“I’ve talked to them. They’re doing everything they can, but their resources are limited. You heard about the second mortgage on the farm? Because Brenda’s father co-signed, Chad’s folks are between a rock and a hard place. If they irritate Milton Kloss, he could call the loan. They would lose their home and the farm. If they don’t help their son, they’ll never be able to live with themselves. It’s an unholy mess.” Robbie ran a hand through his hair, causing it to stick out like porcupine quills.

I tasted bile, and it choked me. “What about a public defender? Or someone who owes Detweiler a favor? Anyone who owes you one?”

“He’ll need an attorney who’s passed the bar exam in Illinois. My contacts are all here on the Missouri side.”

I buried my head in my hands.

Robbie tapped my shoulder. “Sometimes the only thing left is to pray. I know that sounds simple. I know it sounds like I’m giving up, but on more than one occasion in my career and my life, I’ve had to come to terms with the truth. We do what we can and we leave the rest to God. Try not to worry so much, because it’ll stress your baby. Say your prayers. Light a candle, and turn this over to the Lord.”