LEAH CAME OUT of her bedroom in a robe at eight a.m. I’d put on a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt I got from my suitcase in the trunk of my car. I hadn’t expected to stay at Leah’s home after we gave each other the silent treatment on the drive back to Santa Barbara from San Diego.
“There you are.” Icy. “When did you get up?”
“A little while ago.”
“Hmm.” Anger shaded with disappointment in her eyes. “That’s strange because I woke up at four and you were gone. I thought you’d gone back to the hotel.”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
“Good to know that’s where you draw the line.”
I’d been in my own head so much that I’d forgotten why Leah asked me to stay. She needed me to be next to her when she fell asleep and still be there when she woke up. But I couldn’t shake the feeling of betraying Colleen. Too late.
“I couldn’t sleep so I came out here. I didn’t want to wake you with my tossing and turning.” I could lie easily on the small stuff. If it kept me from having to tell the truth about the big stuff.
“When do you want me to call Tom?” She didn’t believe me. The truth would have been too hard to explain.
We got to Krista’s house by nine a.m. Tom Weaver was due in an hour. Leah had persuaded him on the phone to come over. She was pretty good at lying, too.
We didn’t include Grimes in our scheme because I didn’t think he’d play along. He might call Weaver to warn him. Grimes was retired, but there was no question where he stood in relation to that thin blue line. And no question where I did, either.
Weaver arrived about ten twenty a.m. I hid in the guest bedroom while Leah escorted him into Krista’s study.
“I think someone broke into Krista’s file cabinet.” Leah’s voice. “There are some files missing and scratches on the lock like someone picked it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that on the phone?” Weaver, gruff, irritated. “Why the big secret?”
“I was worried you might have been at SBPD and mention something to someone. I don’t know who to trust over there.”
“Why? Everyone’s working hard to find Krista’s killer.”
“If you say so. Please, just examine the lock.”
“All right.” A huff. “I’ll take a look at it.”
This was my cue. Knowing Weaver had entered the office, I could stand in the doorway and block an easy exit.
“Morning, Tom.”
Weaver startled and bumped his chin into the file cabinet near the lock, which he’d been examining. He straightened up and puffed out his chest. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I was in the neighborhood.”
“Bullshit.” He turned to Leah who stood on the other side of the desk. “What’s this all about?”
“I wanted to see if you agreed with Rick’s assessment that the file cabinet was broken into.”
“No, she’s serious,” I said. “Did you see the scratches on the lock? Looks like someone went at it with a pick set.”
“Those scratches could have come from anything. They could have been there when Krista bought the cabinet. What do you really want, Cahill?”
Weaver wasn’t stupid. Or patient. I didn’t have much time, but still had to be careful. I couldn’t push him too hard too soon.
“I don’t know if Krista told you, but she was reinvestigating my wife’s murder.” I looked at Weaver’s face for a tell. Surprise. Faked surprise. Acknowledgment that he already knew. His face didn’t change. Still wore the snarl he had when he saw me in the doorway. “She mention anything to you about it?”
“No.” Weaver stepped around the desk and managed to squeeze another inch of puff out of his chest. “But everyone already knows who killed your wife, Cahill.”
I got the implication. I’d seen it in many forms from too many people to count over the years. But Weaver was one of the few people who knew I couldn’t have killed Colleen. He was now my only living alibi. And possibly Colleen’s killer.
“Everyone’s wrong.” I shifted slightly to fill up the doorway. I wasn’t going to really block his exit if Weaver tried to push past me. He was a cop. I wasn’t stupid. At least not most of the time. But he didn’t have to know that. “I know you were up in Fresno interviewing a witness for a case the night Colleen died. Do you know the name of the hotel you stayed in?”
“What?” Weaver scowled at me. “That’s none of your business. What’s this all about?”
“Just trying to establish where everyone was the night Colleen died. It’s general practice to expense a hotel when you are out of town on an investigation.” I studied Weaver’s eyes. A hint of uncertainty slipped beneath the scowl. “Do you suppose SBPD still has a record of your expense report?”
“What are you implying, Cahill?” Weaver stabbed me in the chest with two fingers like he had at the funeral. “That I killed your wife?”
He side-glanced Leah to make sure she knew how angry he was that she’d set him up.
“I don’t know. Did you? Because I know you weren’t in Fresno the night Colleen was murdered. You here were in Santa Barbara.”
“You’re a liar!” Weaver stabbed me again and stuck his face into mine, nose to nose. He wanted me to push him away so he could arrest me. He probably already would have tried to put the cuffs on me if Leah hadn’t been there.
“You’re right about that. And an adulterer. They tend to go together.” Time to flip over my cards. “But you already knew that because you came home from Fresno a day early to surprise Krista and found a different kind of surprise in your bedroom.”
I saw the punch coming, shifted sideways, and slipped it. Except for the large ring on Weaver’s hand. It caught the corner of my eye and ripped skin. I stepped backwards out of the doorway instead of clocking him with a right counter.
“Tom!” Leah’s scream startled both of us and kept Weaver from pushing forward on me. She ran over and stood between us. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I’ll tell you what’s wrong with me.” He reached his arm around Leah and pointed at me. “This motherfucker. I knew you screwed my wife, asshole, but not because I was in the house when you did it. Krista told me all about it before we got a divorce.”
I wiped the blood seeping from the corner of my eye. It stung. Weaver had a right to punch me.
If our roles were reversed, I would have done the same thing. A long time ago. But if he’d taken out his revenge on Colleen, I’d kill him. No arrest. No trial. No verdict. Just the death penalty. But I had to be one hundred percent certain and I wasn’t yet.
“Your car was in your driveway the night I slept with Krista. I have a witness who will swear to it.” Leah and I hadn’t gotten that far yet, but it didn’t matter. And it never would, but Weaver didn’t know that.
“Bullshit. You already admitted that you’re a liar. I believe you about that.”
Weaver was arguing his innocence with a two-bit private dick instead of leaving. Why? If he was innocent, why even bother? He was a cop, I was hated by cops. Especially in Santa Barbara. He should have welcomed my accusation so I could make a fool of myself at SBPD. Unless he was guilty. Or, at least, had something to hide.
“A witness saw your Crown Vic slick top in your driveway around ten the night Colleen was murdered. That’s the same time I was in bed with your wife.” I slipped my right foot back and flexed my knees in case he tried to cheap shot me again. Part of me wanted him to. Not to get him in trouble, but because every time I talked about being in bed with Krista, I remembered Colleen died because of it.
“How do you know your witness”—he air-quoted “witness”—“isn’t mistaking that night for some other night? Why would he suddenly remember it now?”
“Because I didn’t realize the significance of it until Rick told me he slept with Krista the night Colleen was murdered.” Leah stared at Weaver like the roles were reversed and she had him in the square white room.
Weaver’s face lost some color. It stayed hard, but he couldn’t stop the blood from exiting his head. He tried to stay strong. “How could you possibly be sure it was that night?”
“Because it was the night Colleen died.” Leah’s blue piercers never left Weaver’s face. “Where did you go after you saw Krista and Rick together, Tom?”
“I didn’t go anywhere. I was in Fresno.” He pushed past Leah and me down the hallway and out of the house.
“Oh my God.” Leah slumped against the wall. “He’s lying. He really could have done it. He could have killed Colleen.”
“And Krista.”
I was ninety percent there. Tom Weaver had as many days left on the earth as it took me to get to that last ten percent.