Five Years of Marriage to Mr. Bradford novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Danny's Night

Saturday afternoon the detective sat in Fiona's kitchen with her coat still on.

She was fifty, grey-eyed and tired, with a battered leather bag and the manner of a woman who had flown through the night and refused the offer of a bed.

Leonard sat across from her with his hands on the table.

I sat beside him.

"I'll tell you what I can use," the detective said. "A recording of Ms. Shaw offering a witness a settlement to stay quiet is interesting. A defense lawyer will say she was upset and frightened."

"She said Leonard drove," I said.

"She did. And your husband says she did. I have two stories and no card." She turned to the phone on the table. "This, though."

She had listened to the Exxon call four times with earphones, the way I had.

"I can't swear to a whisper," she said. "A lab might take weeks. A judge wants a voice that admits it, in its own words, with witnesses."

"She won't say it in a police station," Leonard said.

"No. She'll say it where she thinks she's won."

I looked at Fiona, who stood at the stove with her arms folded.

"Tonight's the end-of-term night," I said. "Fiona's class. We were going to dedicate it to Danny anyway."

"It's the best-attended night of the year," said Fiona. "Sixty people and the local radio."

"And the speakers," I said.

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