The Mole in His Bed novel · Chapter 11 of 24
Chapter 11: Two Years of Kitchen
Neil was gone before the sun came up.
He left the way he had come, with his coat over his arm and his eyes on the floor.
At the door he said, "Don't go to Crane."
"Why not?"
"Because he laughs when he lies," Neil said. "And he laughs when he doesn't."
Then he went down the stairs, and I did not follow him.
Judith drove me to the county jail herself at nine.
She wore the dark suit she had worn on the first day of trial and carried a legal pad she did not write on.
"I'll be behind the glass," she said. "I can't make him a deal in there, and I can't be seen to try. Anything he gives you, he gives you."
Elias Crane was waiting in a gray interview room in an orange jumpsuit.
He had lost weight in five months, and it had made him look more like himself.
He stood up when I came in. He pulled out the other chair.
"Barrow," he said warmly. "Sit down. I never thanked you for the Christmas bonus spreadsheet."
"My name is Tallant."
"Barrow's a better name for an accountant." He sat, and his pale blue eyes crinkled. "I should have known you were police. Nobody balances a ledger that cleanly who isn't hiding something."
I stayed standing.
"What do you want?"
"A front row."
"For what?"
"For Paula." He said her name tenderly. "I paid that woman forty thousand dollars a month for five years, and when my docks went dark last spring, the tip she'd given me about the night was wrong. Poisoned. I've always wondered who poisoned it for her."
Keep reading free with an account. Start The Mole in His Bed from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 10 · All chapters · Chapter 12 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend