Read Online 1 Who Killed My Boss? by Jerilyn Dufresne - Free Book Online Page A

belch and wiped his mouth with his sleeve, I realized this guy was probably not the brightest porch light on the block. I also knew he was innocent. My vibes were dormant; there were no errant physical sensations. And it made me mad that he felt he had to confess. This guy was as innocent of murdering Dr. Burns as I was. It was obvious that he was trying to protect his older sister, Gwen.
    I decided to try to get a little more information. “Charlie, will you tell me what was going on with you in the ER this morning?”
    He looked sheepish; his unstructured hair fell into his eyes, a shield protecting him from the world. “Yeah, they make me so mad in them damn hospitals. My wife and little baby was hurt bad a couple years back in a car wreck and we didn’t have no insurance and they took ’em to the hospital and they both died there.” Charlie had a hard time maintaining eye contact; his eyes darted back and forth from the plate to Clancy, scarcely alighting on me. “They’re still sendin’ me bills. It’s like they don’t know there’s human beings on the receivin’ end of them bills. Every time I get one of ’em, I get a little crazy. But Dr. Burns said I wasn’t crazy. He called it something else, like post dramatic stress.”
    More information. Charlie was seeing Dr. Burns professionally and was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He would be a perfect candidate for the villain. PTSD, mood swings, the victim was screwing his sister—literally, and the hospital was screwing him—figuratively. Too bad he wasn’t guilty.
    “Charlie, will you answer another question for me?”
    He nodded.
    “Did you get arrested this morning for what you did at the hospital?”
    “Yes, ma’am, I did. But they know’d me down at the police station and they let me out until the court day. My lawyer said it’d be awhile. Heck, I’ll be in jail anyway for murder, so this thing won’t count for much extra.”
    “Why are you saying you killed Dr. Burns, when I know you didn’t?”
    “I did too kill him.”
    “Okay, why did you do it?”
    “Just cause I wanted to, that’s why.”
    “So you killed him because you wanted to. How did you do it, Charlie? What did you do to him?”
    He stuttered a bit, unable to come up with a plausible method. I was convinced that neither of us knew how Burns had been killed, but I knew more about it than Charlie did. I’d seen Burns dead.
    “Sorry, that’s not good enough. I know positively that you are innocent. Unfortunately, I can’t reveal my source at this time.” I was getting tired of saying that. “What’s going on?”
    “Well, they got my sister and she didn’t do it neither. I thought ’cause I’m such a screw-up anyway and I don’t have nobody but her, that I oughta say I did it. That way she’d get out.”
    “Don’t worry, Charlie, she’ll get out anyway. I’m going to help her by finding the real killer. Now the best thing for you to do is to take good care of yourself and make sure you visit her a lot.”
    He nodded. After crossing our fingers for luck, and pinky swearing that we wouldn’t tell anyone else about me working on the case except Pete, otherwise known as Father Brother, we parted company for the night.
    I felt absolutely drained, but I also felt such an adrenaline rush, it was hard to settle down. “Clancy, how about an extra outing tonight? I feel like running a little.”
    She returned with her leash even before I finished my sentence. I put on my boots and parka and we started out. The snowy night was so bright that I could see clearly. The ground was already covered and flakes were once again falling. I couldn’t run much because of my boots and because of the snow, but I knew I had to try, or I’d never be able to sleep.
    We started jogging around the big house, but then hit a patch of ice. Clancy skidded; I let go of her leash and windmilled my arms trying to avoid the inevitable. No such luck. With a giant thud I fell flat