Read Online A Welcome Grave by Michael Koryta - Free Book Online Page A

be northbound sometime before noon.”
    “Don’t be in such a hurry.”
    The jailer left, and then it was just Brewer and me. He’d changed clothes, was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt now, cop casual. His face was covered witha day’s growth of beard, though, so he hadn’t taken much time at home before rolling back out for the second round with me.
    “I’ve done a little research,” he said. “Sounds like you were a pretty good cop. You’ve had some big-deal cases as a PI, too. That’s good. Makes your witness testimony a little more reliable.”
    “Don’t you wish you’d been nicer now?”
    He tapped a pencil on the table in front of him. “Thing that makes me curious, though? Is why a smart detective like you would neglect to mention some damn interesting things during that witness testimony. Things like your arrest for assaulting the dead guy’s father. Things like the romantic relationship you had with the dead guy’s stepmother.”
    “Too many irrelevant details can make a statement murky.”
    “You think this is a game where we sit around and trade wise-ass remarks?”
    “It’s shaping up like that.”
    “Not anymore.” He leaned forward. “Yeah, I’d say you neglected to mention some pretty damn interesting things last night, Mr. Perry. You told me you were here to tell Jefferson his father was dead.”
    “I was.”
    “You didn’t mention that you were also here to tell him he was inheriting many millions.”
    “That’s family business. I’m not interested in sharing anyone else’s financial details, Brewer.”
    “Of course you’re not. Now, let’s review what you told me last night, shall we?” He pulled a small notebook from his pocket and glanced at it. “You told me, and repeated this several times, that Matthew Jefferson already knew his father was dead. That this was, in fact, the first thing he said to you when you encountered him.”
    “That’s right.”
    Brewer slapped the notebook down. “Now, if he knew his father was dead, it would stand to reason that he could also imagine he had just become a very wealthy man. Odd motivation for a suicide, don’t you think?”
    “He’d been estranged from his father. Could be he had no idea he was getting any money. Maybe that was part of his emotional problem. Not only had he lost his father, he’d lost a fortune.”
    “If he’d been estranged from his father, as you also indicated last night, then why had he received three phone calls from the man in the last few weeks?”
    I leaned back in my chair and looked at him. He wasn’t bluffing; I could tellthat from his face. If he’d called a judge at home and gotten an order for the phone records, he could have had them easily enough by this morning.
    “Interesting, isn’t it?” Brewer said, watching me.
    “I suppose.” I kept my voice neutral. It was more than interesting, but I didn’t want Brewer to think I cared. Hell, did I even
want
to care? Right now I just wanted to make my way through about three more locked doors and into the parking lot.
    “And the money?” Brewer said. “Those millions that were supposed to go to the son? Well, now that the son is dead, it appears that money goes right back to the widow. The same widow to whom you were once engaged.”
    He spread his hands and pushed away from the table. “You know, if I were the paranoid sort, I’d be seriously questioning whether I could believe your description of what happened, Mr. Perry.”
    “I hadn’t seen Karen Jefferson in years, Brewer. Call the Cleveland Police Department, ask around. Trust me, they would have checked our relationship out pretty thoroughly after her husband was murdered.”
    “I will indeed be on the phone with Cleveland. But right now I’ve got you to deal with. And I want to know why in the hell you would have taken this job. Or—and this is the really interesting question—why in the hell you would have been
asked
to take this job. You and this woman break off an