Read Online Chicken Pesto Murder: Book 5 in The Darling Deli Series by Patti Benning - Free Book Online

he didn’t need any stress right now.
    “You know, I don’t think anyone really thinks that you did it,” she said at last. “They just don’t have anything to point them towards anyone else.”
    “I wish I could be investigating this myself,” he said with a frustrated groan. “But I’m afraid that it would just end up looking more suspicious to the police. Oh, I almost forgot, I did find out something interesting.”
    He took a moment to dig a folder out of the leather bag that he kept his files in. He pulled a paper out and slid it across the table to her. It took Moira a moment to figure out what she was seeing. It was a newspaper clipping from a few years ago. She recognized the face in the picture; it was the balding man that had been at the retirement party, and who had later come into the deli for a bowl of soup: Shawn Dietz. According to the article, he had been arrested for an armed robbery… and the lead detective on the case was Fitzgerald.
    “Oh, wow,” she breathed. “Did he escape from prison?”
    “No, he served his time and was released early for good behavior. It seems like he came back here once he was free,” David said. “He would definitely have motive to kill Fitzgerald, though. And I’m sure that he would have had the opportunity to learn a lot about killing from the people that he met in prison.”
    “Did you show this to the police?” she asked, pushing the paper back towards him.
    “I did, but if they ever did anything with it, I never heard about it.” He folded the newspaper clipping in half and slid it carefully back into the folder. “I guess I’ll just have to wait and trust that the truth will come out. I’m glad that you believe me, at least.”
    Moira blushed, glad that he couldn’t read her mind. Just a couple of nights ago she had been entertaining the thought that he might actually be the killer.
    “I’m sorry, David,” she said. “If there was any way that I could help you, I would.”
    He responded with a wry smile, “I know. Thank you, Moira. It means a lot to me.”
     

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    How to help David? The thought was on her mind as she drove back to the deli. She didn’t know where the police were in their investigation, but they would certainly be wanting to make an arrest pretty soon. She knew that physical evidence would trump circumstantial evidence, and that even if Detective Jefferson thought that the private investigator didn’t do it, he wouldn’t be able to stop whoever else was working on the investigation from bringing him in.
    The question was, was Jefferson convinced of David’s innocence strongly enough that he would be willing to help her figure out who the real killer was? She didn’t know, but she thought it was worth a try. She was sure that between the two of them and David, they would be able to remember something from the night that Fitzgerald died that would point towards a different suspect. That Shawn Dietz guy might be a good place to start. Like David had said, the man had motive. He had been in prison for nearly ten years thanks to the brave police detective. All that she had to do was find physical evidence that he had something to do with Fitzgerald’s death… or get him to confess.
    Making a split-second decision, she turned into the police station’s parking lot on her way back to the deli. If she was going to talk to Detective Jefferson, it might as well be now, when David’s tired face was fresh on her mind.
    “Ms. Darling, to what do I owe this pleasure?” the detective asked when he saw her. She was sitting on an uncomfortably hard bench in the police station’s reception area, waiting silently while the secretary typed busily away on the computer.
    “It’s about David,” she told him. “Can we go to your office?”
    He led the way back through the police station. Moira was glad when they walked by the depressingly bare room where she had been interviewed when she was a suspect in the murder of a