Read Online Evidence of Murder by Lisa Black - Free Book Online Page A

she could hear the switchboard buzzing, though of course she couldn’t, not without some sort of psychic ability.
    “But I—”
avoid grieving people
, Theresa wanted to say. Though she wondered if the man could shed some light on why Jillian would have left her daughter and sat down in the middle of a frozen forest. She’d feel more comfortable with a finding of suicide if there were some history to back it up.
    “Please?” the receptionist added, then piled on more hand-wringing until Theresa relented.
    “Good luck,” Don said. “I’m going to stay here and hide some more.”
    Theresa folded the jeans over their hanger and shoved the whole clothes rack into the storage room, locking the door. The receptionist waited, bobbing her head in gratitude, and then led the way back to the front lobby. Theresa had to trot to keep up.
    The man waiting there could have used another ten pounds and a J. Crew catalog. And a box of Kleenex. Straight brown hair hung past his shoulders. He paced the worn linoleum with fists plunged into the pockets of a jersey jacket, the outline of each finger visible beneath the taut cloth.
    “Mr.—?” Theresa prompted.
    “Drew Fleming. I’m here to claim Jillian’s body.” He made no move to shake hands and neither did she.
    “Jillian’s not ready to be released yet.” She did not tell him that Jillian currently lay on a table in the autopsy suite with her torso flayed open for all to see. “If you don’t mind my asking, Mr. Fleming, are you here on behalf of Evan Kovacic?”
    “I wouldn’t cross the street on behalf of Evan Kovacic.” The man shifted from side to side and had difficulty meeting her eyes for more than a glance. She would assume the influence of some drugs, but his words were clear and his pupils weren’t dilated or jumpy. He was not under the influence but crying, lightly and without pause.
    “He
is
Jillian’s husband.”
    “The guy she married, yeah, I know that.”
    “Then I’m afraid—”
    “Because I loved her! Not him! He never loved her. He probably won’t even claim her body.” His eyes welled up, making the blue irises even bluer, and a shudder ran through his body. “
I
loved her.”
    Theresa considered him, balancing the discomfort of conversing with a distraught bereaved with a sudden and intense curiosity about the circumstances of Jillian Perry’s life, as well as her death. It was not Theresa’s job to talk to witnesses, but on the other hand, no rules prohibited same. “If you’d like to come upstairs, Mr. Fleming, there’s a conference room where we can talk.”
    He followed her without a word.
    Once they were settled in the central conference room, a musty-smelling area furnished in dingy 1950s decor, she asked, “How did you know Jillian was dead?”
    “I think I’ve known for four days. Everyone said she was nowhere to be found—”
    “Who’s everyone?”
    “Her work, Evan—”
    “You spoke to her husband?”
    “Yeah. He’s in the apartment in the evenings, though I used his cell too.”
    “He didn’t mind you calling?”
    Drew Fleming seemed surprised by the question. “Why should he? She married him, not me. Anyway, no one knew where Jillian had gone and I knew she’d never just walk off and leave Cara. She was an excellent mother. Even if she’d had some kind of total freak-out and run away, she’d have told me.”
    “But how did you find out that we’d found her body?” Theresa persisted.
    “I checked in with Vangie at the agency, to see if they’d heard from Jillian, and she told me.”
    “How did she know?”
    “Evan called them.”
    “He called Jillian’s boss? Ex-boss?” In the first few hours after learning his wife was dead? Most people would be too busy with family members and funeral arrangements. But then perhaps they didn’t have much family.
    He snorted and gave a hopeless chuckle. “Yeah, but did he call
me
? No.”
    Legal complications could no doubt ensue from questioning a witness