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

without his lawyer or a reading of his rights, except that Theresa was not questioning a witness, she was gathering information about a victim’s history and possible state of mind. Therefore she asked without hesitation, “When did you last see Jillian?”
    “Last Friday. I went to visit, she made lunch.”
    “Was Evan there?”
    “At work. Out in the barns, I guess.”
    She left that for a moment, shuffling topics as she’d seen her cousin do. “How did Jillian seem that day?”
    A burst of laughter floated up the hallway from the busy records department. Theresa’s stomach rumbled. Fleming seemed to be thinking back, and his eyes grew wet with each memory. “Fine. Cara had been spitting up a lot, Jillian worried about that, but she’d gained another pound and she had just had a checkup. Cara’s perfectly healthy, her doctor said so. She got a new pair of shoes—Jillian did—at DSW and she loved the color, but they rubbed on the back of her ankles, so she planned to take them back. She complained about not having any sunlight for so long, not that she gets that seasonal affective disorder or anything, but the gray skies get to everybody by this time of the year. Does it always smell like that in here?”
    “Yes, it does. She didn’t seem upset or worried about anything in particular, then?”
    “Just being married to Evan.”
    “Why would that upset her?”
    “Because he didn’t love her! He just wanted a piece of eye candy to show off to his clients and his friends, none of whom have matured past the age of thirteen. They play games all day, for Pete’s sake.”
    “I wouldn’t think a woman with a newborn would be ideal eye candy.”
    The man gave her a pitying look, as if sorry for anyone who could be that clueless. “Jillian would be eye candy if she had five newborns, if she were ninety, if she had leprosy.”
    Theresa had seen Jillian’s picture, and felt he overstated the case. “You dated Jillian before she met Evan?”
    His gaze dropped. His finger traced the fake wood grain on the table. “Not really, no. We were friends. We’ve been friends for four years, since we met at Tri-C.”
    The local community college. His occasional lapse into the present tense when referring to Jillian didn’t surprise Theresa. Most people had trouble adjusting immediately after a death.
    “Did Evan know you came by to visit his wife?”
    “Sure.” Again the surprised tone.
    “Jillian told him? And he didn’t mind?”
    “Like I said, why should he? She married him, not me.”
    Drew Fleming and Evan Kovacic, Theresa thought, were either very, very modern or very, very old-fashioned.
    “You’re sure Jillian told him?”
    “Yeah, always. Besides, I ran into him on my way out of the building that day.”
    Drew showed up for lunch and was still there when Evan came in from work? Or did Evan pop in and out all day? “What happened?”
    “Nothing. We said a few words.”
    “About Jillian?”
    “No, about Polizei.” At her blank look, he added, “His video game. The one that made all the money. He’s coming out with version two in a few weeks.”
    “Polizei?”
    “That’s Russian for ‘police,’ I guess. The character is a cop in the future and he takes his team to infiltrate this castle—I think it’s in Romania because there are vampires, and there’s a magic sword…it’s pretty cool.”
    “Polizei
is a German word.”
    “Oh. Whatever. Evan can do games, I’ll say that for him.”
    “I understand Evan is not Cara’s father?”
    Drew blinked, apparently still lost in Romanian castles. “What? Oh, no, he isn’t.”
    She waited for him to answer the obvious question. He didn’t. “Who is?”
    “What? I don’t know. She never talked about him.”
    “Uh-huh.” The desire to do right by the woman Theresa had initially dismissed began to seem a little silly. Jillian Perry had had one man’s baby, had a less-than-perfect marriage to another, and had a third coming by to let her cry on