Read Online Shadow Image by Martin J Smith - Free Book Online

whole adult day-care facility. I can almost overlook the fact that they’re obscenely rich.”
    â€œAnd if I really want to pursue the city council seat, a kind word from them would pretty much do it for me in the Seventh Ward,” she said. “It’s just—”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œâ€”not cut and dried, that’s all.”
    â€œHow much can you say?”
    She bit her lower lip. “A hypothetical, okay? Let’s say there was some physical evidence that might support an eyewitness’s story. Nothing conclusive, but something that might intrigue the cops, something that makes the witness’s story seem at least plausible. If there was a struggle or something on the gazebo deck, even a short one, and this witness was standing at the greenhouses, I’m sure he could have heard it.”
    â€œThat’s the hypothetical gazebo and greenhouse?” he said.
    â€œYou know I can’t talk about a specific case.”
    He kissed her. “Love that.”
    â€œOkay, so there’s a big storage room underneath the gazebo. It’s pretty loud even when you walk across the floor. Stomp your feet and it sounds like a bass drum. The witness hears the sounds and comes out to look, sees somebody, a man, leaving the gazebo.”
    Christensen nodded. “Logical. But a little thin, theory-wise, don’t you think?”
    â€œBy itself, sure.”
    â€œThen?”
    â€œThe deck has a railing, about waist-high. Right where she jumped, or fell, it’s broken. Not like somebody stood on top and jumped outward. It’s splintered around one of the bolts on the back, like something heavy fell against it from the deck side. The splintering looks pretty recent.”
    â€œLot of assumptions there,” he said. “Somebody moving heavy furniture or equipment around anytime in the last few weeks could have bumped against it. They use the gazebo for parties and fund-raisers and stuff, right?”
    â€œThat’d be easy enough to check,” she said.
    â€œAnd you said the railing’s waist-high. What if Floss stumbled against it and fell over? It was raining, probably slippery.”
    Far-fetched, he knew, but no more than any other scenario she’d brought up.
    Brenna made a face. “All I’m saying is there’s enough that the investigators probably had to follow up. Sherm’s up for election, too. Funny things happen during elections. What if the media got hold of a tape of the groundskeeper’s 911 call? If he said something about a struggle on the phone, it’d look pretty bad if Sherm’s people didn’t at least ask questions.”
    â€œCover-your-ass time.”
    â€œMaybe,” Brenna said.
    â€œAnd Dagnolo would drag himself over a hundred yards of broken glass for a chance to take them down, right? So he’s probably pushing like hell.”
    â€œBelieve me, Sherm’s squirming. The Underhills are a force of nature around here, politically. There’s just no upside for him in this, so you’d think the whole thing would be over with by now. But it isn’t.”
    Christensen leaned close and kissed both of her knees, a reminder of his less conversational interests.
    â€œNo upside at all,” she said.
    He gave up. “Finish what you said earlier about Vincent, the thing about the paints.”
    â€œHe says she wanted to paint, so he set it up for her,” she said. “Then he fell asleep. That’s when she wandered off.”
    â€œYou believe him?”
    â€œI think so. I mean, it’s one thing when the body deteriorates, Jim, but at least my mother stayed in bed. He says Floss gets up five or six times a night and wanders around. He gets up with her to make sure she doesn’t get hurt. How long can a person handle that?”
    Her eyes shifted to the window, to the moon. “I can read people’s eyes. I think the guy’s an open wound—” Her voice