Read Online Window of Guilt by Jennie Spallone - Free Book Online

starting in a few days.
    “Bear with me a few minutes here, sir,” said the officer, glancing through her notes.
    A few minutes! Laurie felt giddy with relief. No longer on the list of bad guys.
    “Let’s review the information you’ve given me so far,” Gomez continued. “You have no family members or friends currently living in Wisconsin.”
    “Want us take lie detector tests?” Ryan asked snidely.
    Laurie squeezed her husband’s hand.
    “Ow!” he howled.
    Glaring at Ryan, Gomez continued to flip through her legal pad. “Were you friends with the previous owner?”
    Ryan snickered. “The previous owners were my wife’s parents.”
    “My notes indicate your house sat vacant for three months prior to your arrival this summer.”
    Ryan’s mouth fell open. “What?”
    “I forgot to tell you Shakia broke the lease,” Laurie said defensively. “She came back up here for graduation.”
    “You mean we’ve been paying the mortgage on this place since May?” he thundered.
    “Could we talk about this later?” Laurie hissed.
    “All this sharing decisions stuff is bullshit,” Ryan said angrily. “One catastrophic accident and our asses will be in the wringer.” He stalked out of the room.
    “Sorry about that,” Laurie said apologetically. Although Ryan called her “drama queen,” he was the authentic title-holder.
    The officer appeared unfazed. “Your renter have your home address?”
    “She sent the money to a Chicago P.O. Box I set up for that purpose.”
    “Any problems with your relationship?”
    Laurie’s eyes wandered in her husband’s direction. “Oh yeah.”
    “Uh, I was referring to the relationship between you and your renter.”
    Laurie struggled to redirect her focus from her husband to her tenant. “Shakia was a real honey, but her boyfriend was scary as heck.” Officer Gomez raised her eyebrows.
    “Last March, Shakia’s boyfriend moved in with her. She threw him out after he busted the bathroom door and attempted to do a similar job on her face.”
    “Did your tenant pay to have the door replaced?” Gomez asked.
    Laurie shook her head. “She moved home to Evanston. I kept her security deposit.”
    “You mentioned Shakia gave the police your cell phone number instead of her own. Did she fear for her life?”
    Ryan reappeared in the dining room, a glass of iced tea in hand. “You think?”
    The officer glared at him. “Either of you ever meet the boyfriend?”
    Laurie shook her head. “Maybe the guy in the yellow jersey was her boyfriend. He could have been stalking her in an attempt to reconcile. How ’bout showing his picture to Shakia?”
    Gomez’ eyes turned fiery. “Thanks for the suggestion.”
    “Did you check out our landscaping company?”
    “The victim was Caucasian. LMN Landscaping employs Hispanic workers. You and your husband use any other contractors?”
    “We hire a service to clean the day before we arrive and the day we leave,” said Laurie. “Helga Beckermann lets them in.”
    Officer Gomez trained her gaze on Laurie. “You never mentioned Mrs. Beckermann has a key to your home.”
    “My parents gave Helga a spare key years ago.”
    “Anything else you neglected to mention?” asked the officer. Laurie shook her head.
    “How would you describe your relationship with Mrs. Beckermann?”
    “Not so great.” Laurie leaned her chin on her palm. “Rory was four months old the first summer we brought him up here. Helga came to visit and noticed there was no crib.”
    “She freaked when we told her we were doing a family bed during our stay,” said Ryan, laughing with mirth.
    “When I mentioned it was a lot easier to breastfeed the baby this way, she slammed out the door,” said Laurie.
    “Over the years, she’s attempted to inject her childrearing values into our lives, but we snuff them out,” said Ryan.
    “How so?” asked the officer.
    “Helga believes it’s a waste of money to send Rory to camp when we’ve got on-site boating, jet