File M For Murder

EIGHTEEN

Laura asked for water before I could follow up with a question about the missing laptop. I found a cooler with paper cups just down the short hall from her room in the ER. After she finished, she expressed her thanks.

“Would you like more?” I asked.

“No, that’s enough for now.”

I set the empty cup on a table nearby, then resumed my seat. “About the laptop. You’re sure it’s missing? You were in a very upsetting situation and you might have overlooked it.”

Laura shuddered and closed her eyes. “It was horrible. You just don’t expect to find a person like that. Not somebody young, like Connor.” Her eyes opened, and she continued as I clasped her hand. “I stood there for I don’t know how long once I realized he wasn’t simply drunk and sleeping it off.”

“I’m so sorry you had to be the one to find him,” I said.

Laura squeezed my hand. “Me, too. But I guess it was meant to be.” She paused for a moment. “Anyway, I found him. Then I got myself together enough to call you.

“Before I called 911, I started to take in other details. I glanced over to where he kept his laptop, and it was gone. That was strange, because it should have been there. I checked the other rooms very quickly, but there was no sign of it.”

“How long did that take?”

“Probably not much more than a minute. It’s a small one-bedroom apartment.” Laura shuddered. “I felt strange doing it, but I wanted to find the laptop if I could. Then I remembered what you told me about calling 911, and I did.”

“What about the thumb drive?”

“While I was talking to 911, it popped into my head. Connor was really compulsive about backing up his work. He also hid his thumb drive so no one would swipe it.”

That sounded more than a little paranoid to me but, for all I knew, most writers might be just as paranoid. “Where did he hide it? And how did you know?”

A faint smile touched Laura’s face and then was gone. “I suppose he thought I’d never try to steal it, because I was the one person—or so he said—that he trusted not to reveal his hiding place.” She sighed. “He had this urn he took with him wherever he went that’s supposed to have his parents’ ashes in it. It has a false bottom, and he hid his thumb drive in there.”

I couldn’t question her further, because the nurse returned, along with the staff who had come to fetch her for her CT scan. I wondered what that thumb drive contained that was so important that my daughter swiped it and didn’t tell the sheriff’s department or the police about it.

As they wheeled Laura out, the nurse said, “You can wait in here if you like, sir. Or you can go out to the waiting room, and someone will let you know when she’s back here.”

“Thank you.” I smiled. “I think I’ll go out to the waiting room so I can use my cell phone.”

The nurse nodded, and I followed him out of the room. He pointed the way to the waiting area, and I walked on through a set of double doors into the corridor and down a short hall.

Sean walked into the waiting area as I was about to sit down and call him. He came over and took the seat beside mine.

“I was about to call you.”

“How is she?” His expression betrayed his intense concern.

I recounted what Dr. Finch had said, concluding with “They just now took her to have the CT scan. If that’s clear, they’ll release her, and we can take her home.”

Sean relaxed. “I hope that scan comes out clear. I don’t want to think about any other possibility. Oh, before I forget, I called the library and talked to your friend Melba and explained that you probably wouldn’t be back today.”

“Thank you,” I said. “That totally slipped my mind.”

“And no wonder, given what’s been happening.” Sean shook his head. “Has she been able to tell you what the heck she was doing, going off like that this morning?”

I recounted to Sean what his sister told me about her morning. I had reached the point where Laura regained consciousness when I glanced toward the door and saw Kanesha Berry bearing down on us.

“Good afternoon, Deputy Berry.” I stood and extended a hand, and Sean did the same when he caught sight of her.

“Gentlemen.” Kanesha shook our hands in turn, her expression as cool and remote as usual. “How is your daughter?”

Once again I shared what Dr. Finch told me. “They’re doing the CT scan right now. I’m hoping to be able to take her home before long.”

“I hope they don’t find any internal injury.” Kanesha motioned to the seats Sean and I were occupying when she arrived. “Please sit. I’d like to talk to you.” She pulled a stand-alone chair over and placed it so that she faced us directly.

“What can we do for you, Deputy?” Sean sounded wary to me, and I wondered whether he was about to go into lawyer mode. I devoutly hoped Laura wasn’t going to need a lawyer before this was over.

Kanesha pulled a small notebook out of a pocket and flipped through it until she found the page she wanted. “I have the report from the campus police, and I have personally been to the scene. I’m taking this very seriously, I just want to assure you. I’d like you to tell me, Mr. Harris, what you did and observed.”

How many times now had I gone through this? I repressed a sigh and gave the deputy the information she requested.

Kanesha jotted a few things down as I talked. When I finished, she thanked me. “I also need to talk to your daughter as soon as possible.”

“If they release her, can it wait until I get her home?” I didn’t want Laura to have to be here longer than was necessary. None of us was keen on spending time in a hospital after what my late wife went through.

“Sure.” Kanesha tapped the notebook with her pen while she regarded me. “You have any idea why someone’d attack your daughter like that? There haven’t been any incidents like that on campus for about ten years, according to the campus police.”

I frowned. I had to be careful what I said to her, because I didn’t want to cause trouble for Laura. I had to talk to my daughter about that blasted thumb drive and urge her to turn it over to Kanesha.

Kanesha continued to stare at me, and I realized I had let the silence extend a bit too long. “Surely it must have something to do with the death of Connor Lawton.”

“Why would you say that?” Kanesha didn’t let up with that laserlike fix on my face.

“The circumstances of his death are definitely odd,” Sean replied, his tone cool. He was slipping into lawyer mode. “He and my sister were good friends, and she may have been targeted because of that. Do you know where Damitra Vane was this morning? She has expressed considerable hostility to Laura.”

“The police are checking on Ms. Vane’s whereabouts this morning.” Kanesha focused that gimlet eye on Sean. “Why would Ms. Vane attack your sister? Because she thought Ms. Harris had something to do with Lawton’s death?”

Sean’s face darkened at that last question, and I wasn’t pleased with it myself.

“My daughter had nothing to do with that man’s death.” I tried to keep my voice level, but I could feel myself becoming heated as I spoke. “She had the unpleasant experience of finding him, that’s all.”

Kanesha shifted back to me. “I hope for her sake that’s all it turns out to be.”

I suddenly felt like a hypocrite, because I knew my daughter was holding back potential evidence from the investigation. Evidently I masked my consternation well, because Kanesha didn’t push me further. Instead, she said, “I’ll need both you and Ms. Harris to come to the sheriff’s department to make your statements and sign them.” She stood. “Also, please call and let me know if Ms. Harris will be going home today. I’d really like to talk to her this afternoon.”

“Certainly,” I said. I decided to venture a question of my own, even though Kanesha might bite my head off for asking it. “Is it definite yet that Connor Lawton was murdered?”

A quick glance at her face let me know she was peeved with me. She regarded me coolly for a moment. “Why do you think he was murdered? Are you some kind of expert now that you’ve been involved in three homicides?”

“No, I don’t think any such thing.” I was trying to hold on to my temper. She probably thought I was baiting her, but that was not my intention. “My daughter found a corpse one day and was attacked the next. I’m concerned for her welfare, and if this turns out to be a murder investigation, I’ll be even more worried.”

My words hit home—I could see it by a subtle change in Kanesha’s expression.

“We’re treating Connor Lawton’s death as suspicious,” she said. “That’s really all I can tell you at the moment. Now, if you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I need to move on.” With that she turned and walked away.

Sean muttered an uncomplimentary word at the chief deputy’s retreating back, and I frowned at him. Kanesha could be deliberately unpleasant, but I didn’t like him displaying such poor manners.

He had the grace to appear abashed when he caught my frown. “Sorry, Dad. But she really irks me.”

“Of course she does,” I said. “She seems to love playing bad cop most of the time.” I glanced at my watch. “I wish they’d hurry up and tell us about that scan.”

“She’s going to be fine, Dad.” Sean spoke with assurance, and I prayed he was right.

I decided to ask him something that had been preying on my mind for a while now. Doing it would put him in an awkward position, but my concern for Laura propelled me forward. “Son, did Laura ever talk to you much about Connor Lawton? She never mentioned him to me.”

Sean regarded me with a bland expression. “Yeah, we talked about him a few times, I guess.”

“Did she ever get really serious about him? He seemed like such a jerk to me, yet she seemed to go out of her way to defend him. Even when he was driving her crazy, too. I’m just trying to figure out why she kept putting up with him.”

He looked away for a moment, and I sensed he was trying to come to a decision. When he met my gaze again, he nodded. “Yeah, she did get pretty serious. She’ll probably wring my neck when she finds out I told you this, but he asked her to marry him back in May, and she said yes.”