Whiskey Beach Part 71

"Eli Landon?"

Her eyes flashed. Corbett simply studied her. "You told him you know he's innocent."

"I still have to ask the question."

"He hasn't been in the cottage in the last few weeks. He's stuck close to Bluff House since the first break-in. I had to wheedle to get him to leave the house long enough to shop for his family's visit this weekend."

"Okay."

He straightened. "Let's take a look at the fibers."

She waited while they studied them, murmured over them, tweezed them out and bagged them.

"Would you like some lemonade, Detective? I just made it."

"That'd be nice. Then why don't you sit down?"

Something about the way he said it made her palms clammy. She poured the drink, sat down at the table.

"Have you seen anyone hanging around?"

"No. And I haven't seen the man from the bar again. At least I don't think I have. I should recognize him, even though I haven't been much help with the description. It's why I went for the incense. I thought I'd light some, try more meditation. I've been edgy the last few days, and I thought I'd broken through."

"Edgy?"

"With all that's gone on, it's understandable. And ..." h.e.l.l with it. "Someone's watching me."

"You've seen someone?"

"No, but I feel it. It's not my imagination, or I'm nearly positive it's not. I know what it's like to be watched now. You know what happened to me a few years ago."

"Yes, I do."

"And I feel it, and have for several days now."

She glanced toward the window she'd left unlocked, toward her gla.s.s deck door and the pots of mixed flowers she'd set up in the sun.

"I'm out of the house a lot, and I've been spending most nights down with Eli. And since I was careless enough not to lock the windows, it would be pitifully easy to get in here, to leave that gun here. But why? I don't understand why here? Why me? Or I do, but it's convoluted. If someone wanted to discredit me, implicate me to cast doubt on Eli's alibi, why not just plant the gun in Bluff House during the break-in?"

"We searched before he could plant it, or he didn't plan on giving it up," Vinnie said. "Sorry, Detective. Out of turn."

"No, it's fine. The last couple days, Wolfe's pushed for a search warrant, for this cottage. His superiors aren't backing him on it, and neither are mine. But he's pus.h.i.+ng. He claims he got an anonymous call telling him the caller saw a woman, a woman with long curly hair, walking away from the lighthouse on the night Duncan was murdered."

"I see." A canyon opened up in her belly. "You'd find the gun here. So either I killed Duncan or was an accomplice. Do I need a lawyer?"

"It couldn't hurt, but right now this looks like what it is: a setup. That doesn't mean we don't go through the process."

"All right."

He sampled the lemonade. "Look, Ms. Walsh-Abra. I'm going to tell you how this reads, and how my boss is going to read it. If you had anything to do with Duncan, why the h.e.l.l didn't you throw that gun off the cliff, especially after we executed the search on Bluff House? Putting it in your bedroom closet with a bunch of incense? That makes you dumb as a bag of hair, and there's nothing that indicates you're dumb as a bag of hair."

Not trusting her voice yet, she nodded.

"You find it, call it in. Coincidentally, the lead detective on Landon's wife's homicide gets a call from an anonymous source-on a prepaid cell that pinged from a local tower-claiming, three weeks after the incident, he saw a woman with your hair and body type walking away from the crime scene on the night in question."

"And Detective Wolfe believes him."

"Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't, but he'd like to hook a search warrant with it. It screams setup, and a clumsy one at that, so I think Wolfe's not buying it, but like I said, he wouldn't mind giving your place a look."

"There's nothing here. Nothing ... but that gun."

"We'll go through the process. I can get a warrant for a search, but it'd be easier all around if you just gave your permission."

She didn't want it; it made her a little sick inside. But more, she wanted it over. "All right, search, look, do whatever you have to do."

"Good. When we finish, I want you to make sure this place is locked-including windows."

"Yes, I will. And I think I'll spend the nights either at Bluff House or with my next-door neighbors until ... for a while."

"Better yet."

"Do you have to tell Eli now?" She dropped her hand when she realized she'd been twisting the smoky quartz pendant she wore-one made in her craft room-around and around on its chain. "It's just his family's coming. They're probably here now for Easter. Something like this is going to upset everyone."

"Until I need to talk to him again, I don't have to tell him anything."

"Good."

"I've called for somebody to come in, check for prints, but-"

"There won't be any. But it's the process."

"That's right."

She got through it. Little house, she thought, didn't take long. She stayed out of the way, stayed outside when she could. This was how Eli had felt, she realized, how he must've felt when the police came, to check, to search, to look for evidence. He must've felt, for that bubble of time, the house wasn't his. His things weren't his things.

Vinnie stepped out. "They're finis.h.i.+ng up. Nothing," he told her. "No prints on the window, on the box, on the contents." He gave her back a quick rub. "The search is a formality, Abs. You okaying it without a warrant only adds weight to this being a setup."

"I know."

"Want me to hang out with you awhile?"

"No, you should go home to your family." To dye Easter eggs, she thought, with his little boy. "You didn't have to stay this long."

"I want you to call me, anytime, for anything."

"I will. Count on it. I'm going to put myself together a little and go down to Bluff House. I want to see Hester."

"You give her my best. I can wait until you're ready to go."