Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“I have a staff meeting scheduled for five, but I should be home not long after that.”
“Perfect.” I hear the smile in her voice as she says hi to someone.
“Are you out with PJ?”
“Yeah, I was trying to work, but he got the zoomies and almost knocked over my easel. I brought him out to run off some of his energy.”
“Sorry, I should have taken him out for a walk before I left this morning.”
“We were a little busy,” she whispers, and I grin. My plan was to let her sleep this morning because I know she’s been extra tired lately, but two minutes into my shower, she joined me, and I took full advantage of her being wet and naked.
I look up when there is a knock on my office door, and Jamie pokes her head inside.
“Greg is here.”
“Thanks, Jamie. Can you call Mary and let her know he’s here and get Greg a coffee or whatever he wants?”
“Sure.” She leaves, closing the door behind herself. “Sorry...”
“You gotta go?” Franny says softly, cutting me off
“Yeah, I’ll see you at three.”
“Okay, good luck today.”
“Thanks, baby.” I hang up with her after saying goodbye then shoot a quick message to Clay letting him know that Franny and I are good for tonight and that we should be up to his place by six.
After placing my cell on silent, I push back from my desk and walk out to get Greg. The years have not been kind to him; he looks weathered and beat down, like he’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Then again, he’s carried around the weight of his wife’s death for years. I imagine that even if you know that you are not personally responsible, having the woman you love murdered in your home can make you feel like a failure.
As he and I get settled in my office, Mary comes in to join us, and before long, Greg opens up about Alice and the events that happened the day of her murder. None of the information is new to me, but hearing the story from him as he clutches a handful of Kleenex makes it feel more personal.
He tells us that between school and being a new mom, he could tell Alice was struggling, so he asked his mom the night before her murder to come pick up the baby so that she could have a break.
The day of the crime, he and Alice had a normal morning; they had breakfast, fed the baby, and when it was time for him to leave, he left Alice in the kitchen after giving her some money to get her hair done that afternoon. A little after he arrived at his job, where he worked as a security guard for one of the factories, he realized that he had forgotten his lunch at home, so he called Alice and asked if she could drop it off to him. She gave him a hard time and teased him about being forgetful but agreed to drop it off before her hair appointment.
About an hour and a half later, his friend Beau showed up at the guard shack, something he had never done in the past. He said he was out looking for a job and decided to stop by. Around one, with Beau still there, Greg called Alice when she still hadn’t dropped off his lunch but got no answer at home. He didn’t think much of it, he knew that she was going to get her hair done and figured that’s where she was and that she forgot about him, so he and Beau got lunch from the lunchroom at the factory.
At five, when his shift ended, Greg left to go home, and Beau followed him. The two making plans earlier to go to the gym after Greg changed out of his clothes from work. When they arrived at the apartment, Alice’s car was in the driveway, and nothing seemed strange except that the door was unlocked. Still, Beau made a comment about being careful. At the time, Greg didn’t think much about it and went inside.
The house was dark, so he called out to Alice, she didn’t answer so he went in search of her. That’s when he found her body. At first, he thought that she had passed out, but when Beau, who was behind him, turned on the light, he saw that the clothes she was wearing were soaked through with blood and that there was blood splatter on the walls. Immediately, Greg called the police, and a few minutes later they arrived, and the apartment was taped off as a crime scene.
Within the first forty-eight hours, the detectives working the case had zeroed in on Beau, not only because of his inability to provide an alibi the morning of the murder prior to meeting up with Greg, but because Alice’s friends came forward and told them that on more than one occasion Beau had said or done things to make Alice uncomfortable. And that it was well known that Beau was jealous of Alice and Greg’s relationship, something that even Greg admitted.