Crowned and Moldering

She whimpered as Brad was taken away. “He didn’t do it.”

“Did you want me to arrest you, Mrs. Jones?” Eric asked.

“Yes. Arrest me, not Brad.”

“Are you just saying that to protect your husband?” he asked.

“Well, somebody has to!” she cried.

“Do you think your husband is guilty?” Eric asked softly. “Is that why you’re doing this?”

“Guilty?” She looked aghast. “No. Brad couldn’t hurt anyone.”

“Why was Cliff trying to blackmail you?” I asked, then winced at the furious look Eric gave me.

Denise answered anyway. “Cliff thought Brad killed Lily, and threatened to tell the police if I didn’t pay him fifty thousand dollars. But he was wrong,” Denise said, and turned to Eric. “And so are you, Chief Jensen. Brad didn’t kill Lily. He loved her.”

Eric shot me another quick glance, then stared intently at Denise. “You admit your husband was in love with Lily Brogan?”

“Yes,” she said, as some of her frenzy began to fade. “I was Lily’s best friend, so I knew how they felt about each other. They were in love and she was going to have his baby.”

“So you knew she was pregnant?”

She sighed. “Yes, of course I did. I was the one who used to cover for her so she could meet Brad at the mansion.”

“But, then, how did you and Brad get together?” I wondered aloud.

“We had something in common,” she said softly. “We both loved Lily. When she disappeared, we were both heartbroken. I guess it brought us closer together.”

“If you loved your friend Lily so much, why would you kill her?” Eric wondered.

Denise’s mouth opened, but she couldn’t come up with an answer.

“You did just confess to killing her,” Eric reminded her.

She blinked, then gazed at me beseechingly.

All I could do was change the subject. “Why did Cliff think that Brad killed Lily?”

That snapped her back to attention. “Oh. Cliff had dated Lily briefly, but he got it into his head that there was more to the relationship than there really was. He was pushing her to sleep with him, but why would she? He was cheating on her the whole time, so why did he think she owed him anything?” Denise shook her head in disgust. “But he kept harassing her, until she finally insisted that he leave her alone. She told him she was seeing someone else.”

This sounded way too familiar. Cliff had always thought women should fall at his feet.

“He didn’t believe her,” Denise continued, “so he started following her. Apparently, according to Cliff, he followed her out to the mansion one night and saw her with Brad.”

I gave Eric a meaningful look. “So Cliff knew he could find Lily at the mansion.”

“I heard what she said, Sha

“Just making sure,” I muttered. Because if Cliff had wanted to hurt Lily, what better place to do it than the remote lighthouse mansion?

Denise ignored our banter and kept talking. “So, recently, when Lily’s body was found, Cliff put two and two together and came up with five. And that’s when he tried to blackmail me.”

“Because your family has money,” I murmured.

“Right,” she said, disgusted. “Brad’s always been a schoolteacher, so he was hardly a target for a blackmailer.”

Eric scowled. “But now Hogarth is dead, so nothing adds up.”

Denise looked completely lost. I wanted to give her a hug, but I knew Eric would growl at me.

“Ms. Jones,” Eric said, “I would appreciate your coming down to the station for an in-depth interview. Assistant Police Chief Gallagher will escort you there.”

I looked around to find Tommy and noticed that a small crowd of secretaries and teachers was standing at the top of the stairs, near the door to the school hall. They had seen everything, from Brad Jones being taken away in a squad car to Denise arriving and creating a scene. Now I felt even sorrier for her.

Among the crowd on the stairs, I could see Ms. Barney, watching. Thankfully there were no students, but Dismal Dain was there, smirking as usual. I felt a chill at the sight of him.

Eric watched as Tommy walked over and gave Denise’s arm a gentle squeeze. “Come on, kiddo.”

Denise gazed at Tommy, someone she’d known her entire life, and her eyes filled with tears. “Hi, Tommy.”

“I’ll meet you there, Tom,” Eric said, and walked to his SUV.

As soon as Eric got into his car, I came up and gave Denise a hug. “It’s going to be okay. I know you and Brad are i

“But Brad . . .” She broke into sobs, and I felt helpless.

“You’re making a fool of yourself, Denise.”

Tommy and I turned at the sound of an irritating new voice, and the chills I’d felt before turned to cold fury. Dismal Dain had moved closer to eavesdrop. He wore a cheap brown suit and his now-famous sneer. I’d never had such an urge to slap someone in my life, but I wanted to smack him so hard, I had to force myself to clutch my hands together. The man was an arrogant little worm, and I hated the thought of him gloating over Denise and Brad’s difficulties.

And then I remembered the way he’d stared at Callie the other night and it made my stomach twist into a hard knot.

Denise wiped her tears away and glared at Dain. “Just go away, Darren. This is none of your business.”

“It’s very much my business when a colleague acts like an idiot. Brad’s behavior reflects poorly on all of us.”

As Dain was speaking, Tommy turned around and muttered something into the walkie-talkie clipped to his shirt.

“You’ve always been jealous of Brad,” Denise said.

“Jealous!” Dain laughed and the sound was slightly maniacal. “Why? Because he got that little slut pregnant?” He shook his finger at Denise. “Don’t make me laugh. It was only a matter of time before they caught him.”

“Before who caught whom, Mr. Dain?” Tommy asked.

Dain hesitated for a moment, then said, “Before the authorities caught Jones. He was having sex with a student. It’s about time he was disciplined.”

“How do you know that?” Tommy asked.

Dain stared at Denise as if he were aiming his words right at her. “I saw Jones with that girl. I know what they did together.”

“Are you saying you saw Brad Jones having sex with Lily Brogan?” Tommy asked quietly but pointedly. At that moment, I saw Eric approach and stop a few feet behind Dain’s back. Tommy must’ve used his walkie-talkie to alert the chief to come back and hear Dain’s accusations.

Way to go, Tommy, I thought.

“Your friend was a slut,” Dain said, still speaking to Denise. “And your husband was weak. Always so weak. And delusional, too. Do you know he filled out scholarship applications for her? As if she would ever be anything but a whore.”

Denise rushed forward, ready to claw Dain’s face, but Tommy grabbed her and held her back. She struggled to get loose, but Tommy had strength and experience on his side.

“Your emotions rule you, just as they rule your husband,” Dismal taunted. “He couldn’t keep his hands off of Lily. And then he killed her.”

“How did you know about the scholarships?” I asked.

“Mr. Dain, did you see Mr. Jones kill Lily Brogan?” Tommy asked, his voice calm, in complete control. Unlike me. I was so furious I could hardly breathe.

“I know what was going on,” Dain said.

“You don’t know anything,” Denise muttered.

“How did you know that Brad was helping Lily with her scholarship applications?” I asked again.

He sniffed in my direction, as though I weren’t important enough to speak to him. “I know who applies for scholarships,” he finally explained. “Back then, they all had to come through me to get the forms.”

Dain homed in on Denise again. “Don’t you think I knew he was filling them out for her? What a foolish waste of time. He was pathetic, and she made him worse.”

“Just shut up about Brad,” Denise said. “He’s stronger than you will ever be. And Lily was smarter than you’ll ever know.”