Deputy Blake sat there, studying her, and she felt guilty. She wanted to tell him the truth. Maybe some burglar had broken in and killed him—the same burglar who had killed Jim Cleary ten years earlier and three thousand miles away. If you believed in coincidences. If you believed in Santa Claus. If you believed in the tooth fairy.
Damn you, Father.
Deputy Blake said, “This is a terrible crime. There doesn’t seem to be any motive. But you know, in all the years I’ve been on the force, I’ve never seen a crime without a motive.” There was no response. “Do you know if Dennis Tibbie was into drugs?”
“I’m sure he wasn’t.”
“So what do we have? It wasn’t drugs. He wasn’t robbed. He didn’t owe anybody money. That kind of leaves a romantic situation, doesn’t it? Someone who was jealous of him.”
Or a father who wanted to protect his daughter.
“I’m as puzzled as you are, Deputy.”
He stared at her for a moment and his eyes seemed to say, “I don’t believe you, lady.”
Deputy Blake got to his feet. He took out a card and handed it to Ashley. “If there’s anything you can think of, I’d appreciate your giving me a call.”
“I’ll be happy to.”
“Good day.”
She watched him leave. It’s over. Father’s in the clear.
When Ashley returned to her apartment that evening, there was a message on the answering machine: “You got me real hot last night, baby. I’m talking blue balls. But you’ll take care of me tonight, though, the way you promised. Same time, same place.”
Ashley stood there, listening in disbelief. I’m going crazy, she thought. This has nothing to do with Father. Someone else must he behind all this. But who? And why?
Five days later, Ashley received a statement from the credit card company. Three items caught her attention:
A bill from the Mod Dress Shop for $450.
A bill from the Circus Club for $300.
A bill from Louie’s Restaurant for $250.
She had never heard of the dress shop, the club or the restaurant.
Chapter Seven
ASHLEY Patterson followed the investigation of Dennis Tibbie’s murder in the newspapers and on television every day. The police appeared to have reached a dead end.
It’s over, Ashley thought. There’s nothing more to worry about.
That evening, Deputy Sam Blake appeared at her apartment. Ashley looked at him, her mouth suddenly dry.
“I hope I’m not bothering you,” Deputy Blake said. “I was on my way home, and I just thought I’d drop in for a minute.”
Ashley swallowed. “No. Come in.”
Deputy Blake walked into the apartment. “Nice place you have here.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll bet Dennis Tibbie didn’t like this kind of furniture.”
Ashley’s heart began to pound. “I don’t know. He’s never been in this apartment.”
“Oh. I thought he might have, you know.”
“No, I don’t know, Deputy. I told you, I never dated him.”
“Right. May I sit down?”
“Please.”
“You see, I’m having a big problem with this case, Miss Patterson. It doesn’t fit into any pattern. Like I said, there’s always a motive. I’ve talked to some of the people over at Global Computer Graphics, and no one seems to have known Tibbie very well. He kept pretty much to himself.”
Ashley listened, waiting for the blow to fall.
“In fact, from what they tell me, you’re the only one he was really interested in.”
Had he found out something, or was he on a fishing expedition?
Ashley said carefully, “He was interested in me, Deputy, but I was not interested in him. I made that quite clear to him.”
He nodded. “Well, I think it was nice of you to deliver those papers to his apartment.”
Ashley almost said, “What papers?” and then suddenly remembered. “It—it was no trouble. It was on my way.”
“Right. Someone must have hated Tibbie a lot to do what they did.”
Ashley sat there tense, saying nothing.
“Do you know what I hate?” Deputy Blake said. “Unsolved murders. They always leave me frustrated. Because when a murder goes unsolved, I don’t think it means that the criminals were that smart. I think it means that the police weren’t smart enough. Well, so far, I’ve been lucky. I’ve solved all the crimes that have come my way.” He got to his feet. “I don’t intend to give up on this one. If you can think of anything that will be helpful, you’ll call me, won’t you, Miss Patterson?”