The Gardens of Digby Green: Verify That
The detective grunted. “Get back inside. You touched things, so we need your fingerprints, too.”
Ray followed him through the back delivery door and into the workroom, where they found the technician brushing powder over the long table.
“This is the husband. He’s touched stuff, so get his prints for comparison,” Marquez said as he handed off Ray’s shoes.
Each of Ray’s fingertips got mashed into an ink pad with more pressure than was probably necessary, but he kept his mouth shut. When the detective headed back toward the office, Ray trailed along. The forensic photographer snapped shots of the papers covering Rose’s desk, the partially open desk drawers, and the drawers’ contents.
The car keys in his pocket doubled in weight, and Ray resisted the increasing urge to cover that pocket with his hand.
“I’m finished in here, Marquez,” the photographer said.
The detective waved him toward the door. “Tell the prints tech to wait.”
Marquez took Rose’s chair and pointed at the wheeled stool. “Sit.”
Ray sat.
“Your shift at the morgue ended when, Wilkinson?”
“6:00.” Did they think he was a suspect? Surely not. The cool breeze wasn’t making it around the corner any more.
“So, what did you do between 6:00 and the time you called in about your wife?”
“I went to the dentist.”
“Anyone to verify that?”
“Yeah, the receptionist, the hygienist, and the dentist.” Ray rattled off the address, and phone number.
The detective scribbled in a notebook. “Then what?”
“I went home, and got ready to play cards with the guys. We meet the same night Rose plays games with her friends.”
“Who are they?”
“Rose’s friends? She calls them the Garden Girls.” Ray listed them, and the detective scrawled on another page.
“And ‘the guys,’ who shows up?”
Ray took a deep breath. When he reached the police chief’s name, the detective’s eyebrows quirked.
The Gardens of Digby Green is a serialized story that posts on Fridays.
Next week, part sixteen, Bubba’s Fish Fry.
Find a link to purchase Heartland Treasures anthology here.
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