“Anything can happen,” Bennie shot back, matter-of-factly.
Just then Julia’s phone rang, and she checked the screen. “Hold on, it’s Alex. I should take it.” She answered the call. “Hi, how are you?”
“Not good,” Alex answered, his voice shaky. “Samuel’s dead.”
33
Magnolia Road was a single lane of asphalt winding through the woods, and Julia, Paul, and Bennie got out of the car across from a half-circle of smoky red flares flickering in the darkness. New Dover police cruisers and a black coroner’s van were parked on the other side, their red-and-white lightbars flashing silently. Two uniformed cops with long flashlights stood by the perimeter, directing traffic away from the scene.
Julia spotted an eerie whiteness emanating from the woods, making the trees look etched in black. Shadows shifted behind their limbs, silhouettes against the ghostly light. That had to be where they’d found Samuel. Alex hadn’t known how he’d died, just where he’d been found.
“Let’s find out what happened.” Bennie hustled across the dark street, and Julia and Paul fell into step behind her as she approached the first cop and introduced herself. “Officer, I represent a Courtney Horan, and Samuel Palkovich was involved in her case. Do you know what happened here?”
“You have to call the Comms office.” The cop was somber under the patent brim of his cap.
“Was it an accident?”
“Like I said, call Comms. I need you all to go back to the other side of the street. You’re blocking traffic.”
“There’s no traffic.”
“Step back, please.”
“Is your captain here?”
“No. Now are you going to step back or not?”
“Fine, I’ll call Comms.” Bennie started scrolling through her phone, her strong features lit from below by the screen. Julia and Paul returned their attention to the woods while Bennie stepped away, spoke for a bit, then hung up and rejoined them, slipping her phone into her pocket.
Julia asked, “Well?”
“He died by suicide. That’s all they’ll tell me. They won’t say how and they won’t say whether there was a note.”
“Oh no.” Julia felt it like a weight, and there was a moment of silence.
Bennie shook her head. “Well, this is a shame, for a lot of reasons. It’s tragic that he felt that despair, but I was hoping to get him on the stand. It would have helped Courtney’s case.”
“Why?”
“Because I would’ve thrown those photos in his face and it wouldn’t have been pretty.” Bennie shook her head. “It would’ve easily raised reasonable doubt about Courtney’s guilt. He really was the most likely suspect, and the cops should’ve picked him up. I really don’t know why they didn’t. If they had, he’d be alive now.”
Julia mulled it over. “We still don’t know what the missing object was.”
“I have thoughts that I won’t air now.”
“Is it that Samuel was murdered? Because I was thinking that, too. If Kay told him what the missing object was, then the conspiracy would have killed him to silence him.”
Paul looked over but said nothing.
Bennie nodded. “Yes, but there are too many missing facts to form a coherent theory. In any event, my job isn’t to find out who killed Kay. It’s to get Courtney out of jail.”
“So what do we do now?”
“I’m going to make the same argument that I would have if Samuel were still alive, that Samuel’s the killer. If anything, my argument is stronger now. I’m going to use the fact that he died by suicide as evidence that he felt remorse over killing Kay.”
Julia noticed Alex’s red VW pulling up behind the line of police cars. “Excuse me, that’s Alex. I’ll be right back.” She hurried to Alex as he got out of his car, his face in grave lines, barely visible in the ambient light. “I’m so sorry.”
“Julia,” he said hoarsely, hugging her. “I can’t believe this, I really can’t.” He released her, raking his hair back from his face, his gaze on the woods. “I found out he died by suicide, a gunshot wound. I didn’t know he even had a gun.” Alex shook his head, anguished. “I think he couldn’t take losing Kay. It was just too much for him.”