Denise sipped her black coffee with a large sense of pride for her friend. Not only had Andy gotten Sheriff Winston to try to remove her as the main suspect, but she had him get them donuts. Maybe it was due to guilt or maybe it was a nice gesture, but Sheriff Winston had also brought them each a disposable cup full of steaming coffee.
"If I'm not the main focus of this case, who is?" Denise asked.
Sheriff Winston settled back into his seat. "That's one of the things I wanted to talk about. Your case is a mess and it was a mess from the start. Did you get a chance to talk to Detective Mullen?"
"Who?" She questioned. There had been no detective on the case. She was informed by Sheriff Sullivan that he was over the case.
Sheriff Winston squeezed his eyes shut before opening them back up. "You were never introduced to Detective Mullen? Never met him? Red hair, clean-shaven, taller than me, always wears button-down shirts."
"I wasn't introduced to any detective. It was only Sheriff Sullivan and his deputies. I answered his questions and left. I was shaken up that day."
Denise's palms started to sweat. She didn't want to relive that day again. She ignored her churning stomach and took a bite of her donut.
"Don't forget, you're not supposed to know what happened behind the scenes. I'll bring Mullen in to introduce you two. He's the guy that should have handled the crime scene." Sheriff Winston stood up and headed out the door. "I'll be back in a moment"
The second the door shut, Denise pounced on Andy with questions. "Where did you find the courage to speak to the sheriff like that? Do you realize you blackmailed a sheriff? That's probably illegal!"
Andy licked the frosting off her fingers and shrugged. "I don't know if it's illegal, but I think he knows I meant business. I was serious about it."
"We'll keep his secret to ourselves if they fix the case. It felt good to put him in his place. Do you know what happens if this gets out? The people of Brimington will be buzzing with gossip for weeks."
Denise shoved the last bite of her sprinkled donut into her mouth. "I can't believe my family died and the case was handled incorrectly. These are real people that are dead." She spoke through her chewing. "This is a bunch of bullshit."
"You have brown frosting here." Andy pointed to the corner of her mouth.
Denise wiped a napkin in the same spot on her mouth. "Thanks," she mumbled. She swallowed the rest of the donut.
"Maybe it's a good thing the case was messed up. It sucks that your family died, but you have a large following. If they don't do what they say and this gets out, it'll be everywhere. It'll bring publicity to the other cases too."
"Everyone involved in this mess deserves justice. Sullivan can rot behind bars for all I care." Andy tried to help her friend see the bright side of things. "You could make a story out of it."
Denise shook her head. She didn't want to make a story out of the situation. She wanted the case to be fixed. She wanted to find out who the murderer was. They were still out there.
The wooden door swung open to reveal Sheriff Winston with Detective Mullen trailing behind him. The two headed back to where Sheriff Winston was originally sitting.
"This is Detective Mullen. He's the lead homicide detective for the Brimington County Sheriff's Department. We go to him when we're stumped on a case. Detective Mullen, this is Denise and Andy."
"First of all, we can cut the crap. Now that someone has leaked confidential information," Detective Mullen glared at Sheriff Winston. "We don't have to pretend like we don't know what's going on here."
"How did you know that?" The color drained from Sheriff Winston's face.
"You speed-dialed me, you idiot! Luckily for you, it was me and not anyone else. Are you crazy? Do you know what will happen if this gets out?"
"Yes, but I think they deserve to know the truth! Can you blame me for that?"
"They deserve to know the truth, but if this happens again, I'll inform the board members. We can't take any risks with this. If this department goes down, we all go down. Take your phone out of your pocket before it happens again! Now, which one of you is Denise?"
Denise slowly put her hand up in the air. "That would be me."
"Your voice isn't the same as the other voice." He turned his attention to Andy. "That means you're the one that blackmailed the sheriff. That was one of the stupidest things you could have done. Threatening an officer is idiotic, but threatening a sheriff? If that would have been Sullivan, you would have been thrown in jail."
Andy opened up a sugar packet to put in her coffee. "Can you blame me? He deserved it and the deal still stands. It's already a done thing. What's he going to do? Take it back and risk getting exposed?" She opened another sugar packet.
Detective Mullen sent a glare toward the sheriff. Winston responded by rolling his eyes.
"Well, now that that's done," he held his hand out to Denise. "I'm Detective Mullen and I'm the lead homicide detective. If things would have went according to the books, I would have been the one you talked to after the sheriff. I should have been the one that took over the case."
Denise met his hand with her own. He gave it a firm shake before pulling a small notepad out of his back pocket. "You're not going to like this, but I need to know how that day went. What do you remember?"
Her breath caught in her throat. It was the only thing she didn't want to do. If she didn't do it, he wouldn't be able to help her.
"Don't you guys have a report of this already?" Andy ripped open a third sugar packet. "Sullivan should have been taking notes." She immediately grabbed a fourth.
"We have one, but I need to know, first hand, what happened. What was that day like? From start to finish, what happened? Can you remember anything about it at all? It'll give me a step in the right direction."
Andy shoved a fifth and final pack of sugar into her coffee. She swirled it around with a black plastic stirrer. "Do you care if I'm in here for this?"
"You can be here if Denise wants you to be here."
Andy slightly nudged Denise's arm. Denise inhaled through her nose. She hadn't bothered second-guessing Andy's presence. Even though the two of them lost contact, it felt like old times.
Every time Andy was around, Denise felt secure. Andy was the better of the two. She knew how to comfort her. She knew how Denise worked. It made Denise feel at ease.
"She can stay if she's okay with it. Are you going to show me pictures of the scene?"
Detective Mullen looked at Sheriff Winston. Sheriff Winston slid a cream-colored case file over to him. Detective Mullen flipped open the first page. "Unfortunately, we will. Legally speaking, you're still the number one suspect."
"That's not what we talked about," Andy interrupted.
Detective Mullen held up a hand to silence her. "We need to do this investigation properly, so we're starting at the beginning. What happened on August 8th?"
Denise tried to prepare herself for what she was about to see. She shifted around uncomfortably in her seat. Everyone's eyes were on her. She shut her eyes for a brief second while regretting the donut she ate. It'd be a miracle if it stayed down.
"Are you ready to begin?" Detective Mullen asked. The strict tone he used with Andy had disappeared. He was used to interviewing people. Denise was no different than the past homicide suspects.
The only issue, Denise needed to be innocent. She had to be innocent. If all the evidence pointed to Denise, they wouldn't have a choice. She'd have to be arrested. There was no doubt about it, Andy wouldn't hold back from exposing Sullivan.
Denise had to be innocent for the sake of the Brimington County Sheriff's Department. They'd have their names highlighting the tabloids from the west coast to the east coast. It'd probably make it's way overseas.
Small town author's arrest exposes a corrupt sheriff's department!
Mullen could see it now. Their phones would be flying off the hook with calls. Winston wouldn't have his job. They'd be linked together. Mullen would lose his job. How would he support his wife and three-month-old? There was no way Denise could be found guilty. No way.
The backlash from strangers would be rough, let alone the backlash from the town. Mullen had heard the rumors from his wife about Denise Houghton. He even faced a bit of backlash himself from the Houghton murders. He felt guilty about Denise's situation.
He knew nothing about the murders. The former sheriff had never called him in for the case. He never asked for help. When Detective Mullen brought it up one day, Sheriff Sullivan had told him not to worry about it. He reassured him that he could work on the case himself.
Mullen's wife had just had a baby. It was one less case for him to worry about. Sullivan insisted he'd ask for help if he needed it. Mullen spent that week at home. He helped his wife with his newborn daughter.
It was one of Detective Mullen's biggest regrets. If he would have known this would have happened, he would have insisted to have the case. This wasn't the only murder case screwed up, but this was the most publicized one.
Right now, the focus was on Denise. One wrong move and it'd be on the whole sheriff's department. The higher-ups were trying to keep it a secret until they could get through all the evidence. The department was trying to make corrupted cases right before everyone knew about them.
"Denise?" Detective Mullen tried again.
Denise took a deep breath and opened her eyes. "Sorry, I was trying to compose myself. I'm ready to begin."