“Stop saying that so loud. Someone might hear you!”
DiNolfo had heard enough. She whispered across the table while grabbing Joe’s hand. “I’m going to have to take a rain check but we will do this again real soon, only without this next part.” Joe smiled as he said, “Do your thing, girl. I’ll catch up with you later.”
DiNolfo jumped from her booth and confronted the two deputies, still in their uniforms as they chugged down their light beers.
“What the hell are you doing here?!” asked Earl incredulously.
“Me? I’d say I am arresting you.” said DiNolfo calmly as she stared at Earl. “And you,” she directed at Amos.
“On what charges?!” they said in unison.
“Let’s see. Obstruction of justice, blackmail. I’ll know more once I read the rest of the case files and follow up with Benson and Trafford.” She pulled her walkie-talkie up to her mouth, “Sergeant DiNolfo… I need backup at the Rusty Nail.” She cuffed Earl, the one she thought was most likely to run and plopped him down in his seat, while she cornered Amos in his booth.
“Tell me now, and speak clearly” DiNolfo demanded as she turned on her voice recorder, “who is responsible for the murder of Catherine Morrow?”
Earl and Amos stared at each other tight-lipped, though it was clear that Amos’ resolve was weakening. He began to speak, his voice in nothing more than a whisper at first.
“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it a murder… but Bernard Kendricks is the reason Catherine Morrow is dead.”
“Pardon?” asked DiNolfo incredulously, “I know what I heard.”
“Don’t get me wrong, the reason she is dead is because of Kendricks, but it wasn’t no murder, in the ordinary sense.”
“Spill your guts. Right here, right now.”
Amos told her everything. He told her about Kendricks stalking Catherine relentlessly. He told her how Jack had gotten the restraining order when he found Kendricks in their backyard. He told him about the pictures in which Kendricks showed up, the heaps of letters of threatening and disturbing nature. He even told her how Catherine died.
“He had been writing a whole bunch of letters to Catherine, real threatening-like, and she refused to answer them. This only ticked him off further and he started to show up at the house. Well, one letter that Catherine received before Jack could intercept it said that Kendricks would be coming for her when she had the baby. The letter said he had no use for her while she was pregnant with another man’s baby. But he would forgive her in time for loving someone else. The guy is sick in the head. He said they would make a life in another state, I think Utah or Montana, far off the grid. Some random western state. Anyway, after the baby was born he planned to take her west. Well, he showed up just a few hours after she had given birth. Stationed himself in a little hut just west of the Morrow house that Jack and his dad sometimes use for ice fishing. Stayed in that tiny shack throughout the blizzard. I mean you’d have to be insane. Do you remember that blizzard? Anyway, he watched them leave, watched them come back. He watched the family through windows with his bird-watching binoculars. He knew exactly when to come. So when everyone was downstairs, he got her, forced her out the house. No one heard a thing, but then again, those winds… plus it is a really big house. Almost immediately Catherine started to run from him, barefoot through the snow. The chase led them straight to Croft Lake, which was frozen over at the time. He was right on her heels now, pleading with her to come back. The weight of both of them on the ice was causing the frozen sheet to fracture under their feet. This excited him and frightened him all at once. The closer he got to her the more the ice cracked, as if nature knew that they were not supposed to be together. Finally, he was just an inch from her arm. She pleaded with him to let her go. She had a baby, she had children. She had Jack. But the word Jack is what finally set Kendricks off. He closed in, grabbing her hand as the ice gave in beneath them. Kendricks grabbed on to the ice mass, while keeping hold of Catherine’s frail hand. He looked at her and said ’You’ll learn to love me, and you’ll learn to forget about them!’ Catherine replied, ’I never loved you and I never will! I love Jack.’ In a rage, he held her head down, under the freezing water. She fought for a while, flailing her arms and legs trying to escape him until she couldn’t bare it anymore. She drowned. As the water filled her lungs, he screamed like a banshee into the night. Angus Morrow found her later that morning. What’s funny though, if she hadn’t mentioned Jack’s name, she probably would still be alive. Kendricks always said he was the reason she was dead.”
DiNolfo raised an eyebrow at Amos. “The last time I checked, holding someone under water and drowning them is murder.”