I swallowed and reached for my wine. “I hope you’re right. Actually, at the moment, I’m more worried about my mother.” He kept eating as I told him all about seeing Mama with Oscar Belmonte at Catcher in the Rye and how they’d been dating for a while, and what Pam had told me about overhearing the argument between Oscar and Chuck Richards before the murder. I finished by telling him that I saw a nail gun in Oscar’s trunk. “I’m worried that Mama may be dating a killer. She seems to be absolutely smitten with the man.”
Sean placed his empty plate back on the coffee table. “I’ll follow up about that argument Pam overheard. There might be more to it.”
“Good, because I simply don’t trust the man.”
“It could be that you’re letting your personal emotions affect your judgment.” He leaned forward and took my empty plate, returning it to the table, handing me my wineglass, and pulling me closer. “I know it’s probably not easy to see your mother dating someone.”
Was I letting my personal sentiments taint my judgment of Oscar? Perhaps. But the facts still stood: He was at the murder scene, he had motive, Pam witnessed him arguing with the murder victim, and he knew how to use a nail gun. That was a whole lot of evidence stacked against him, whether he was dating Mama or not.
Sean continued, “Anyway, I wanted to let you know that we’re checking into the nail gun. I think what you said today was correct. It doesn’t make sense that Chuck Richards would have a nail gun at the expo job. Especially since he didn’t seem to use one on previous jobs. Either he recently purchased one or the killer brought it to the scene of the crime. I’ve got a couple of guys checking sales reports at local hardware stores.”
I sat up and turned his way. “Really?” I tried to keep my voice calm, even though I was secretly thrilled I’d made a small contribution to his investigation. I wondered if after we were married, he might discuss his cases with me over dinner, asking my opinion on this and that. Sort of like Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence, or maybe more like Annie Laurence and Max Darling from Carolyn Hart’s Death on Demand series. I loved those books! “Have you found out anything yet?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. I’m also checking with some of Chuck’s other clients to see if he used a gun on any previous jobs. I can’t put a lot of time into it. As far as my sergeant’s concerned, we’ve got our killer. And I’ve got a full caseload, so I’m not going to be allocating as much time to following up on loose ends.”
“Loose ends? What other loose ends are there? Something other than the nail gun?”
He reached for his wine, taking a long sip and avoiding my question.
I pressed on, “If you’re still checking into things, then you must not be completely convinced of Jodi’s guilt.”
He held up his hand. “Don’t read too much into it, Lila. I just thought you brought up a valid point about the nail gun. I’m checking into it, that’s all.”
I sighed. It wouldn’t do to press him any further. I recognized that tight-lipped expression of his. Getting any more information out of him would be impossible. So I finished up my wine and moved on to other topics. “Flora told me that Jodi was denied bail. What’ll happen now?”
“She’ll have to stay in jail until the trial.”
“That’s horrible.”
Sean shrugged. “It’s how the system works. At this point, it’s up to her defense lawyer to prove her innocence. She’s lucky. Bentley got her the best lawyer money could buy.”
That was news to me. I wasn’t aware Bentley was footing the bill for Jodi’s defense. “She must be convinced of Jodi’s innocence.” And so am I, I wanted to add. But we’d already had that discussion several times over. Instead I snuggled in closer and changed the subject. “Makayla and I found a lot of interesting ideas this afternoon.” I went on to tell him about the crafts we’d viewed and the ones we’d tried our hands at and how I thought they’d be a great way to personalize our wedding. “Of course, it would help if we could pick the date,” I said. “It’s sort of difficult to plan without even knowing the season. Have you thought any more about this spring? I know you want to wait until Christmas, but that’s so far away.”
I felt the muscles in his arms tense. “Do we really need to discuss all this tonight?” He moved in closer, planting little kisses on my jawline. “There’s so many better things we could be doing,” he mumbled playfully against my neck.
I wiggled in his arms, wedging my hands between us. “I’m serious, Sean. I really want to set the date. It’s important to me.” And next time I talked to Jude, I’d just love to be able to mention a date. “Really important. People would take our commitment more seriously if we had a date set.” I regretted my words as soon as they came out.