Murder Has a Sweet Tooth - By Miranda Bliss Page 0,68
murderer was right-handed.”
I would have slapped my forehead if Jim hadn’t put a glass of white wine in front of me and if I didn’t already have it in my hand. I looked to Tyler for confirmation. “The wounds—”
“Definitely made by a right-handed person, and one who’s a whole lot shorter than Alex. We couldn’t know for sure, of course, until the medical examiner’s final report was in. The killer—”
“After Alex passed out, the killer put the knife in Alex’s hand to implicate him, but he put it in his right hand!” I was so happy Tyler didn’t point out that I was wrong, tears sprang to my eyes. “The killer couldn’t possibly have known Alex was a leftie. So we know Alex was framed.”
Far be it from Tyler to let anybody get too carried away. Especially when that anybody was me. “We’re pretty sure,” he said, in a way that told me pretty sure didn’t mean defi nitely and I’d better not forget it. “But Alex isn’t out of the woods yet. We still have some details to work out. For instance . . .” He spun his bar stool so that he was looking at Alex head-on, and slipped into interrogator mode so quickly and effortlessly, it was uncanny. I knew he wasn’t being hard-assed just to cause trouble. Tyler knew what kind of questioning Alex had been through, and what he was in for in the coming weeks. He was just trying to get Alex ready for what was to come.
“How about those threats you made?” Tyler asked. “That waitress . . .” Even though Tyler wasn’t directly involved in the case, it was obvious he had an interest in the outcome. He pulled his leather-covered notebook out of his pocket, flipped through the pages, and read over his notes. “The waitress at Swallows is named Jennifer. She says she heard you say that you wanted Vickie dead.”
It was clear Alex had spent the long, dull hours in jail trying to work through this problem. It was just as clear that no matter how hard he tried, he was no closer to finding a solution now than he had been then. He scraped a hand back and forth across his chin. “I never would’a threatened Vickie,” he said. “You all know that. I liked Vickie. And I’d never speak like that to a woman. It’s disrespectful. I never said I wanted Vickie dead. If I did, I would have been out of my head.”
This time, I didn’t let the wineglass stop me. I set it down and slapped my hand against the bar. “That’s it, of course!” Even before I explained, Tyler had already caught on. I had a funny feeling that if Derek Harold had been within earshot, Tyler would have read him the riot act about being a lead detective on a case and missing something so obvious.
It took Jim and Alex a little longer to get it. But then, they’re the ones with the accents that are nearly impenetrable, especially to us Americans. To Jim and Alex’s ears, they didn’t have an accent at all.
“Dead and head.” I stared at Alex. “Say the words again.”
“Dead. Head.” That’s what he said, only it came out sounding more like daid and haid.
Jim got it. I could tell by the sudden gleam in his eyes. Alex needed a little more help, and I gave it to him. “So Jennifer heard you say something about Vickie being out of her head—”
“Aye. That’s right.” Alex’s eyebrows veed. “That’s what I told her when she started acting daft. I said she was out of her head.”
“And if Vickie hadn’t been murdered, that would have been the end of that. Jennifer never even would have remembered the conversation. But Vickie was murdered, and because she waited on you two, people started questioning Jennifer. And by then, of course, she wasn’t just thinking of a man and a woman at a table together in the restaurant. She knew you’d been arrested. Whether she was aware of it or not, she was thinking of Vickie as the victim and you as the murderer. So just naturally—”
“She thought she heard dead instead of head. To her ears, the words sounded alike. You Americans need more practice in the proper way of speaking.” Jim grinned. “It makes great sense in a mixed-up sort of way.”
“Happens all the time with witnesses.” Tyler had a beer in front of him, too, and he took a drink.