Page 92 of Death on Gallows Path

His staccato delivery alerted Clara, judging from the fact that she stopped reassuring him.

“Willow called me. She said you asked her a lot of questions. A lot more questions. I’m here to tell you to stop.”

“Willow knows—” That’s all Clara got out.

“I’m aware you have learned of the connection between Willow and me. Of Willow’s devotion to my late wife. Of her generosity after Jean’s death. Of her ongoing generosity. You might think you have found out something, but it’s only a young woman being generous and caring. Don’t try to make something else of it.”

“We can ask you—”

“No. I’m not talking to you.”

With him cutting off Clara twice, I stepped up to the plate.

“Willow agreed to talk to us, to cooperate. She’s helped us understand things. And if we have more questions—”

“No.” This time the word came out harsh enough to make Quasar flinch and all the dogs look at Oscar in surprise. “You don’t talk to her anymore. You’ll have to take my word for it. She knows nothing of use to you.”

“That’s not the way it works when someone’s been murdered. There will be questions — many of which you will not enjoy, some you will consider intrusive. They will still be asked and you will answer them, whether to us or the sheriff’s department. Or both.”

I thought my speech was impressive.

He didn’t.

“We’ll see about that.” He walked away, with Quasar doing a perfect heel at his side.

Show off.

We remained in place while he got into a midsize sedan down the street, then drove away.

“Interesting,” Clara said.

“Uh-huh. You were going to say something about Willow knowing the dogs — Lucifer and Izolde — weren’t you?”

“And through them she observed the murder victim, so of course we’re interested in talking to her. That didn’t seem to occur to him.”

“Nope. He went directly to us talking to Willow because of her devotion to his dead wife and him.”

“As I said, interesting.” Clara opened the back door for the dogs to hop in. “You know, if Oscar used that voice for Leave it, Quasar would never be in danger of eating something she shouldn’t.”

“We, on the other hand, are not dogs.”

“No, we’re not.”

“As much as I love our dogs, it’s a good thing we’re not dogs, since it would make it hard, if not impossible, for us to ask Willow and Oscar more questions,” I said.

“Which we are absolutely going to do.”

“Questions like if she made up the description of the man who tackled Damon. Like if it was actually Oscar.”

* * * *

Teague had messaged that he’d missed me and had one last meeting before he went to bed early to catch his first flight the next day. He ended by saying he was looking forward to seeing me.

I messaged back, confirming the time I’d pick him up at the airport.

Yes, there were things ahead of us, but I sure was looking forward to him being home.

DAY NINE