Newlywed Dead by Nancy J. Parra Page B

Detective Murphy said as I stepped into his tiny office space. Detective Murphy had a big old wooden desk stuck in the farthest corner of the police station. There was a bookshelf behind him, stuffed with notebooks of cases and law books and other reference materials. His phone system was old and plastic beige. A bulky computer screen took up half the space on the desk, along with a keyboard and a mouse that battled for the rest of the space with papers, Post-it notes, and other office supplies. He had a dirty mug half full of forgotten coffee and another mug filled with pens and pencils and highlighters.
    The air in his cramped office smelled of old, burnt coffee and bad aftershave.
    Detective Murphy and I had developed a sort of father-daughter friendship over the last few months. He said I reminded him of his daughter, Emily, a bright young woman with a problem boyfriend. I’d done my best to hear his complaints and try to keep him from driving his daughter into defending the boyfriend. He wasn’t happy with the wait-and-see game plan, but I reassured him it was best.
    â€œSure, no problem. You wanted to talk to me?” I settled back and studied the man. He was in his mid-fifties and had a hound-dog face with intelligent eyes. Today he wore a dress shirt with the collar open and the sleeves rolled up. His navy suit coat draped across the back of his old creaky chair.
    â€œHow are things with you?” he asked. “I see you have a new boyfriend.”
    I felt the heat of a blush. “Gage, yes, I’ve known him since high school.”
    â€œSince high school? Did he know your ex?”
    â€œYes.” My blush deepened. “They were best friends. When I broke up with Bobby, Gage got up the courage to ask me out.”
    â€œSo you went from one guy to another?”
    â€œWait.” I sat up straight. “I wasn’t seeing them both. Bobby and I were broken up. Gage was a friend first. It sort of morphed into something else.”
    He chuckled and raised his hand in a sign to stop. “Okay, okay, I wasn’t making any judgment. I was thinking of Emily. Maybe there’s another guy waiting for her loser of a boyfriend to fall out of favor.”
    â€œHow’s that going?” I asked. “You didn’t say anything, did you?”
    â€œNo, no,” he said, and sat back. “I’ve taken your advice and simply been a sympathetic ear.”
    â€œSympathetic? Does that mean there is trouble in paradise?”
    â€œLet’s just say things are getting rocky.” He picked up his pencil and tapped the end on his desk. “I’m taking your advice and not saying anything. It’s tough though. I want to tell her to kick that lazy bum out of her house.”
    â€œYou do that and she’ll hold on tighter,” I warned.
    â€œI know, I know,” he said.
    â€œHow was your visit? Wasn’t she just at your house for a week?”
    â€œThe visit was good,” he said with a smile. “She admitted that she misses me. That’s how I got the feeling that there is something going on. You’ll be proud of me, though. I didn’t tell her to move back. I asked how she liked her job and the area. She said that the job was okay, but she could get a job like that anywhere.”
    â€œAnywhere . . . as in Chicago?” I asked.
    â€œI didn’t push my luck,” he said. “I merely mentioned that things were picking up in the area and that I had heard her best friend Kendra had gotten a job downtown and that she was really happy.”
    â€œNice,” I said. “Did Emily take the bait?”
    â€œThe next day when I was on the couch watching the game, she plopped down beside me, put her head on my shoulder, and said that she wanted to move back,” he said,and his eyes sparkled. “I said, ‘Oh?’” He smiled, stretching his droopy jowls tight. “She leaned against me and acted all