Ghostly Justice (Seven Deadly Sins, #2.5)(41)

“I had approval from St. Michael’s to make him an offer we didn’t think he would refuse.”

She couldn’t believe this was happening. Anthony had tried to bribe Bertram, the doctor refused, and now the doctor was dead … and Anthony didn’t have an alibi.

She wanted to talk to him, to find out what was going on with him, and the Mission, and this ridiculous bribe. She wanted to see him. Everything she’d thought they had built over the last six months was fading away.

Not only was Anthony a potential witness, he was a possible suspect. He may have been one of the last people to see Bertram alive.

“Where have you been for the last twenty-four hours?”

Again, the silence. The damn silence! “Skye,” he whispered.

“Tell me.” She was letting her emotions—her relationship—get in the way of her job. She shouldn’t have asked him on the phone. She should have brought him into the station. Or at least asked him face-to-face.

What job? You’re going to lose the election. You know that.

Formally, he said, “I spoke with Bertram yesterday at the hospital, in his office.”

“Who was with you?”

A slight hesitation. “No one.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I do not lie,” he said, his voice rising in anger. “No one was in the room with me.”

But that meant either Rafe or Moira had been nearby. She knew it as much as she knew that Anthony wasn’t telling her everything.

“What time?”

“Noon. I was there for twenty minutes.”

“And then?”

“I went to visit with Juan, like I do every Wednesday afternoon.”

Skye wanted to ask how her detective—how her friend—was doing, but if there was a change, Anthony would have told her.

You hope he would tell you.

Anthony had been counseling Juan for months; so had Rafe who had more training in this type of thing. But Juan seemed to be getting worse. Skye couldn’t even remember the last time she’d seen him—months ago, right after they’d captured the Demon Envy.

“Did you know that Juan’s mother was Bertram’s housekeeper?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Dammit, Anthony!”

“Juan and Edith are my friends. Of course I would know. I would never use an old woman, Skye, if that is what you’re getting at.”

Maybe she had been making the insinuation. “After you saw Juan?” she prompted.

“I went to the Mission. I was there all night.” He paused. “You want me to have an alibi.”

“I need you to tell the truth.”

“I always tell you the truth.”

Doubt filled her heart. Bertram was dead and Anthony had hated him. Anthony would deny it—he would say he didn’t hate anyone—but she’d seen his anger at Bertram. She’d seen his anger directed at Moira. Anthony didn’t want to hate anyone, she believed that, but the feelings were still there, whether he believed they were or not.

“Anthony?”

“Yes.”

“Stay at the mission until you hear from me.”

“I should be there, with you. To help.”

“Not until I figure out what the hell is going on.”

“Are you certain Bertram was murdered? Maybe this is—”

“He was bludgeoned to death,” she said bluntly. “His office was trashed. The person who killed him will be identified and arrested. And if you are holding back anything from me, Anthony, now is the time to tell me.”

“I didn’t kill him,” he said.

Skye hung up. She glanced at the sky. She’d gotten into the habit of doing that, looking skyward, since Anthony had come into her life. She didn’t pray, she didn’t really believe in much of anything, except that there were things in this world she didn’t understand.

But she understood murder. Bertram had been murdered, and she would find his killer.