Seven Sisters - Earlene Fowler [93]
He cracked his knuckles nonchalantly. “They were warning shots. If they’d wanted us dead, we would be.”
I threw up my hands in exasperation. “And that doesn’t bother you?”
“Not really.” He studied the backs of his hands, then checked his watch. Early morning sunlight glinted off the reddish-blond hair on his forearms. His calm expression told me he wasn’t kidding.
“You may have a death wish, Detective, but not me.”
“It doesn’t bother you that an innocent man was killed?”
“We could debate the appropriateness of the word innocent in his case, but, yes, of course, I care. But it’s not my job, and I don’t want to do it anymore.”
He folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t believe you.”
“You’d better, because it’s the truth.”
“Okay, one last thing. Look at these and then tell me you still want to quit.” He reached into his truck and pulled out a large, manila envelope.
I opened the envelope, pulling out four pages. They were pink with a fancy blue border. Across the top read County of San Celina. In the left bottom corner was California’s state seal, in the right corner a same-sized circle saying County Recorder, San Celina County, State of California.
The babies’ death certificates.
I glanced over them, looking specifically at the cause of death. The first one to die was Daisy. Pneumonia. Dahlia was next. Her cause of death stated simply natural causes. Natural causes was also written on Beulah’s and Bethany’s certificates. Though they tugged at my heart, they didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know.
But . . .
What if someone had killed them? What if this person had gotten away with it all this time? I was reacting emotionally, I knew, and that was exactly what the detective was hoping for, that I also knew.
I handed him back the death certificates. “It says here they died of natural causes. Nothing else we can do unless the doctor is still alive.”
“Which he isn’t,” Detective Hudson said. “I already checked. And his records were destroyed a long time ago.”
“So that leaves us—no, make that you—exactly nowhere. I know I started you down this path, but even I can see when something’s a dead end.”
He slipped the certificates back into the envelope. “No, you were right. I wasn’t thinking creatively enough and I also think you’re right about Giles’s blackmail attempt being something that involves these kids. Or at least something in the past that the Brown family is trying to hide. Now we just have to think of a clever and sneaky way to find out about this family’s past.” He smiled at me with encouragement. “Your specialty, Mrs. Harper.”
I leaned back against my truck’s passenger door. Scout came over and nudged my head, and I reached up and rubbed his chest. Detective Hudson was deliberately manipulating me with his flattery, and I knew it. Yet I was still pulled toward this case. If indeed they’d been murdered, even after all these years, the babies deserved justice. And Giles, whether he was a person I would have liked or not, deserved it, too.
“What would you do now?” he asked, his voice cajoling. “I mean, if you were still working on this?”
I closed my eyes briefly, irritated because his plan was working. “Someone should talk to Rose Brown again.”
He scratched his cheek, trying to suppress the grin that lurked behind his feigned seriousnss. “My thoughts exactly.”
I pushed myself away from the truck. “Guess that would be you since I’m not involved anymore. See ya.”
“She’ll never talk to me,” he said, following me. “That’s even if I could get in to see her. I’ll bet you fifty-yard-line seats at a Cowboys game that those Brown sisters have already stepped up security around their mama.”
“You’re probably right, so most likely I couldn’t get in to see her either.” I opened my door and started to climb in.
“Your friends could, though.”
I slowly turned around. “My friends?”
“You teach a quilting class at Oak Terrace Retirement Home, two floors down from Mrs. Brown. There are eight ladies in your class. Four of them have known you since you were six years old. And they’ve been involved with one investigation