Discombobulate

Chapter Eight

Denise sipped her black coffee with a large sense of pride for her friend. Not only had Andy gotten Sheriff Winston to try to remove her as the main suspect, but she had him get them donuts. Maybe it was due to guilt or maybe it was a nice gesture, but Sheriff Winston had also brought them each a disposable cup full of steaming coffee.

"If I'm not the main focus of this case, who is?" Denise asked.

Sheriff Winston settled back into his seat. "That's one of the things I wanted to talk about. Your case is a mess and it was a mess from the start. Did you get a chance to talk to Detective Mullen?"

"Who?" She questioned. There had been no detective on the case. She was informed by Sheriff Sullivan that he was over the case.

Sheriff Winston squeezed his eyes shut before opening them back up. "You were never introduced to Detective Mullen? Never met him? Red hair, clean-shaven, taller than me, always wears button-down shirts."

"I wasn't introduced to any detective. It was only Sheriff Sullivan and his deputies. I answered his questions and left. I was shaken up that day."

Denise's palms started to sweat. She didn't want to relive that day again. She ignored her churning stomach and took a bite of her donut.

"Don't forget, you're not supposed to know what happened behind the scenes. I'll bring Mullen in to introduce you two. He's the guy that should have handled the crime scene." Sheriff Winston stood up and headed out the door. "I'll be back in a moment"

The second the door shut, Denise pounced on Andy with questions. "Where did you find the courage to speak to the sheriff like that? Do you realize you blackmailed a sheriff? That's probably illegal!"

Andy licked the frosting off her fingers and shrugged. "I don't know if it's illegal, but I think he knows I meant business. I was serious about it."

"We'll keep his secret to ourselves if they fix the case. It felt good to put him in his place. Do you know what happens if this gets out? The people of Brimington will be buzzing with gossip for weeks."

Denise shoved the last bite of her sprinkled donut into her mouth. "I can't believe my family died and the case was handled incorrectly. These are real people that are dead." She spoke through her chewing. "This is a bunch of bullshit."

"You have brown frosting here." Andy pointed to the corner of her mouth.

Denise wiped a napkin in the same spot on her mouth. "Thanks," she mumbled. She swallowed the rest of the donut.

"Maybe it's a good thing the case was messed up. It sucks that your family died, but you have a large following. If they don't do what they say and this gets out, it'll be everywhere. It'll bring publicity to the other cases too."

"Everyone involved in this mess deserves justice. Sullivan can rot behind bars for all I care." Andy tried to help her friend see the bright side of things. "You could make a story out of it."

Denise shook her head. She didn't want to make a story out of the situation. She wanted the case to be fixed. She wanted to find out who the murderer was. They were still out there.

The wooden door swung open to reveal Sheriff Winston with Detective Mullen trailing behind him. The two headed back to where Sheriff Winston was originally sitting.

"This is Detective Mullen. He's the lead homicide detective for the Brimington County Sheriff's Department. We go to him when we're stumped on a case. Detective Mullen, this is Denise and Andy."

"First of all, we can cut the crap. Now that someone has leaked confidential information," Detective Mullen glared at Sheriff Winston. "We don't have to pretend like we don't know what's going on here."