“Have you spoken to him?”
“A couple of times. Small talk about the Braves game on the TV. He’s not overly talkative.”
“Does he have a girlfriend? Love interest? Anything?”
Harry shook his head. “None of that. He drinks a little too much, but he lives in an apartment close to the Brick, so he always walks home.”
“From what you’ve seen, is there a chance in hell he could have come up with $15,000?”
“Not on what he’s doing for the city. But his apartment is nicer than what you’d think a minimum wage city employee could afford, so there must be a nest of some sort. I’ve heard rumblings that his father may have taken out one of those loss-of-value insurance policies. If that can be confirmed, then it’s possible that he could have had 15K stashed somewhere.”
“We need to confirm that,” Jason said. “Any word on where the dad is?”
“Working construction in the panhandle.”
“Find him, Harry. What about the mom?”
“Lives off of Hustleville Road. Works at Top O’ the River as a waitress. I’ve tried to speak with her a couple times, but she’s blown me off each time.” He gulped down some tea. “Wasn’t rude. Just said she didn’t want to talk.”
“Same question. Any chance she could have fifteen grand in cash lying around?”
“None,” Harry said.
“What about the CRNA, Maples?”
“Finally was able to speak with her yesterday.”
“And?”
“Verifies everything that’s in the investigator’s report produced by the state. Admitted that she had an affair with Dr. Waters but said it ended months ago. Admitted that she’d initially denied the affair when questioned by the police but owned up to it after being shown text messages between the doctor and herself. Last saw him on July 3. They had a surgery together that morning. She sent him a text the night of the Fourth, which is in Investigator Daniels’s report.”
“Happy fourth! I wish things could have been different . . .” Jason spoke the words straight from memory. “And her whereabouts on the Fourth?”
“Ate with friends at the Rock House and watched the fireworks from her cabin on the lake.”
“Which is where?”
“On the main channel off Highway 69.”
“Pretty close to Fire by the Lake?”
Harry squinted. “A mile maybe. If that.”
Jason wiped his mouth with a napkin. He looked around the café, which was pretty full at 1:30 in the afternoon. He saw a couple of people glance his way, but most folks were just enjoying their late lunch. “Let’s talk about your interview with the bartender at Fire by the Lake again.”
Harry crossed his legs and gave his head a jerk. “His name’s Keith, not Kenny. About twenty-seven years old. Said that Jana was a frequent flier. Came in at least once a week for a cocktail or draft beer. Sometimes alone. Sometimes not.”
“And, when she wasn’t alone . . . ?” Jason flinched, waiting for it.
Harry grimaced. “She was there with Waylon Pike.”
“Damnit,” Jason said, thumping the table with his index finger. “Anyone else?”
“No,” Harry said.
Jason finished the rest of his tea in one gulp. “Back to Maples. She’s a CRNA who lives on the water. She clearly had the funds to pay fifteen thousand in cash.”
“Clearly. But what’s her motive? By her own account, she’d ended the affair.”
“But she was still pining after him as late as two hours before he was killed. Maybe her text was a way of saying goodbye.”
“You’re reaching, J. R.”
“I know,” Jason admitted. “Still, a jilted lover is someone with motive. But Cowan is the better play. Stronger motive. And wasn’t Pike known to frequent the Brick as well?”
“According to our friend Teresa, the answer is yes,” Harry said. “They were at the bar on several occasions at the same time, and she thinks she saw them talking at least once, maybe twice.”
“Thinks being the operative word.”
“It’s better than nothing,” Harry said. “We can’t prove what they were talking about, but the fact that they were seen together in close proximity to the time of the murder shows that Cowan had the opportunity to hire Pike to kill Dr. Waters.”
“Which leaves us lacking only confirmation of means,” Jason said. During his conversations with Professor Adams, she’d stressed that a criminal defendant needed the means, opportunity, and motive to commit the act. It was the rule of MOM, as she called it. “To prove the crime of murder, those three elements must always be shown,” she’d added. “If you’re going for an alternative killer, you need to show that this other person had all three.”