Read Goodbye to the Dead (Jonathan Stride Book 7) for Free Online Page A

as close as two people could be who had never slept together. Which was something that he would never let happen.
    He returned to the conference room and sat down.
    ‘So what do you think, Mags?’
    ‘She did it,’ Maggie said, ‘but I wish we could find that gun.’
    ‘We will. In the meantime, we need to track down anyone else with a motive. I don’t want to give Archie Gale room to run when this gets to court.’
    Maggie nodded. ‘I’m meeting Nathan Skinner tomorrow. I don’t like thinking that an ex-cop could have done this, but — ’
    ‘No, you’re right, talk to Nathan. Make sure he’s got an alibi. I’m meeting Jay’s brother Clyde. He wants to know why we haven’t already arrested Janine. What else do we have?’
    Maggie grabbed her notebook from the table, although she didn’t really need to consult it. She had one of the best memories of any cop he’d ever met. ‘We’re still waiting on bank and phone records, and we’re reviewing video dumps of ATMs and store cameras in the area, in case Janine took a drive to get rid of the gun. Guppo’s going through everything we pulled from the house. Jay got a lot of hate mail because of his newspaper columns. It’s going to take a while to clear those people.’
    ‘What about the neighbors up on Skyline?’ Stride asked. ‘And their co-workers at the newspaper and the hospital?’
    ‘According to them, Jay and Janine’s marriage wasn’t good. Lots of fights. Lots of arguments. Most people didn’t understand why they were still married.’
    ‘Do we know if there was a prenup?’ Stride asked.
    ‘Unfortunately, yes,’ Maggie told him, ‘and a good one. If Janine and Jay got a divorce, he’d walk away with squat. And their friends said that Jay was very fond of having money. If anybody had a motive to pick murder over divorce, it was Jay, not Janine.’
    Stride frowned. ‘What else?’
    ‘We got a Good Samaritan call,’ Maggie said. ‘A teenage boy and his girlfriend were heading along West 8th Street to Skyline on Friday evening. He says they passed a white SUV parked on the shoulder. He couldn’t tell me exactly where this was, but if it was close to the intersection at Skyline, it wouldn’t have been too far from the spur leading up to the doctor’s house.’
    ‘What time was this?’
    Maggie shook her head. ‘He wasn’t sure. After ten, he thought, but he didn’t check the clock.’
    ‘Did he see anyone?’
    ‘No, he’s pretty sure it was empty.’
    ‘Pretty sure?’
    ‘Yeah. Except it was dark, so he doesn’t really know. That’s helpful, huh? He’s also pretty sure the SUV didn’t have a Minnesota plate, but not one hundred percent sure.’
    ‘I don’t suppose he knew what kind of SUV it was.’
    ‘Actually, he was very sure of that. This kid is sort of a car geek. He said it was a Toyota Rav4. He recognized the silly spare tire on the back.’
    ‘Well, there couldn’t be more than a few thousand of those in the northland,’ Stride sighed.
    ‘Yeah. It’s a needle in a haystack, but it’s worth a look, just in case Janine is telling the truth and this was a home invasion robbery. I asked our buddy Lynn Ristau on the Wisconsin side of the bridge to cross-reference white Rav owners with criminal records. She didn’t sound too happy about it. You’re going to owe her a burger at the Anchor Bar when we get the results.’
    Stride smiled. ‘Well, I already owe her. She was a big help with the bridge closure on Friday.’
    He and Maggie both turned toward the conference room door when they heard the bell of the elevator arriving in the basement. The doors slid open, and Sergeant Max Guppo waddled toward them with a laptop computer in his arms and a monster bag of Fritos tightly clamped between his teeth.
    ‘Yoogzgonnwnsds,’ he said as he shouldered into the office.
    Stride grinned at him. ‘Excuse me?’
    Guppo opened his mouth, and the Fritos dropped onto the conference table. He plugged in the