Birdeater

Chapter 14 - FINAL

"Amos, I'm sorry." Detective Marcos said.

"Thanks." Amos didn't know a better way to respond.

Marcos sat down across from him and slid a Styrofoam cup his way. Steam was coming off the top. It was clearly coffee. Amos didn't touch it.

"The reports that came back said she had ingested a lethal amount of ethylene glycol." Marcos grimaced. "Antifreeze poisoning is one of the oldest on the books."

Amos stiffened. He dragged his nails across the surface of the desk. "So, you think it was me?"

"We are not saying that at all." Marcos told him. "We are just trying to examine the facts. Jackie had been ingesting antifreeze for weeks up until last night. She took a lethal dose that killed her. Toxicology reports found it in her orange juice."

"Christ." Amos wiped his forehead.

Marcos nodded. "Do you know of anyone who would have had access to it, besides you?"

"No." Amos said. "No one else could have, or would have..."

No one came by the house. Not ever. Jackie would have told him, anyway. The only person he could think of was...

Florence Hill. There was no way. Calvin's boy had come over once, maybe twice and had only stayed for a few minutes. Amos wasn't even going to say his name. There was no point in dragging that boy down for no reason when he would never have done this to Jackie.

Amos knew very well who had done it. He just didn't have a name. But he would, as soon as they were done going through the motions.

"There was antifreeze in your garage."

"Yes, there is."

Marcos spread his hands. "Unless you can give me something to work with, Amos, I can only do so much."

Amos slammed his hands on the table. "Dammit, Marcos. I can't believe you can look me in the face and accuse me of what you are right now. My wife is dead and has been for less than a day. What do I need to do to prove that I didn't do it, huh? Hook me up to the lie detector. I'll take every damn test in the book. I didn't kill my wife, and the sooner you get your head out of your ass and realize that, the sooner I'll be able to do my job and catch the guy who did!"

"Who do you think did?" Nothing rattled Marcos. That was probably why they put him up to this.

Amos was going to lose his mind. "There is a killer on the loose right now as we speak. He left a goddamn note on my kitchen counter. He did this to Jackie."

Marcos seemed to mull that over. "Why didn't he kill her the same way he killed all the other women?"

"I don't know." Amos said. "But when I finally put my gun to his head, I'll ask before I pull the trigger."

Marcos let that one go. "Look, no one here wants to see you go down for this. No one wants to believe it. No one thinks you did it. If it were to go all the way to trial we would have to move it counties over because there isn't a jury here that would convict you. Judge Perkins himself wouldn't hear of it. But we've got to do this by the book or we are going to be swimming in absolute shit."

"So what are you going to do?" Amos asked.

"The Bureau is coming back down." Marcos said. "Those boys you don't like are going to be on this case. If they can link it back to the killer at all, they will."

"They will." Amos said. "If they are any good at their jobs."

"I guess we'll see." Marcos nudged his coffee towards him again. "Drink a little bit of that. You've had a long day."