Jamie Brodie 02 - Hoarded to Death

can manage my feelings about it, so that I don’t get frustrated and take it out on you. I told you at Christmas that I want to make this work. So this is part of that for me.”
    “Okay.” Pete took a piece of naan and started tearing it into smaller bits, but didn’t eat any. “How did it go?”
    “It went well, I thought. I really like the therapist.”
    “Who is it?”
“Her name’s Tania Bibbins. She’s in the office building at the med school.”
    “I’ve heard of her. Word is she’s very good.”
    “I was impressed.” A thought occurred to me. “Pete – Kevin doesn’t know, does he?”
    “ No . You can’t tell him.”
    “I won’t. I wouldn’t. I was just making sure…you said you’d talked about everything while you were sitting in the patrol car.”
    “Yeah, well…everything but that.”
    “Okay.” Our food came and Pete changed the topic.

    We went to bed early. At some point during the night, I woke up to ringing. That wasn’t my cell phone; what was that? It seemed to be coming from the laundry basket. Pete muttered something and buried his head under his pillow. I rolled to my feet and staggered across the room. The digital numbers on the alarm clock informed me that it was 2:43 am. The ringing continued. I arrived at the laundry basket, and muttered, “Fuck,” when I realized that my pants were ringing.
It was the cell phone that Eckhoff had given me.
    I carried my pants into the bathroom, closed the door, turned on the light, blinded myself, and wrestled the phone out of my pants pocket. “Yeah, hello.”
    “Dr. Brodie?” The voice was whispering.
    “Yeah?”
    “This is Paulo. We met at Brashier Books last month?”
    I snapped awake. “Paulo. Where are you? The cops are looking for you.”
    “I know! They think I killed Quentin, but I didn’t! ”
    I closed the toilet lid and sat down on it. “You haven’t helped your case by hiding like this. You need to come in and give them your alibi, or whatever proof you’ve got that it wasn’t you.”
    “It wasn’t me! I don’t even know how to shoot a gun!”
    Aha . “How do you know it was a gun, if you weren’t there?”
    “I didn’t say I wasn’t there . I was there. I heard the whole thing . I’m hiding so the same thing doesn’t happen to me! ”
    “Where were you?”
    “In the back room.”
    “Did you see anything?”
    “ No! I was about to step back into the shop, when I heard Quentin arguing with someone, so I stopped to listen.”
    “Did you recognize the voice?”
    “No. I’d never heard the guy before.”
    “It was a guy.”
    “Yes.”
    “And you’re sure you didn’t recognize the voice.”
    “Yes!”
    “How are you so sure?”
    “Because the guy had an Australian accent! I don’t know anyone from Australia!”
    I was struck speechless for a second. Oh, shit . A cold finger of dread worked its way down my spine. “How do you know it was an Australian accent?”
    “Because he sounded just like the Crocodile Hunter. I used to love that show.”
    Shit, shit, shit . “Listen, Paulo. You have got to tell the police about this.”
    “Can’t you just tell them for me?”
    “No. That’s called hearsay and it’s not admissible in court.” At least, that’s what they always said on Law and Order. “They have to hear it from you.”
    “I’m not going to the police station.”
    “Okay, will you meet a detective somewhere else?”
    “Will you be there too?”
    I sighed. “Yeah, I can be. But Paulo, that means you have to show up. If we arrange a meeting and you blow it off, they’ll track you down like a dog and toss your ass in jail. No questions asked.” I wanted to scare him.
    It sounded like I’d succeeded. “Okay, okay! I’ll be there! But it has to be in a public place!”
    “Okay, that’s fine. Are you familiar with UCLA’s campus?”
    “A little.”
    “You know where the student union is?”
    “Yeah, more or less.”
    “Okay, there’s a big plaza right by the student union called Wilson Plaza. Meet me there at 8:00 in the morning.”
    “You mean, like five hours from now?”
    Oh, God . “Yeah, five hours from now. The detective on the case will be with me.”
    He groaned. “Okay, I’ll be there.” He hung up.
    Holy hell . Kendall was our killer?? I put my hand on the handle of the bathroom door and turned off the light, plunging me into total darkness. I waited a minute for my eyes to adjust, then went back out into the bedroom. It seemed well-lit by