He shook his head and frowned. “I live alone. My vehicle was in the garage.”
“I’m sure you can find neighbors who saw him go home,” his attorney said. “Do your job, Chief Hardy.”
So no real alibi for the time when Gail was murdered. He would stay at the top of her list for now.
“Were you aware Gail was about to be arrested? She had been forging a doctor’s signature on lab results.”
He lifted a brow. “I hadn’t heard that. Why would she do that?”
“I assume money. She would have had to pay the doctor for his time, and this way she could run through more results. There is some question she might not have been running the tests at all—just filling out forms and sending them back. She would save the costs of testing materials as well. Do you know why she might have been in such dire financial straits? According to bank records, she earned nearly 150,000 dollars a year.”
He relaxed. “She liked to spend money. It was one of our biggest sources of arguments. Jewelry, nice cars, new furniture every few years.”
“I see. Do you have any idea why she was so desperate right now? Was there something she wanted to buy? Some debt she owed?”
“I already told you she was taking me back to court for more money, but she didn’t say why she needed it so badly. Just that she couldn’t live with the agreed property division.”
“Do you have a girlfriend, Mr. Briscoe?”
He straightened again. “What’s that have to do with anything? It’s not a crime. We were divorced.”
“So you do have a girlfriend?”
“That has no bearing on this,” Ms. Jenkins said. “You don’t need to answer that, Drew.”
He shrugged. “I’ve been seeing a woman for about a year. So what?”
“Did you complain about Gail to her?”
“Well, sure. When you’re in a relationship, you share your thoughts and problems.”
“Gail was definitely a problem.”
“I didn’t say that!” He ran his fingers through his brown hair. “You seem determined to pin this on me.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way. That’s not my intention. I want to get to the truth. What’s your friend’s name?”
He pressed his lips together and glanced at his attorney who nodded. “Fiona Hamilton. You probably know her. She owns the bridal shop Tropical Weddings.”
Jane darted her gaze down to hide her shock. “I know her. I’ll have a chat with her.”
“She was shocked to hear of Gail’s death. Fiona liked her.”
“Have you thought of anyone who might have hated Gail enough to kill her?”
“No one in particular. Have you spoken with her employees? She has two that I know of.”
“Not yet.” Jane had added their names to her list of people to interview.
“Is that all, Chief?” Ms. Jenkins asked.
Jane rose. “For now. I’ll need to try to verify your alibi, Mr. Briscoe.”
“Sure you do,” he said in a weary voice. “I hope you figure out who did it so people stop staring at me.”
Jane had firsthand experience of what that was like now. She thanked them and exited the office with Reid.
He took her hand as they went toward the SUV. “What do you think?”
“I’ll need to check with the neighbors, but he might be telling the truth. I find it hard to believe Fiona would ever drug someone and leave them to die in a fire. We might need to look elsewhere.”
Which brought the lab back under suspicion again. “We’re not far from her lab. Let’s stop by there.”
Twenty-Four
Gail’s lab was in a small block building in a strip mall in Foley. It looked open, which surprised Reid. He’d thought with the owner’s death it might have been closed. He navigated through the tourists parking at the ice cream shop next door and found a spot as someone else was backing out.
He held open the door for Jane, and they stepped into a small reception area with a digital check-in kiosk.
A harried-looking young man in a white lab coat shot them a glance, then stopped in his tracks at the sight of Jane’s uniform. “Is this about Gail?”
Jane flashed her badge. “It is. You have a few minutes?”
“I guess.” He glanced through the plate-glass window into the lot. “A couple of people will be coming in soon.”
“This shouldn’t take long.”
Reid glanced around while Jane was asking questions. He looked at some awards on the wall for the lab. At one time the lab was humming along legitimately. What had changed for Gail? His eyes fell on a desk with paperwork covering the top. Lab orders and results.
He turned back to sidle beside Jane.
“Did you ever have any disgruntled customers show up here?” Jane asked.
The man shifted from foot to foot. “There was one guy who came in madder than a hatter. It was that fireman. He was waving his results, and I thought he was going to hit her. Gail was scared, and she finally locked herself in the office there.” He pointed to a door off the reception area. “I had to get him to leave. There was a bulge in his pocket, and I thought he might have had a gun.”
So Finn had been mad enough to kill her?
“Were there any other disgruntled customers?” Jane asked.
“Not like that. I mean, when you work with drug addicts, you’re going to get a few people who aren’t happy that the test comes back positive. She had her tires slashed about a week before her death, but we never found who did it. The security camera showed a man all in black sticking a knife in them, but we couldn’t see his face.”
Jane stopped writing. “Was this reported?”
“Yeah, to the Foley police.”
What else did the Foley police know?
Jane scribbled in her notebook. “Did Gail ever mention her financial difficulties?”
He nodded. “She had to lay off a couple of people. We lost some government contracts to another lab. She was worried about paying her mortgage and keeping this place open.”
“Do you know why she lost the contracts?”
“Just business. Another lab had better prices and faster service. It upset her though.”
The door opened and a man stepped in. Reid assumed it was one of the clients the employee had mentioned.
Jane put her pad away. “Thank you for your time. If you think of anything else, please call me.” She slipped her card into the employee’s hand, and he put it in his lab coat.
Reid held open the door, and they went out to his vehicle. “So at least you know the reason for her financial difficulties.”
“I wish we’d found out more. Let’s go back to Pelican Harbor and talk to Drew’s neighbors.”
“You sound discouraged.”
“I am. I wanted to find a solid clue so we could get Will out of juvie.” She got in the passenger side and shut the door.
When he got behind the wheel, he found her with her forehead pressed to the dashboard. He put his hand on her back and felt her sobs. “We’ll get there, Jane. What investigation reveals the answer right away?”
“None,” she said in a muffled voice. “But this is so important. What’s happening to our boy?”