It took Nick about three seconds of thought to piece together what Jen had said. If Tahnee fell down the stairs and died that way, someone might have hit her with the golf club to pin it on someone else. And back when Tahnee died, they didn't do scans to determine cause of death; the lab had just matched the golf club to the pattern on Tahnee's skull and called it a day.
He pulled away from Jen and took her face in his hands to kiss her. "You're brilliant," he said. "I've gotta call Duncan."
Jen watched him get up and grab his phone. He paced back and forth while talking to his friend, using a lot of words she didn't quite understand.
"We'd have to exhume the body to get a CT scan, but…yeah, that's a good idea. Anyone with a grudge, anyone who'd want to make it look like Dane killed her. From what you've said, Callum O'Brien might fit that bill. Jealous of Dane professionally and personally, in love with Tahnee…Yeah, thanks, mate." He hung up and turned back to Jen. "They're going to interview Callum again and then Duncan'll give me a call," he told her.
"So now what do we do?" she asked in return.
Nick shrugged. "Nothing much we can do. Just have to wait for news, I guess."
Jen reached out to him, and he joined her back on the sofa. They cuddled together, taking comfort in each other. "You hate this, don't you? Waiting around and not being able to help?"
She was spot on, and he knew it. "Yeah. Hard when it's my case."
"Just when it's your case?" she pressed.
Nick took a moment to think about that. She seemed to be driving at something, though he wasn't quite sure what yet. "I dunno. If this wasn't something I already knew about, maybe I wouldn't mind. Hard to be concerned about things I don't know are happening. Why do you ask?"
"Well, you gave your resignation, didn't you? So after all this is over, you won't be a detective anymore."
He'd momentarily forgotten about that. He'd been suspended for this whole case, but Jen was right, he had resigned. "That's true."
"Will you miss it?"
Nick did not know how to answer that. "I guess we'll see."
Jen could feel him start to pull away with that line of questioning, and she didn't want to go too far and upset him anymore than he already was. But she had to start thinking about what came after this. What he would do. What she would do. What they would do. She wanted to ask him if he had any sort of plan, but she had a feeling he wouldn't have an answer. And he probably wouldn't like that the question was asked at all. Besides, she couldn't really give him the option of coming to the fairy realm with her. He was a human, not a fairy. And she was a fairy, not a human. They didn't belong in each other's worlds. But one of them would have to make the sacrifice if they wanted to be together. Jen knew she wanted to be with him. She just didn't know how much she'd be willing to sacrifice in order to build that future.
Nick liked sitting here in the quiet with Jennifer, feeling her wings brush up against him as he held her. It was peaceful with her. They didn't have to talk about anything to fill the silence. They didn't have to be searching for something to do. They could just be, and Nick was grateful for it. For her. He wanted to hold her forever, if he could.
The words bubbled up in his throat, nearly ready to tumble out of his lips, I love you, but he was rescued by the ring of his cell phone. Jen pulled away to let him answer it.
"Dunny, hi," he greeted, glancing at the caller ID.
"We called Callum back, asked him if Tahnee fell, if he'd tried to cover up the accident by using Dane's golf club, but we got nowhere. I don't think it's him, mate."
Personally, Nick didn't think it was Callum either, but he'd not seen or spoken to the man in ten years. "So that leaves us with either it not being an accident on the stairs and looking for a murderer or else…"
"We've gotta exhume the body," Duncan finished. "Yeah, Wolfie wants this moving, so we've called Graham Procter back in to get his consent. I was hoping you could come in and observe. You know him better than anyone, and in case there's trouble, you might be able to help us out."
Nick nodded. It was a good idea, though it wasn't one he liked. He had failed Graham Procter time and again through this whole bungled thing. Seeing him again made Nick's stomach turn. "Yeah, I'll leave now and come in," he told Duncan.
Jen waited patiently as Nick was on the phone, watching him with interest. "So what's happening now?"
"We need Tahnee's father to consent to exhuming the body so we can test to see if there might be another injury caused from her falling down the stairs that the golf club beating covered up. Duncan wants me there in case they need help convincing him."
She frowned. "What's 'exhuming the body' mean?" she asked.
He felt foolish for making the assumption. "Oh, sorry. It means we dig the body back up."
"Back up from where?" she asked, horrified.
Nick had not anticipated having to explain this difference between humans and fairies, but he did the best he could. "When humans die, we have a funeral to say goodbye and the body is in a coffin—like a fancy wooden box—and either buried underground or burned. There's usually a marker for the grave if the body's been buried or else the ashes are kept in an urn or something as a final resting place. What…what do you do with your dead?" he asked her in return.
"We have a field of sunflowers. During the day, they're open and beautiful and turned towards the sun. And when a fairy dies, we mourn them for the whole day, and then the body is put in the middle of a sunflower at sunset. When the petals close in the night, the fairy's magic is absorbed back into the flower and through the forest of the realm, and when the sunflower opens again the next day, the body is gone."
Personally, Nick thought that was a lot nicer than the human way of doing things. He felt that way about a lot of things he learned about the fairy realm. "Well, here we have to get another look at Tahnee's skull to see what really happened. I've gotta go to the station. Would you come with me?"
Jen agreed immediately. Instead of trying to make human clothes for herself, she just went wholly invisible. Nick found it a bit weird to talk to her in the car when he couldn't see her, but it was for the best with the way she was dressed. He wanted to attract as little attention as possible, and that included avoiding the possibility of anyone seeing Jennifer in the car with him as they made their way to the station.
Just as before, she walked and flew right beside Nick as he went up to the Homicide floor. He could feel her presence and was comforted by the knowledge that she was near, even if he couldn't see her.
Nick went right into the observation room to find Senior Sergeant Stanley Wolfe watching the monitors. Duncan and Rhys were getting settled with Graham Procter. They'd arrived just in time. Wolfe didn't say anything as Nick stood by, arms crossed as he watched what was happening.
The recording began and the interview commenced. From the jump, it did not go well.
"A second autopsy!?" Graham exclaimed. "How're you gonna do that? She's dead and buried!"
"Your daughter's body will need to be exhumed," Duncan told him calmly.
"Oh no, no, you can't do that," Graham lamented. "She's been through enough already."
Rhys stepped in. "Graham, we'd much rather leave Tahnee in peace. And we can do that if we find out the truth. We think someone is trying to frame Dane."
"Yeah," Duncan continued, "someone who knew about his violent history."
Nick watched on in horror. They weren't just getting consent to exhume the body from Graham Procter. They were treating him as a suspect. Nick's face hardened.
Jen was fascinated by what she was seeing on the screen, but even more so by Nick's reaction. He didn't like this. He was tense and upset, she could tell. If she could have, she would have held him in her arms. But his boss was sitting right there, and she didn't dare even flap her wings. She just continued to watch on tenterhooks.
"Someone who wanted him out of the picture," Rhys added.
"Oh no," Graham disagreed, "This is ridiculous. You're saying I killed my own daughter?! I didn't even see Tahnee that night."
"Are you sure about that?" Rhys countered. "You didn't drop around to visit her? Find her bruised, bashed, upset?"
Duncan took over again. "You said in your earlier interview that the only thing that you and Tahnee fought about was Dane."
The interplay between the detectives was masterful, and Jen was very impressed. She'd only had one speak to her when she'd been a witness to Juliette Gardiner's murder, so seeing them work together was fascinating. Was Nick like this with his colleagues? Did he do this with Duncan and Rhys? Would giving this up cause him to feel like he'd lost a part of himself? Well, now was not the time to ponder such things.
"Did you go there and try and convince her to leave him?" Duncan demanded.
"No."
"Did you argue at the top of the stairs?"
"No!"
"And then, when she fell down, when she died, did you panic?" Rhys added.
"No!" Graham's voice caught there.
"You didn't mean it," Rhys continued. "Dane was the reason that it happened in the first place. Isn't he?"
"No!" Graham tried to insist. But he was losing conviction as his tone grew more desperate and filled with emotion.
The detectives did not relent. Duncan asked, "Was Tahnee alive after she fell?"
Graham hesitated for a beat. "I don't know what you're saying."
"Was she alive at the bottom of the stairs after she fell?" Duncan asked again. "Was she just holding on?"
"Did you finish her off with the golf club, Graham? Was it a mercy killing?" Rhys was twisting the screws now.
"We're going to get her body exhumed," Duncan threatened.
"No, no, you can't!" Graham begged. "You can't, please! She was…dead already."
Nick felt the bile rise in his throat. Christ, he never imagined that they'd got it right. That the accident Jen had posited was true, that Graham Procter witnessed his daughter's death and then made Dane Majors take the fall for it.
Graham was in tears as he haltingly finally told the truth, how he'd found Tahnee bruised and beaten, how they'd fought as Graham tried to beg her to go home with him, how when he grabbed her arm going up the stairs, she slipped on the stairs and tumbled down. He'd tried to revive her, but she was gone, and Graham was filled with rage over Dane and how the whole mess was his fault. Graham took one of Dane's golf clubs and bashed Tahnee's head in so people would know it was Dane who was the reason she was killed. And after that, he threw the golf club in the river.
He hadn't been part of Dalton planting the golf club for Nick to find, but he had known it was planted. He hadn't come forward.
"His own daughter," Nick breathed, feeling like he was about to be sick. How a man could do that to his child was beyond him. He wasn't a father himself, but he could not imagine bringing a child into the world and raising her and loving her and allowing her to end up like that.
He jumped slightly as he felt a hand on his shoulder, followed by another weight. He felt the tickle of wings and of hair, and realized that Jen—still invisible—had her hand and her head resting on his shoulder. He exhaled slowly.
"You'd better go before anyone sees you here, Nick," Wolfe said quietly.
"Yeah," Nick agreed. He felt Jen leave him and clear the way. He knew she was following him out.
They were silent on the drive back. Jen could feel the hurt radiating off of him in the car, and she did not know what to say. Besides, she was still invisible. It would have been odd for them to have a conversation.
But when they got back in the house and Jennifer reappeared, Nick still did not want to talk, it seemed. He jogged upstairs and came back down a minute later wearing an overlarge old shirt in place of the jumper he'd had on before. He walked right past Jen to the far corner of the living room where his construction equipment was laid out. He tossed down a drop cloth and set up a small ladder and took a screwdriver to a can of paint. He picked up the can and a brush and climbed the ladder, painting the exposed drywall on the ceiling.
"Nick?" she asked, almost afraid to ask. "Do you want me to go?"
"Stay or go if you like. Dunno why you'd want me to stay." His voice was gruff but overly casual, hiding the hurt he was obviously feeling.
"I don't want to leave you," Jen said softly. "But I don't want to make it worse."
He sighed heavily, pausing his painting. "I put the wrong man away, Jennifer. I supported the killer. I bought him beers and called him at Christmas. For ten years. And I had no idea."
"So you're still going to resign from being a detective?"
"I've got to, don't I? I've got no business being a detective now."
"What'll you do?"
"I need to do something different and get on with my life."
"Being a detective is your life, isn't it?"
He paused at that. Was it? Was it his life? If anyone had asked him a week ago, he'd have said yes. Now, though, he wasn't so sure. "There's more to life than a job. I've got this house, I can finally take the time to finish fixing it up. I'm sure there's something else out there I'm suited for."
Jennifer sighed. "Yeah, alright. I guess I'll let you figure it out then."
Nick put down the paint can and stepped down from the ladder, putting the brush aside. "I'm sure about this, Jen," he said softly.
"I'm sure you are. But it sounds to me you're just sure about not really knowing what to do."
He could not fault her there. He really didn't know what to do. But the state police was behind him. That was about the only thing he was reslly sure of at all.
"Right," Jen said, standing straight. "I ought to go, then."
He frowned. "You don't want to stay?"
"Not tonight. I think you've got to be on your own. You don't need me distracting you or complicating things."
His heart fell, but he knew she was right. She couldn't help him with this. "I'll walk you out," he said with resignation.
If he had asked her to stay, she would have. But it was probably best he didn't. Nick opened the front door for her, but Jen paused on the doorstep and turned back to him. She kissed him softly and murmured, "I love you, for whatever it's worth. You've got to decide what you want, but when you do, I want you to know that I want to be with you. And that part we can figure out together." She kissed him one last time and turned away.
Nick stood on his front step absolutely stunned. She flapped her wings once and blinked to invisibility just as she started to rise in the air to fly back to the woods and through the portal and into the fairy realm.
She loved him. Jennifer loved him and she'd told him so and she wanted to be with him. Jesus, now he had even more to think about.
He scrubbed his face and walked out to the street. He had to bring his bins out for pickup. But all of a sudden, a car screeched over, its lights illuminating the street in front of Nick. He turned and was blinded, and then the car was running right into him. It stopped just as he was thrown to the ground. And then the light was gone. Everything was gone.
