Page 32 of One Last Breath

Wordlessly, I take the offered chair. I wait for the detective for nearly an hour and a half. What could he possibly be doing that is so important he can't investigate a murder? Is he investigating another murder? Is Savannah so violent that all of their detectives are occupied full time hunting killers?

I take a breath and try to calm myself by repeating nursery rhymes in my head. It’s a trick that works well when managing a classroom full of unruly children, but it doesn’t help me now.

Finally, the receptionist beckons me forward. I stand and approach, but before I reach her, she says, “Second floor, third office on the right.”

Somewhat reluctantly, I wish her a good day and head upstairs.

Detective Marcus Donnelly is a graying man of around forty who may once have been athletic but who now sports a healthy ring of fat around his middle. He stands to greet me, then gestures to a seat in front of his desk.

"All right," he says, sighing with relief as he takes his own seat again. "You say you want to report a murder."

“Yes.”

“Did you see the crime occur?”

“No.”

"Did you see the victim after the crime was committed?"

“No.”

He holds my gaze for a moment. “Who do you believe was killed?”

“A woman named Lila Benson. She was the former governess for my employers, the Greenwoods.”

He stares at me another moment. Then he leans back in his chair. “The Greenwoods of Greenwood Plantation?”

“Yes.”

After another pause, he asks, “When did you last contact Miss Benson?”

“Oh, I’ve never contacted her.”

A rush of something that looks like relief crosses his face. He hides it fairly well, but not before I pick up on the odd reaction. He pulls out a notebook and a pen and begins to scrawl notes. “How can you be sure she’s dead?”

“Because she was investigating the murder of Deirdre McCoy. I believe that the family realized Lila was snooping on their past and that one or more of them conspired to have her killed.”

“Uh huh. Who is Deirdre McCoy?”

“She was a friend of the grandmother, Violet.”

“And when did Miss McCoy die?”

“Fifty-two years ago.”

He looks up from his notepad and asks, "And what makes you believe that Miss Benson was threatening the family by investigating a half-century-old cold case?"

“I found letters Lila had written. Notes to herself. She says in these notes that she feared for her life. She believed the family knew that she was snooping and that they would retaliate against her for it.”

“Did she mention this Deirdre McCoy?”

“No, but I am certain that’s what she was investigating.”

“Why?”

“Because… well, that’s the big family scandal.”

“According to whom?”

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