Page 55 of A Rose of Steel
He stood back against the wall, holding onto the program that he’d rolled up into a scroll. His eyes weren’t focused and he probably couldn’t have told anyone what was going on. He didn’t seem to be sad, just going through the obligatory motions. I was thinking that he didn’t want to be there, he had been elusive—disappearing right when Bumper collapsed, not being at Mrs. Hackett’s house and he hadn’t even gone up front during the funeral to speak. I wanted to speak to him before he disappeared again.
“Hi Chase,” I said, I started speaking before I even got to him.
“Hi,” he said and looked at me as if he was trying to remember who I was.
“Romaine Wilder,” I said. “We met at the wedding.”
“Oh,” he smiled, “I remember. You’re a doctor, right?”
I nodded. “I’m a medical examiner.”
“The coroner?”
The two weren’t exactly the same, but the majority of people thought they were, no need getting into technicalities. “Yes,” I said.
“So you’re the one that’s saying it’s murder?”
“I performed the autopsy on Bumper.”
“Same thing, right? You’re the one who signed the death certificate.
“That would be me.”
“Why would you think he was killed?”
“It’s not what I think, it’s what the evidence has shown me.”
“Oh really. So you know how they killed him?”
“They?”
“You know, whoever did it.”
“I can’t speak on that right now, it wouldn’t be my place.” I stepped a little closer to him to make our conversation easier. “I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of questions.”
“About what?”
“About Bumper.”
“Like what?”
“I was just wondering if you knew what happened to the inhaler he had.”
“Is that what happened to him?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The inhaler wasn’t working?”
“Like I said, I can’t really say. I have to wait for the police to release that information.”
“I thought it was like public information or something.”
I didn’t say anything. A funeral already wasn’t the best place to question a suspect, and I didn’t want to waste my time giving him the same answer over and over. He seemed to understand my silence.
“No, I don’t know what happened to it,” he said.
“Why did you leave the gazebo?” I wanted to hurry and get through all my questions.
