Page 5 of Six
Then a light changed, and a familiar form stepped off the curb. Six’s stomach clenched, then pitched. It was like watching the worst kind of horror film, knowing what was coming next but not being able to turn away.
Less than ten seconds later—ten grueling, painful seconds—Jeremy lay dead in the street. And the light-colored compact SUV, which had indeed sped up as it rounded the corner and appeared to aim for Jeremy, was long gone from the field of the traffic cam.
Six rewound the video, then played it again in slow motion. From the reports, she already knew that the car had no license plate, so what she thought she might see, she didn’t know. Regardless, she felt the need to at least try to search for some clue as to what had happened. And she couldn’t ignore the question hovering in the not-so-distant corner of her mind—was it really an accident?
She watched it another four times, and when she finally closed the case file, she’d come to the conclusion that there was more to Jeremy’s death than just an accident. In fact, she was nearly certain it was murder. But why would someone kill Jeremy? He was a civil litigator who’d had some contentious cases during his career, but nothing that would drive someone to kill him.
Or so she thought. As the early evening light began to soften outside her window, Six wondered what he’d been working on recently. Without hesitation, she pulled up the state court docket and searched for any filings associated with Jeremy and the law firm he ran with his sister, Heather.
There were six active cases tied to the firm and of those, four appeared to be Jeremy’s. Of those four, only one was a big-money case—a faulty equipment suit that had resulted in the death of a construction worker. But even if the family were awarded the full amount they sought, it would be little more than a drop in the bucket to the corporation. Certainly not enough to kill over.
At a loss, Six closed out of the application and leaned back in her chair to consider the limited facts. It didn’t take her long to go through them, because there simply weren’t that many. From the video, it looked as if Jeremy had been targeted. But even having watched it the number of times she had, she couldn’t rule out the possibility that someone had been trying to make a yellow light and miscalculated how quickly it would turn red.
But what if it wasn’t a mistake? What if someone had intentionally killed him?
Unable to come up with any answers, Six grabbed her phone and placed a call—a call she’d intended to make anyway, but now she had more reason.
“Hello?” the woman answered.
“Heather, it’s Violetta. I’d ask how you are, but I can’t imagine.”
Heather Wheaton, Jeremy’s younger sister, sniffed before answering. “Vi, thank you for calling. It’s a shock, that’s for sure. Two nights ago, we were talking about taking a trip to Germany to see the Christmas markets this winter.” Her voice broke as she finished her sentence. Then she cleared her throat. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”
Six’s heart ached for the woman. Jeremy and Heather’s parents had died when Heather was in college, and it was just the two of them. “Me neither,” Six said softly. “He was one of the good guys.”
Heather sniffed again, then silence fell over the line as Six considered how to word her next request. Deciding that honesty was best, she was about to ask Heather whether she thought it was truly an accident when Heather spoke.
“I saw the police report,” she said. “They didn’t want to show it to me, but I made a pest of myself. It’s not right, Vi. I know the police think it was a random hit-and-run, but Isawthe car speed up. Isawit aim for Jeremy.”
Six had had a hard time watching the video of her friend dying; she couldn’t imagine the strength Heather had to watch her brother’s death.
“I know,” Six said softly. “I saw it, too, and agree, it doesn’t look like an accident.” In addition to the fact that the car had picked up speed and seemed to aim for Jeremy, there was the fact that it hadn’t slowed down after it hit him. If it had truly been an accident, she would have expected the driver to at least hesitate a fraction before taking off.
“Is there any reason why someone would target him?” Six asked.
Heather hesitated. “Not that I can think of, but he was working on a few things I wasn’t involved in, so maybe there’s something there?”
“Want me to look into it?” Six offered. She planned to anyway, but if Heather handed over the reins freely, it would make things easier.
“Would you?” The relief in her voice let Six know she’d made the right decision in calling and offering. “I have so much to do with arranging his funeral, managing his estate…”
“Of course,” Six said. “It’s the least I can do. Would you mind if I stopped by his house to look through his things?”
“I’m here now. Can you come by?”
In no traffic, Jeremy lived twenty minutes away in the heart of the city. At this time of the evening, it would be closer to forty. Still, Heather said she was already there, so Six agreed. Five minutes later, she was heading down to the parking garage.
When she stepped out of the elevator, a familiar dark blue SUV pulled around the corner. For a millisecond, Six wished she could hide from the too-attractive driver. Since there was nowhere for her to go, though, she did the next best thing and stared at her phone as she continued to her car. She had no desire to speak to, or acknowledge, Gavin, not after last night and not as she was preparing to look into the death of her friend. Mercifully, he continued on, and a few minutes later, she pulled out into the Boston rush-hour traffic in her Tesla Model X.
The parking gods smiled on her, and when she arrived in Jeremy’s neighborhood, she found a spot less than a block from his apartment. The next thing she knew, she was wrapping Heather in a big hug.
“I am so very sorry,” Six mumbled.
“Thank you, Vi,” Heather replied as she pulled away. “It still doesn’t feel real, you know? Iknowhe’s gone. I saw the video. But it still feels like he’s going to walk through his door and ask what I’m doing riffling through his things.”
“More likely he’d be on your case about messing things up,” Six said with a sad smile, but at least Heather chuckled.
“You’re right about that,” Heather replied, her eyes tearing up even as she, too, smiled. Jeremy had been meticulous about his stuff and his space, easily one of the tidiest, cleanest people Six had ever known. “Come in. Can I get you some tea or coffee?”
