Kanesha gave his hand a quick shake. “Chief Deputy Kanesha Berry.” Then her attention focused on Laura. “I have some questions for you, Ms. Harris. I realize you’re probably tired and not feeling all that good after what you went through the past couple of days. But I need answers.”
“I understand, Deputy.” Laura smiled, but I could see the strain in her face. She had overtired herself, and I should have been more zealous about keeping people away from her so she could rest.
“Good. Is there somewhere we can talk privately?” Kanesha shot pointed looks at Sean and Frank.
“Here’s fine with me,” Laura said.
Sean said, “I’ll get out of the way, then.”
Frank, however, frowned and stood beside Laura. “Are you sure you’re up to this, darling?” He regarded her with evident concern.
Laura patted his hand and said, “I’ll be fine. You go on, and I’ll call you later.” Frank didn’t appear convinced, but he didn’t argue. He gave her a quick kiss before he nodded and followed Sean out of the kitchen.
“Can I offer you anything to drink, Deputy?” I moved toward the sink. “Laura, honey, what about you?” I intended to stay in the room unless Kanesha threw me out.
“Wouldn’t mind some water,” Kanesha replied.
“Nothing for me, Dad,” Laura said.
While I filled a glass with cold water from a pitcher in the fridge, Kanesha walked over to the table and sat down in the chair recently vacated by Frank.
Diesel, I noticed, took up position between Laura and Kanesha. He looked back and forth between them.
Kanesha thanked me when I handed her the glass of water. I sat down at the other end of the table from Laura, and all I got from Kanesha was a raised eyebrow. Then she turned back to Laura.
“The incident this morning.” Kanesha had a sip of water, then set the glass on the table. “Tell me everything you remember, from the moment you arrived on campus.”
Laura nodded and took a couple of deep, calming breaths before she answered. “I walked to campus from here. Must have been about seven when I left the house, and I rambled around campus for a while. I glanced at my watch when I reached the building, and it was a couple minutes past eight.”
Kanesha pulled a notebook from her uniform pocket, along with a pen, and jotted the times down. “Did you see anyone in the building when you arrived?”
Laura frowned. “No, I didn’t. But I heard someone, in the stairwell. I always take the stairs, helps me keep fit. When I was about halfway up the first flight—there are two short ones per floor—I heard footsteps above me, but I didn’t think anything about them until now.”
“You didn’t catch a glimpse of this person?”
“No.” Laura shook her head. “When I reached the second floor, I exited into the hallway and walked down to my office. Oh, I stopped by the staff lounge on the way to see if anyone was there, but there wasn’t. So I went on to my office and pulled out my notes on the play to work on.”
Kanesha made more notes. There was silence for a few moments while she wrote. She looked up at Laura. “Clear and concise, like your father.” The ghost of a grin hovered around her lips, then disappeared.
Diesel chose that moment to meow rather loudly, and Laura and I both smiled. Kanesha glanced down at the cat, her expression bland.
“You were working on your notes,” Kanesha said, prompting Laura.
“I meant to, but I couldn’t seem to focus.” Laura frowned. “I just stared at the wall for a long time. Eventually I needed to go to the bathroom. I remember going down the hall to the ladies’ room near the stairs. And I obviously made it back to my office, but I’m afraid that’s where my memories of the morning end. Until I woke up, that is.”
“How long would you say you sat in your office before you went to the bathroom? Kanesha drained her water glass as she waited for an answer.
Laura thought about it for a moment. “Probably thirty minutes, at least. I seem to remember checking my watch at one point, and it was about eight forty-five. I think.”
“Good.” Kanesha nodded. She turned to me. “What time did you arrive on the scene?”
I had been thinking about that and trying to remember. The morning’s events seemed oddly distant now, but I forced myself to concentrate. “Sean called me about nine to say he couldn’t get Laura to answer her cell phone, so I decided to see if she was in her office. I ran, along with Diesel, from my office to Laura’s, and it took only four or five minutes, maybe. So I’d say I found Laura in her office, with Magda Johnston kneeling over her, between nine-ten and nine-fifteen.”
Kanesha made more notes as she resumed questioning Laura. “What you’ve told me so far is from your visual memory.” She waited for Laura to nod in the affirmative before she continued. “But there are other kinds of memories, auditory memories, or scent ones. Think about it for a moment. Did you hear anything or smell anything in the moments before you were struck?”
Laura stared at the deputy for a long moment. “That’s really strange,” she said finally. “There was an odd smell. But what was it?” She had a look of deep concentration.
Neither Kanesha nor I said anything. Diesel, however, chose that moment to warble. “No comments from the peanut gallery,” Kanesha said in a low voice.
Laura didn’t appear to have heard either the cat or the deputy. Suddenly she smiled. “Motor oil. That was what I smelled. Motor oil.”
TWENTY-FOUR
Motor oil, I thought. How very strange. Was Laura’s attacker a mechanic? This certainly bore more thought. Who among the people associated with Connor might be around motor oil?
“That’s an unusual scent,” Kanesha commented. “Does it bring anyone you might know to mind?”
Laura shook her head slowly. “Not that I can think of. That really is weird, isn’t it? Motor oil.”
“At some point, you might remember something else.” Kanesha tapped her notebook with the pen. “Can you think of any reason why someone would attack you?”
Laura glanced at me, her expression one of mute appeal. “Damitra Vane has accosted Laura at least twice that I know of,” I said. “I wouldn’t put it past her to attack my daughter physically.”
Kanesha faced me. “Miss Vane was at the sheriff’s department when the attack took place.” She turned back to Laura. “Who else?”
Once again Laura’s eyes sought mine. I took a seat at the table, and Kanesha’s eyes narrowed as they focused on me. “The attacker might have been after something in Laura’s possession.” My stomach knotted as I spoke. This wasn’t going to be pleasant.
“Like what?” Kanesha frowned at me.
“This.” Laura had the thumb drive in her hand, extended in Kanesha’s direction. Her hand trembled slightly.
“Place it on the table.” Kanesha stared hard at Laura as she did as the deputy asked. “What is it?”
“It was Connor’s,” Laura said. She paused for a deep breath. “He backed up all the files on his laptop on it. Have you found his laptop?”
“No, we haven’t. How long have you had this?” Kanesha’s tone was harsh.
“Since yesterday. Connor asked me to keep it for him.” Laura focused on the table as she lied to the deputy. “He was kind of paranoid about anything happening to it.”
I frowned at my daughter. What did she think she was doing? Taking the thumb drive from the scene was bad enough. Now she was compounding the act by lying about it.
“Could I have a paper towel to wrap this in?” Kanesha directed her request to me, and I hastened to comply. She took the paper towel and wrapped the thumb drive in it, then tucked it into one of her pockets.
“Thank you,” she said to Laura. “I wish I’d had it sooner, but I reckon you weren’t in too good a condition to think about it before now.”