“I didn’t know people ate caviar on a sandwich,” said Harry, who was Tom’s little brother, and looked about twelve, though in actual fact he was fifteen. He was chewing his nails, and clearly wanted to be elsewhere right now.
“You can eat caviar on anything,” said Danny. “Toast, a sandwich, fries….”
This had Harry burst out laughing.“Caviar and fries! No way!”
“Okay, so rumor has it,” said Odelia, trying to get the conversation back on track, “that Madison didn’t jump, but was actually pushed out of his window.”
Silence greeted these words, then Melanie said,“What do you mean?”
“She means he was pushed, Mom,” said Tom.
“But what does that mean?”
“It means he was killed,” said Danny. “Isn’t that what you mean, Mrs. Kingsley?”
Odelia confirmed that this was what she meant, and Melanie gasped, clutching a hand to her throat.“But that means… he was murdered!”
“Yes, Auntie Mel,” said Danny. “That’s usually what happens when you’re pushed out of a window and end up dead.”
“But why? And who? And… oh, God, what does this mean!”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” said Odelia, glad to get that part of the conversation out of the way.
“I thought you said he jumped?” said Harry, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
“That’s what I was told,” said Danny. “But clearly Mrs. Kingsley heard different.”
“Was there a witness?” asked Tom. “Someone who saw what happened?”
Dooley and I shared a look, but Odelia answered smoothly,“I don’t know. I’m just telling you what I heard. So can you think of anyone who’d hurt Mr. Madison? You, Tom?”
Tom shrugged.“I can think of a lot of people who didn’t like Madison. I didn’t like him, for instance.”
“But Tommy, you didn’t kill him!” said his mother.
“Of course I didn’t kill him, Mom,” said Tom. “But that’s not the question. The question is if we can think of anyone who’d harm Madison. And to be honest, I could. Though I wouldn’t, of course,” he hastened to add.
“You didn’t like how he treated Natalie Ferrara, did you?” asked Odelia softly.
Tom nodded and looked away.“I hated him for what he did to her. First getting her pregnant, then breaking up with her and telling her to get an abortion? Who does that?”
“He wasn’t a kind man,” Danny confirmed.
“Can I go now?” asked Harry, who clearly wasn’t interested in this part of the conversation.
“No, you’re going to stay put,” said Melanie, “and listen.” She gave Odelia a look of apology. “Don’t mind him. Harry can’t wait to get back to his computer.” She ruffled her youngest son’s hair, who made a face and pulled away. “He’s the hacker in the family, aren’t you?”
“How many times, Mom? I’m not a hacker,” said Harry. “I’m an online investor.”
“Of course you are,” said Melanie. “Harry wants to become a millionaire,” she announced, regarding her son affectionately. “Isn’t that right, sweetie?”
“Yeah, whatever,” said her son with an eyeroll.
“Okay, so how about you, Danny?” asked Odelia. “Can you think of anyone who’d wanna hurt Madison?”
“Do you want a list?” said Danny. “The guy wasn’t exactly Mr. Popular.” He gave us a few of the names on his list, but it turned out Odelia already had them on hers, so there wasn’t a lot of news to be extracted from this scion of the Mitchell family. “Though personally I’d put my money on Deith,” Tom’s cousin concluded.
“Madison’s wife?”
“Absolutely. You should have seen them yesterday, fighting like cats and dogs in his office, and she didn’t care if his entire staff heard them.”
“It’s always so sad when husband and wife fight,” said Melanie. “Sad for the kids, I mean.”
“Do you have anything concrete to support these suspicions?” asked Odelia.
“No, just my general knowledge of human nature,” said Danny. “The woman is evil, Mrs. Kingsley. And if she found out about her husband’s affair with Natalie, there’s no telling what she would do to get even.” He straightened and held up a finger. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. That’s Shakespeare for you.”
“Congreve,” said his cousin quietly.
“Who?”
“William Congreve,” Tom said. “Not William Shakespeare.”
“Huh. How about that?”
“Okay, so now for one final question,” said Odelia, “but an important one. Where were you guys last night, when all this happened?”
Danny grinned widely.“Seriously? You’re asking about our alibis?”
“You’re not accusing us of murder, are you?” asked Melanie.
“I’m not accusing you of anything,” said Odelia. “It’s just a routine question. Just a matter of excluding you from my inquiries.”
“You sound like a cop,” Harry muttered darkly.
“Well, if you have to know, we were right here,” said Melanie. “Sound asleep in our beds, just like we always are at that time of night. Isn’t that right, boys?”
Three heads obediently bobbed up and down.
“So no one left the house last night?” asked Odelia.
“Absolutely not,” said Melanie. “And I would know if they did. I’m a light sleeper, you see. If one of the boys goes to the bathroom I wake up. My husband Jim always told me to use earplugs. He didn’t understand I don’t mind waking up. I like to know that if anything happens my boys cancount on me. Jim, rest his soul—he died ten years ago next week and I still miss him every day—he fell off a roof, you know—we sued the construction company, of course, but nothing doing.”
“Mom!” said Tom. “Get to the point already!”
“Right. What was I saying?”
“Something about earplugs?” Harry suggested with a wicked grin.
“Earplugs? Now why would I talk about earplugs?”
“You said you’d know if one of your boys left the house last night,” Odelia said helpfully.
“Oh, right! Well, I would, wouldn’t I? The least little noise and I’m wide awake. But I don’t mind. Jim always told me to use earplugs—ah, now I see where I was going with this—well, anyway, he fell off that roof through no fault of his own and I still miss him every day.” Her eyes had grown moist, and she now pulled a Kleenex from a box on the coffee table and pressed it to her nose. “And then when my sister and her husband died… Car crash.” She nodded emphatically. “They were both dead on impact. We sued the other driver but nothing doing. Anyway…”
“So nobody left the house, because you would have heard if they did, and you don’t know who killed Michael Madison,” Odelia summed up the state of affairs.
“It’s not easy raising three boys on your own,” Melanie posited. “But I like to think I did a good job.”
“You did a great job, Mom,” said Tom, who seemed the most sensible of the trio. He patted his mom on the back, and more tears formed in the woman’s eyes. Soon she was sniffling and snuffling, much to the embarrassment of the three young men gathered around her.
“That’s what you get from watching those soaps all the time,” Danny declared earnestly. “They turn your mind to mush.”
“Hey, watch your tongue, young man!” said Melanie, then seemed to collect herself. “You’ll stay for dinner, of course, Mrs. Kingsley,” she said.
“Oh, no,” said Odelia. “I couldn’t.”
“Nonsense. Skinny little thing like you? It’s obvious you haven’t had a decent meal in ages. If you were living under my roof I’d fatten you right up. Put some meat on those bones.”
Odelia didn’t seem to want fattening up, and after some wrangling, managed to escape the woman’s hospitality unscathed and so did we.
We had one more person to talk to, you see, and I had a feeling Deith Madison wasn’t the kind of woman who liked to be kept waiting!