“The man must be absolutely delusional.”
“But then he invited me for a meeting at his house last night, and so I hoped he’d had a change of heart. But when I got there I found him unconscious on the floor, and five members of the Hampton Heisters fleeing the scene. I caught one of them, and she’s now in custody, suspected of the attack on your husband.”
“Who are these Hampton Heisters?”
“They’re a gang of thieves who target celebrities,” Odelia explained. “They’ve carried out half a dozen attacks in the last three months, and Carl is their latest victim.”
“Poor Carl,” said Erica, showing us that in spite of the acrimoniousness of their separation, she still cared for her soon-to-be ex-husband. “But I don’t understand. Where was his security detail when all this happened?”
“He’d sent them all home. On his calendar it showed that he had a date planned with a girl named Zoe, and the guy in charge of security told us that when that happened Carl usually sent everybody home so he would have the house to himself.”
“Oh, I know all about that,” said Erica. “When I had my first date with Carl we were all alone, which seemed a little strange for such a famous person. But then he explained that several years ago one of his security people had sold secretly filmed footage of one of his dates to the tabloid press.”
“Yeah, Gustav told us much the same thing last night.”
“So what are the doctors saying? Is he going to come out of this?”
“They’re not sure. The crack across the head broke his skull.”
Suddenly Odelia’s phone rang out its customary tune, and she quickly picked up. “Yes, Uncle Alec?” She listened for a moment, frowning, then said, “I’ll be there in ten minutes.” When she hung up, she glanced down at me and murmured, “My uncle wants to see me. Now.”
“Can I come, too, Miss Poole?” asked Ellie.
“Oh, sure. And please call me Odelia.”
“Thanks.” The girl smiled. “This is only my second day, Odelia, but I already know what I want to be.”
“Mh?” said Odelia, looking a little distracted after her uncle’s phone call.
“Reporter, of course. Just like you!”
19
“This is a first,” said Odelia, smiling a little uncertainly. She’d never before been invited into the interview room at the police precinct… at the suspect’s side of the table.
Her uncle was seated across from her, and he wasn’t smiling.
“Do you know why you’re in here?” he asked.
“Um, no,” she said, still smiling, though less so when she noticed her uncle’s serious demeanor.
“We’ve examined the golf club that was used as a weapon on Carl Strauss last night, and do you know what we found?”
“No, what did you find?”
“We pulled a clear set of fingerprints off that club. Yours.”
She blinked.“What do you mean?”
“Your fingerprints were on the club that was used to knock out Carl last night, Odelia. How do you explain that?”
“Um…”
“As far as I can tell there are only two possible explanations,” her uncle went on, without waiting for a reply. “Either you picked up the club when you arrived and found Carl unconscious on the floor, or…” He fixed her with a stern look. “You are the person who smacked Carl across thehead.”
“I certainly didn’t touch that club,” said Odelia indignantly. “You know I know better than that, Uncle Alec.” He watched her expectantly. Not unlike a cat watches a mouse. Well, not her cats, obviously, as they’d never been mousers. And then the realization hit her. “You don’t think I would actually…”
He merely arched a meaningful eyebrow.
“Uncle Alec! How can you even think such a thing!”
“What were your fingerprints doing on that club? That’s what I want to know.”
“I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation,” she sputtered.
“Okay. So what is it?”
“Well…” She cast around for a possible explanation for her prints to be on that club, but couldn’t think of a single one.
“Look, I know you’re not a killer,” said her uncle, softening. “But you can see how this complicates matters, don’t you?”
“I mean, why would I even want to hit Carl? I didn’t even know the guy.”
“I can think of a couple of reasons. We all know that Carl fashioned himself to be something of a ladies’ man. It’s not inconceivable that he came onto you last night and that you saw no other recourse than to defend yourself against his aggressive come-on.”
“Absolutely not!”
Her uncle held up his hand.“Now hear me out, honey. No one would blame you if you picked up that club and used it in self-defense. And if you tell me the truth right now I’ll make sure that the judge is lenient when he hears your plea.”
“The judge!”
“Did he attack you? Is that what happened? Did you arrive there and did he try any funny business?”
“Look, I already told you that when I arrived he was unconscious on the floor. I never even got a chance to talk to the guy. I was the one who found his body. If it hadn’t been for me he’d probably be dead right now, since those Hampton Heisters sure as heck weren’t going to call the emergency services after breaking into the man’s house.”
“I can think of one other motive why you would attack Carl Strauss,” her uncle inexorably went on, as if he hadn’t even heard her outburst. “You took on Erica Barn’s case yesterday, and I know for a fact that you’re a very sensitive young woman, and how sometimes you simply feel too much and too intensely. So I can imagine how Erica’s plight caused you to see her husband as a threat to her continued happiness.”
“No, I did not!”
He held up his hand.“And when you visited him last night you vowed to give it one more try: to convince him that he needed to grant his wife a divorce. Carl got belligerent and called Erica a few choice names, and so you took up her defense, for that’s exactly the kind of person that you are. Things got heated, arguments flew back and forth, and at some point Carl attacked you—physically attacked you—and so you grabbed the first thing you found and whacked him across the head.”
“I did not.”
“Or maybe he came at you with the club and you managed to wrestle it from his hands and hit him before he could hit you. Look, I don’t know how it all went down,” the police chief said as he rolled up his shirtsleeves, “which is exactly why you need to tell me right now what happened, and then we can deal with it.” He placed his hands flat on the table and gave her a look of concern. “You’re my favorite niece—you know that.”
“I’m your only niece,” she muttered.
“So I know you’re a good person through and through, and whatever happened, it wasn’t your fault. And I’m willing to go to bat for you here, you understand? But first you need to tell me what happened. Did he attack you? Is that how it started?”
“No! I told you, when I arrived he was already unconscious on the floor.”
Uncle Alec’s face took on a cold expression. “No need to lie to me. I’m on your side.”
“I know you are. Which is why you need to believe me when I tell you that I had nothing to do with this. I got there, found Carl on the floor, caught the Hampton Heisters and chased them and grabbed one of them—Emma Hudson. That’s what happened.”
“So you’re sticking to that story, are you?”
“It’s not a story. It’s the truth.”
“Mh,” the police chief said dubiously.
“It’s the truth! I swear on the heads of—”
“Careful now,” said her uncle, holding up a warning finger.
“I swear on heads of my cats that I told you the God’s honest truth.”
“You swear on the heads of Max and Dooley?”
“I swear on the heads of Max and Dooley.”
Her uncle gave her one of his penetrating looks, then finally his features relaxed into a smile.“Okay. Just wanted to make sure you weren’t lying.”