„I like your sense of humor, Nedda.“ He had already surmised that if Bitty, the Christian soldier, were hanging nose to nose with a fruit fly, the fly would beat the living crap out of her.
A shriek came from the front room, and now Bitty Smyth was screaming, „No fingerprints! No, you can’t do this!“
Riker watched Kathy Mallory passing the kitchen doorway again, advancing on the front room with grim resolve. He was already feeling sorry for the smaller, weaker woman; the little soldier was indeed delicate in mind and body.
Oh, yes, there would be fingerprints, and right now.
Mallory’s end of the conversation was not intelligible at this distance, but Riker could imagine the scene in the other room: his partner’s attitude conjuring up a faint aroma from the sulfurs of hell and maybe a little smoke; Bitty’s eyes growing wide and wild.
„No!“ Bitty Smyth yelled. „I want a lawyer!"
Bitty Smyth flitted about the room, staring into every face, silently begging for relief. She avoided looking at Mallory, whose eyes were green neon signs with the words no mercy.
Nedda Winter entered the room, followed by a more languid Riker, who hardly ever moved quite so fast as an old lady, though Mallory knew that her partner would not call this white-haired woman old; the litde lost girl of the nineteen-forties would only be fifteen years his senior.
Deserting her niece, Miss Winter hurried past Mallory and disappeared into a small powder room in the foyer. Every pair of eyes was on that closing door. Dazed by this abandonment, even Bitty Smyth was quietly keeping watch.
When the old woman emerged, she held a glass of water in her hand and moved toward her niece, smiling, extending the glass, then holding it to Bitty’s lips and urging her to drink. „Big gulps, dear. Everything is all right.“
Bitty Smyth stole a glance at Mallory, then shook her head slowly from side to side to say that this could not be true.
„I’ve already given them my fingerprints.“ Nedda Winter settled her niece on the sofa. „There’s no harm in letting them take yours.“
Heller pulled up a chair alongside the couch and gently took the tiny woman’s hand and kissed it.
Well, this was new. The only one more startled than Bitty was Mallory.
The head of Forensics was not only doing the work of underlings tonight but he was also in rare diplomatic form, and Mallory disapproved. She preferred her interview subjects unhinged and easier to intimidate – less work. Before Heller had inked the third finger, Bitty Smyth’s head lolled back on the upholstery and her eyes closed. Mallory turned on the older woman. „What did you put in that water?“
„A sedative.“ Miss Winter opened her hand to show the label on the bottle. „This house almost qualifies as a pharmacy. These belong to my sister, Cleo.“
This civilian was surprisingly unruffled. Mallory decided to work on that.
While Heller finished the fingerprinting process, one of the medical examiner’s underlings returned to remind the detectives that the meat wagon was still waiting for the corpse. Mallory shot him a look to tell him that he should get out of here – now.
Nedda Winter searched the remaining faces, then turned to Riker. „Mr. Butler is gone?“
„Yeah,“ said Riker. „It didn’t take him long to check out the pictures in Bitty’s room.“
„Is he going to make any trouble for my niece?“
„I wouldn’t be surprised.“ Mallory glanced at the small woman asleep on the sofa. „By law, we had to warn him. We’re really scrupulous about that when we find the stalker at a crime scene with a dead body.“
„My niece is harmless.“
„You really believe that?“ Mallory opened her blazer, pausing a beat to display a very large gun and her authority in this room. „I’m surprised.“ Her hand passed over the weapon to dip into an inside breast pocket. She produced a wrinkled sheet of paper. „I found this in your bedroom wastebasket. It’s the same line written over and over again. ‘Crazy people make sane people crazy.’“ Mallory glanced at the small sleeper on the couch. „Was Bitty getting on your nerves?“
The older woman looked as if she had just been slapped.
Mallory edged closer. „Need to take a pill, Miss Winter? I saw all that medication in your room.“
„I’m fine, thank you.“
„Sit down,“ said Mallory, indicating a chair close to the corpse.
Nedda Winter shook her head, defying a direct order and electing to stand. „I’ve been sitting for too long.“ With a slight lift of one shoulder, she said, „You know – old bones.“ And so her dignity remained intact – for the moment.
„Really?“ Mallory made a wide circle around Miss Winter, forcing the woman to revolve. „The medical examiner says you’re in very good shape for your age. Good hearing and coordination. No confusion at all. Now Dr. Morgan thought that was strange… considering all of your meds. He said the high doses should’ve created massive confusion bordering on dementia, but you’re pretty sharp.“
„Thank you.“
Once more Mallory looked down at the sleeping niece. „Does Bitty know that you flush all those pills every day?“
She noted just the barest inclination of Nedda Winter’s head, a small gesture of congratulation. And now this old woman must understand that Riker’s interrogation had been merely a friendly little warm-up.
Showtime.
„And your color surprised Dr. Morgan, too. According to your niece, your skin turned yellow in the end stage of cancer. But now you look entirely too healthy.“ Mallory stopped circling her interview subject. They stood toe-to-toe. „Can you explain that?“
„Doctor-patient confidentiality,“ said the old woman. „The state of my health isn’t open to police scrutiny.“
„Wrong.“ Mallory turned her back on the older woman. „I can ask you anything I want.“ And that was true. She could legally ask. „And now we ‘11 go over the holes in your statement until I hear something believable. You might want to sit down now. This could take all night.“
And with this more polite invitation, this consideration for her comfort – yeah, right – Nedda Winter did sit down. But this was not the advantage that Mallory sought; she had wanted subservience, and all she got was tolerance. Miss Winter’s head was level and regal; she would not strain by one bare inch to look up at her adversary.
The detective moved behind the woman, leaning down close to her ear and saying, „I like money motives.“ Mallory rounded the chair in time to catch the trace of a smile.
„I never touched the man’s wallet,“ said Nedda Winter.
„I did. He had a lot of cash. But you told the responding officer there was none missing from the wall safe. You were positive about that.“ She signaled Riker to bring in the patrolman waiting outside on the steps. After sitting down in an armchair on the other side of the corpse, she proceeded to ignore the old woman, turning all her attention to the pages of a small notebook.
The young officer entered the front room. He smiled at Miss Winter, and one finger tapped the visor of his hat in a mock salute. Mallory caught his eye, and, with a look that promised something nasty, she put an end to all that friendliness. He stood at attention, all properly lined up on the side of Mallory and the law.
The detective turned back to her notes, saying, „You remember Officer Brill, don’t you? He shows up for all of your break-ins.“
„Yes, I remember him. But that first one was only an attempted burglary.“
Mallory kept her eyes on the notebook. „According to Officer Brill, your relatives were out of town for that one, too. What a coincidence.“ She looked up at the staircase and the small device well concealed in the woodwork. „Oh, and the tape cassette is missing from your security camera. Another coincidence? Don’t look at Officer Brill. He’s not a friend of the family. He’s with us.“