ER - A Murder Too Personal Read Free Page B

her, would they be putting her in the ground right
now? Goddamned if I knew. But one thing was as certain as night
follows day—I was going to do everything I could, and then a hell
of a lot more, to find the answer. And when I did, I was going to
tear off the head of the bastard who killed her. She was only
thirty-six. Too young to bring down the curtain.
    As the hydraulic lift soundlessly lowered her
coffin, I thought back to a trip we’d taken to Spain. There had
been a small hotel in Barcelona, just off the Ramblas. We’d
strolled down the broad boulevard with all the brightly-colored
flower stalls and the locals had stopped and stared at her because
she was so tall and so blond. At the hotel, the concierge had told
me that she was so beautiful I couldn’t deny her anything.
    And now they were covering her with clods of
earth.
    And therefore never send to know for whom the
bell tolls.
    It tolls for thee.
    And it tolls for me.
    After the gravediggers had finished and gone,
the mourners stood around and spoke in muted tones. Some birds were
chirping from a nearby stand of trees. The cemetery had become very
quiet. The scent of newly-mown grass mixed with the smell of
freshly-dug earth. Somebody put a hand on my arm. I turned to look.
It was her sister, Laura.
    “Hello, Ed,” she said in a whisper. “I was
hoping you would come.” Her eyes were red and she sniffled into a
tissue she had wadded up in her hand.
    “I wanted to see you,” I said.
    She nodded and sniffled again. Then she burst
out sobbing and put her arms around me. I held her and felt her
body quivering. Where Alicia had been muscular and sinewy, her
sister was soft and vulnerable. Two sides of the same coin.
    She continued crying against my chest for a
couple of minutes. Her perfume smelled like spring flowers and her
hair was soft against my cheek. She was wearing a black dress with
long sleeves, too warm for the day. She wasn’t as tall as Alicia
but she was prettier. I suspected she wasn’t as smart.
    Finally she nodded to herself and dabbed her
eyes dry. She nodded again and pulled away from me.
    “I’m sorry, Ed,” she managed. “Please forgive
me.”
    She didn’t have to ask me to forgive her.
    She was four years younger than Alicia and a
lot more feminine. Alicia had a hard edge about her that could turn
off a man, but Laura was the wife you wanted waiting at home for
you at the end of a rough day.
    After she’d had a chance to regain her
composure, I said, “Laura, I want you to introduce me to some of
the people here.”
    “Why?” she asked.
    “You can figure out why.”
    She pursed her lips and thought for a minute.
A tiny frown line appeared on her forehead. “Do you think someone
here knows something about Alicia’s death?” She obviously believed
the possibility was remote, from the way she said it.
    I didn’t answer her question. “Do you have
the key to her apartment?”
    “Yes, but why?”
    “I want to take a look around.”
    Her eyes widened. “But, Ed…the police have
already been all over the place. What do you think you can find
that they can’t?”
    I snorted. If only this little innocent
knew.
    “I look for things in a different way.”
    She shrugged. “All right, but the keys are at
home. I’ll have to get them over to you.
    “Never mind that. I’ll drive you home and
pick up the keys. Now tell me who’s here.”
    She surveyed the gathering. “Do you see that
tall good-looking man in the gray suit?” She spoke in a
conspiratorial tone to my shoulder.
    “Yeah.”
    “That’s Michael Chisolm.”
    “Her boyfriend?”
    She nodded.
    “Who else is here?”
    “That creepy-looking fellow—the one with the
thinning hair.”
    She indicated a man with gelled hair who
stood in a hunched posture. His mother had evidently never told him
to stand up straight. At first, I’d thought he was one of the
undertakers.
    “That’s Alicia’s boss—Stallings. He’s
president of the brokerage house where she