Worst Fears Realized Read Free Page B

was in the kettle?” Stone asked Kelly.
    “A little under three cups,” Kelly replied sullenly.
    “Here’s one scenario, then,” Stone said. “The killer arrives shortly after I leave. Within three and a half minutes. He kills her, then the kettle starts whistling. He turns off the kettle.”
    “Why?” Kelly asked.

    “Because nobody can stand around and listen to a kettle screaming like that,” Stone said. “Let’s see, five minutes for me to walk to the restaurant, I wait five minutes, and five minutes to come back, say fifteen to eighteen minutes. And when I get back, the killer is still in the apartment, maybe. So if he is, what does he do for fifteen minutes?”
    “Searches the place,” Anderson said. “A robbery, maybe.”
    The second uniform spoke up. “I had a look in the bedroom,” he said. “Neat as a pin. There’s a jewelry box on the dresser with some nice-looking stuff in it.”
    “So it wasn’t a robbery,” Anderson said. “What was he looking for?”
    “Something of value only to him,” Dino replied, standing up and walking to a desk in the living room. He opened the drawers one at a time, including a file drawer, then came back. “Everything is neat. No way to tell if the killer found something.”
    Kelly spoke up. “And the killer turned on the kettle again before he left? What for?”
    “To screw up our timeline,” Stone said. “He wanted us to think that he killed her, then left immediately. I think he followed us from Brougham’s place, or at least, picked us up on the street en route.”
    “Did you see anybody?” Dino asked.
    “No, but it seems to me that he followed us, waited for me to leave, then went upstairs.”
    “How’d he get in?” Kelly asked.
    “Rang the bell; maybe she thought it was me, even though she had given me the key.”

    “And she let him in?”
    “Maybe he forced his way in, or maybe she knew him,” Stone said.
    “How’d he know when you were coming back?” Kelly asked.
    “He didn’t; he thought I’d left to go home. He got lucky. I’ll bet he was getting on the elevator when I rang for it. Must have scared him.”
    “Maybe,” Dino said. “Andy, send your patrolmen to talk to everybody in the building. Find out who came and went, and what time.”
    “Right, Lieutenant,” Anderson said.
    Dino looked at his watch. “I think it’s time to wake up Martin Brougham,” he said.
    “The DA guy?” Kelly asked. “What for?”
    “I want to take a look at her office,” Dino said. “Come on, Stone; I’ll drive you home; we can’t have you out on the streets with blood all over you. You’d just get arrested.” He turned to Kelly. “Apologize to Mr. Barrington for your behavior.”
    Kelly turned beet red. “I apologize,” he said. “I thought you were the perp.”
    “Something you should know, Mick,” Anderson said. “Mr. Barrington used to be a detective in the Nineteenth; he was Lieutenant Bacchetti’s partner.”
    Kelly’s face fell. “I really am sorry,” he said, looking at the floor.
    “Sorry about your nose,” Stone said. He took care not to sound as if he meant it.

4
    S TONE WAS AWAKENED BY A RINGING telephone. He rolled over, opened an eye, and looked at the bedside clock. Just past ten. He sat up on one elbow. He had been wide-awake until at least four, unable to sleep with the picture of Susan Bean’s body stuck in his mind. Finally, he had drifted off and overslept. He picked up the phone.
    “Hello?”
    “It’s Dino.”
    “Morning.”
    “You get any sleep?”
    “Some. You find anything in Susan’s office?”
    “Everything was neat as a pin, just like the apartment; nothing missing that anybody could figure. Brougham was pretty upset. Apparently, he depended on her a lot.”
    “Anything on the murder?”
    “Nothing yet, but whoever used the elevator whenyou came back was the perp. Nobody else in the building had budged from their apartments.”
    “Not that it does us any good.”
    “No. There were