Cloaked in Blood (31 page)

“But –”

Johnny silenced me.  “I don’t want to
hear it, Helen.  Go home.”

Crevan had the decency to hurry me away from
the rooftop without yanking, dragging or making even a feeble
attempt at apologizing for Johnny’s odd behavior.  I suspected
it was because he agreed.  This particular crime scene was no
place for me, not if Lyle Henderson was watching us.  Still,
anger simmered that so soon after our agreement, mine to be honest,
Johnny’s to be open minded enough to listen before barking orders,
was tossed aside.  He has his patterns of behavior.  I
have mine.

“We could go up to that apartment right now
and find out for sure if he’s been paying attention to what
happened tonight, Crevan.”

“I don’t have a death wish.  You heard
him, Helen.  He wants you home.”

“And you heard him as well as I did. 
Henderson was watching us.  For all we know, his accomplice
could be over there watching too.”

“This murder complicates everything. 
If Lyle had a conspirator before tonight, I’m pretty sure that
alliance was broken when somebody else murdered the assassin.”

I stopped halfway down the stairs and
wouldn’t budge.  “Of course.  Jesus, I can’t believe it
didn’t even occur to me before now.  Crevan, this is
exactly
the time that we should approach Lyle
Henderson.  He’s got to know that whoever killed Sanderfield
on Sunday was about to kill him tonight!  He knows that he’s
expendable in this operation.  We have to talk to him.”

“Let Johnny handle it, Helen.”

“We can’t.  Don’t you see?  I’m
the last person he’d ever expect to come knocking on his
door.  This thing could end once and for all in the next ten
minutes!  Please!  Don’t let Johnny’s ridiculous paranoia
about my safety prevent you from doing what you know needs to
happen.  You’ve been a detective for what, twelve, thirteen
years now?  You’ve been doing this job longer than I have by
far.  Surely you see that I’m right.”

He gritted his teeth.  “I don’t
disagree with you, but I’m following orders, and we’re going
home.  Now.”

“You’re my brother.  I don’t want to
hurt you, Crevan.  And I promised Johnny that I’d stop taking
stupid risks and going off investigating on my own.”

“You don’t have the legal authority to
investigate anything anymore.  Have you forgotten?  You
gave up the badge, Helen.”

“Then I’ll call Shelly Finkelstein and get
another one.  I’ll partner with Tony Briscoe for God’s sake,
but I won’t avoid doing what needs to happen right now.”

“He’ll kill both of us,” Crevan said. 
“Please, Helen.  Don’t put me in this position.”

“You think I won’t toss you out of my way
and go over there alone?  I will.  Family or not, you
won’t stop me.  And we’re wasting time.”  I pushed past
him and started running down the stairs.

Chapter 30

He barely slipped inside the elevator doors
before they closed.  Crevan glared at me.  “Helen –”

“If you’re not here to back me up, then
go.  Go now.  I’ll handle the fallout with Johnny. 
On second thought,” I whipped out my cell phone.

“If you tell him you’re here, he’ll go
berserk, Helen.  Put the phone away.  We’ll do this
together, and I’ll take the blame.”

My eyes narrowed.  “He’d never believe
you, but I wasn’t planning on making a confession to my
husband.  I was gonna call my dad for backup.”

“Oh that’s just fantastic, fucking
brilliant, Helen.  Call someone who not only doesn’t have the
authority to question a suspect, but should be serving a life
sentence in prison himself.”

“Maybe he should be,” I conceded, “but not
for the crime he was convicted of committing.  I know more
about what happened now than I did before.  If I’m not
incentive enough to spook Lyle into tipping his hand, if he’s not
already scared shitless that his partner or partners are trying to
kill him now, maybe the sight of Dad will really put the fear of
his God into him.”

The elevator chimed, announcing our arrival
on the tenth floor of the Hanging Gardens Assisted Living.

“This is the worst idea you’ve ever had,”
Crevan scolded.  He crowded my back when we stepped off the
elevator.  “And I’m the cop here.  I should go
first.”

I ignored him and counted doorways in the
hall.  My finger extended.  “That’s the one right
there.”

“Helen –”

A soft snick drew our attention in the
opposite direction.

Crevan drew his gun.  I pushed it down
to his side.

“Calm down.  Nobody’s here.  With
all the activity across the street, somebody probably just peeked
out a door to see who was out here.”

“
We
shouldn’t be here.”  Crevan
twisted his gun hand free.  “This is a mistake, Helen,
probably a very dangerous one.”

“Well, I disagree, and I’m not
leaving.”  Before he could stop me, I reached the destination
and rapped sharply on the door.  “Lyle Henderson, open the
door.”

Nothing.

Crevan rolled his eyes, and nudged me out of
the way.  “Mr. Henderson, it’s Crevan Conall from OSI. 
We’d like to speak with you for a moment if we may.”

Another door creaked down the hall.  It
struck me as odd that such an upscale building had so many creaky
joints.  It seemed almost metaphoric for the inhabitants of
the building.

No sound came from within the apartment.

“He’s probably asleep, Helen.  Either
that or we’ve got the wrong apartment –”

A door swung open behind us.  Crotchety
old woman with a type of walker I’d never seen before
appeared.  She rolled her assistive device into the hallway,
maneuvered herself into the small padded seat on it and stared at
us in silence.

“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to
return to your apartment,” Crevan said in his most stern and
officious tone.  In my opinion, it was far from intimidating,
but my brother was apparently the recipient of the soft heart when
we were in the womb.

“I’m not going anywhere, young man.  If
you’re here to talk to Lyle, I plan to know exactly why.”

My interest spiked.  “And why is Mr.
Henderson’s business of interest to you, ma’am?”

“Name’s Tilly,” she said, “and I don’t
suppose you’ve got any right to ask me questions, leastwise not
anymore, missy.  I read the news.  You retired. 
With good reason from the looks of it.”  Her eyes zoomed in on
my belly.

“I’m a consultant now, Tilly.  Or
should I call you Mrs.…?”

“Miss.”  She stopped and
chuckled.  “Marple.  Yes, you may call me Miss Marple if
Tilly is too informal.”

Crevan grinned.  “Do you know if Mr.
Henderson is home tonight?”

“Sure,” she nodded.  “I’ve been
watching this place like a hawk since I came home and heard the
shouting match.”

“Keep trying to get in there, Crevan,” I
said.  “I’ll talk to Tilly.”

“Helen –”

“Don’t argue!”  I turned my attention
on the old woman.  “Could I trouble you for a glass of
water?  I’m feeling a little queasy and I think a drink my
help settle my stomach.”

“Just put on the tea kettle,” she
said.  “That’s better for the stomach for a woman in your
condition.”  She clicked her tongue in disapproval. 
“Shouldn’t be out here all pregnant like that anyway.”

She rose and rolled the walker back into her
apartment.

“Helen, this is a really bad idea.”

“She’s probably older than Lyle, and she’s
not particularly mobile.  What do you think she’s
planning?  Hemlock in my tea?”

“Leave the door open, and for God’s sake, be
careful!”

Tilly was already pouring hot water over two
teabags by the time I reached her kitchen.  The spacious
apartment offered another view – hers better than Lyle’s that
overlooked more high rises.  Tilly had an unobstructed view of
the bay.

I whistled softly.  “Nice digs,
Tilly.  This place must cost a fortune.”

“My first husband invented the wheel,” she
said with a wry smile.

I felt my face warm.

“And, I’ll have you know, I’m not anywhere
near Lyle’s age.”

“My apologies for the assumptions.”

“You’re not here to make small talk with me
about wise investments or how swanky the palace is.  You want
to know what Lyle and his pal were twisting their vocal chords into
knots about earlier.”

“Exactly how much earlier did you hear this
fight?”

“Oh, I’d say about six hours ago.”

“That early?”

She nodded.  “I wouldn’t have noticed,
but I decided to take dinner down in the dining room tonight, so it
was about six when I came back up here.  My friend Elizabeth
wanted to have cocktails after we dined, you see, so I humored her
and sipped some sherry while she pretended that her bourbon was
watered down.  It never is.  Old bat drinks like a fish
and thinks nobody’s wise to the truth.”

I cleared my throat.  “Since I’ve
learned firsthand how well you hear, I suppose you were able to
make out some of this loud conversation or could tell which of Mr.
Henderson’s friends was next door.”

“These apartments, for as nice as they are,
were indeed constructed for the deaf,” Tilly chuckled.  “Mind
you, I didn’t catch
every
word that was said, but I heard
enough to know that Lyle was very troubled by the death of that
orderly Nate yesterday.  Nasty business.  Oh yes, I heard
all about his little mishap last night, but Benjamin Fowler, he was
the man who witnessed the terrible crime last night, told us all
about it over dinner.”  She slid a cup of tea toward me. 
“Cream or sugar, dear?”

I suspected that Tilly’s desire to dine with
the crowd had more to do with hearing salacious details than
anything else.  “Both please.  My husband thinks I’m not
gaining enough weight.”

She eyed me critically.  “How far along
are you anyway?”

“You don’t already know?”

Tilly laughed.  “Oh, I like you. 
You’ve got spunk.  Remind me of myself about a hundred years
ago.  Now where were we?  Oh yes, that murder last
night.  Is that why you’re all lurking about the hall
tonight?  You see, one of the things Lyle said to that visitor
of his was that he had a good mind to call the police and tell them
what he knew about Nate.”

I stirred the dollop of cream and lump of
sugar into my tea.  “Was Lyle a witness the police didn’t know
about, Tilly?”

“Oh heavens, who knows?  Mr. Henderson
is too good to associate with the likes of the other tenants of the
Hanging Gardens.  He’s got the largest apartment in the
building you know.  When he purchased his apartment before the
building switched to the rental agreements most of us got suckered
into, he actually bought two and had them remodeled.  Nobody
knows anything about him, other than he fancies himself some sort
of evangelist.  My mother always said to never trust a man who
preys on the fears of others to make his money.”

“Your mother sounds like a wise woman.”

Tilly nodded.  “She was, God
rest.  But tell me, Mrs. Orion, isn’t that why OSI is
here?  Because Lyle called the police to tell you what he
knew?”

“He’s not answering his door, so I’m afraid
we don’t know what he wanted to tell us.”

“Dear me.”

She sipped and sighed for a moment while I
debated how hard to push for more information.

“These thin walls, I take it Lyle didn’t
resolve that problem when he remodeled.”

Tilly chuckled.  “He was knocking them
down, dear, not reinforcing them.  To be honest, until earlier
tonight, I’ve never heard a peep from his apartment.  It was
somewhat shocking.”

“You didn’t happen to see his visitor leave,
did you?”

“Oh yes,” she grinned slyly.  “My
vision is pretty good too, but my grandson installed some sort of
apparatus that magnifies what’s on the other side of my door rather
than making it tiny.”

“Did you recognize his visitor?”

“I’d never seen him before in my life, but
he was quite tall.  I realize my view of him might’ve been
distorted a bit by magnification, but he seemed big.”

“Muscular?”

“That’s what I thought until I decided to go
back downstairs to see if Elizabeth was pretending to sip another
glass of bourbon.  I rode in the elevator with him.  He
was a little taller than your handsome friend out there, but not
quite so buff.”

I laughed.  “Buff, Tilly?  You
think Crevan is buff?”

“He tries to hide it under that suit of his,
but I’ve been watching men longer than the both of you have been
alive combined.  I know a well built fellow when I see
one.  This gentleman was thinner, very dark hair, and the
angriest eyes I’ve ever seen in my life, although he tried to hide
it.”

“What else did you see?”  God, but I’d
have given anything to have witnesses like Tilly crop up every time
we needed lots of pertinent details.

“He was an older gentleman, but I could tell
he was vain,” she said.  “If I can spot buff, I can spot even
a very good dye job, Mrs. Orion.”

“Call me Helen.”

“Drink your tea, dear.”

I took a tiny sip.

“And I’m certain he’s not so vain that he’d
use that Botox nonsense.  Lyle on the other hand, I’m sure he
does.  The man’s facial expression never changes.  This
friend of his?  Very angry.  He was muttering under his
breath when he got off the elevator.”

“Did you hear what he said?”

Her grin buoyed my hopes.  “Of course,
dear.  My hearing is excellent after all.  He said,
“Dammit, I’ve got to call Koehler again.”

“I’d ask if you’re certain, but I already
know you heard what you heard, Tilly.  I’d suggest you steer
clear of Lyle Henderson.”

“Oh?  Why would I do that?  This
has been the most interesting week on the island since I moved here
ten years ago.  Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure that Lyle’s
right in the middle of all of it.”