Murder Came Second (23 page)

I knew the first car would arrive in two or three minutes. Wondering if there were any obvious clues other than the knife itself, I wandered back into the clear corner of the kitchen. It wasn’t exactly neat, but looked reasonable for a kitchen used by five or six people with no real interest in keeping it clean. After all, they knew the maids would be in during the morning.

The maids! Ellie and Betts! We couldn’t have them walking in on this scene! They’d faint dead away. I turned back to the living room and got Ellen Hall’s number from Information. I started her day with a real bang, and ended our conversation by suggesting she have a disaster-cleaning crew on tap, and call the Brownlees, so they didn’t pick it up on the noon news, just in case it merited a national mention. I left her moaning, “Yeah, yeah. Oh, God, why me?”

Indeed, Ellen, why any of us? Most especially, perhaps, why Terese? And by whom?

Provincetown’s finest arrived and took over my lonely outpost. I was glad to leave it. Terese and I hadn’t had much to say to each other, and I will admit, her presence was beginning to make me shaky.

Cindy was wide-eyed and wild haired and not thrilled by our full house. “I can’t even get dressed. People keep coming to the bedroom door and asking where things are! That damned Hamlet first announced he needed a brandy to steady his nerves. I told him we hadn’t any liquor. He already smells like a distillery. Then he had to have tea, his sensitive stomach would not tolerate coffee this morning. I told him where it was and two minutes later he was back asking if we didn’t have any English breakfast. I was damned if I’d tell him where it was! Let the snooty bastard drink Lipton.”

“A perfectly adequate black tea, and certainly good enough for the likes of him and his terminal hangover,” I soothed her and gently kissed her cheek. “Keep the good stuff for us. Can you give me ten minutes to shower? Mom is on her way, and we can free you up to get out of this bedlam.”

“Bless her. I don’t know why I’m even going in. Do they really think I’m going to be able to concentrate on stock options with a murder next door and the killer probably lounging in our dining room?”

Then she had her arms around me. “Darling, is it too awful over there? Are you all right? I remember last summer when you—”

“I’m fine. I may join Snooty in a mug of tea just to coddle my stomach a bit, but I’m all right. She just looks . . . pitiful. All that energy, curiosity, intensity, that inquisitive nose, that tight little mouth . . . just gone, turned into a mannequin doused with red paint.” Suddenly I found myself wishing fiercely that Terese were still alive. “You know, she could surely have used a big dose of humility, and maybe some humiliation as well, but not this . . . not this . . .”

Cindy held me long and hard and then said, “Go shower, darling, I’ll make you your own little pot of English breakfast tea. No one will ever know it’s Twining’s best. Then I’ll go to work, I guess, at least for a little while.”

Showered, shampooed and dressed in fresh clothes, I entered the living room to find Cindy and Mom fending off a mutiny. The merry band had decided they would all return to the Brownlees’ to bathe and change clothing, and then go out for a proper breakfast to stabilize them after their ghastly experience. Even Nick had joined them, apparently recovered from whatever had prompted him to sit alone outdoors on a rain-soaked chair.

They were all talking at once and my mild, “Excuse me, everyone,” had gotten me nowhere.

“Shut up, all of you, right now!” I banged a metal wastebasket down on the coffee table.

That got me their attention. “I spoke with Detective Lieutenant Peres, who has directed that all of you go into the dining room and relax until he can join you. My mom has brought pastries, and we have coffee or tea. Lieutenant Peres says he’ll try not to detain you longer than necessary.”

Only Noel and Ophelia made any attempt to help Mom and me get stuff out onto the buffet. The others sat in sulky silence, although they had no difficulty in making quick inroads on the pastries.

After asking again about a serving of brandy, Hamlet irritably announced himself ready to leave. He said he needed his morning orange juice, probably with a healthy shot of vodka.

“You can’t,” I explained for what seemed like the hundredth time. “The police need to learn anything you can tell them about last night and this morning.”

“I know nothing,” he answered haughtily, “And I can tell them that anytime, anywhere.”

The others began to grouse along with him, and I sensed another mutiny in the forecastle.

“Anyone who leaves without police permission will probably have his or her interview held in one of our local cells,” I said.

“Oh, that’s rich.” Hamlet forced a laugh over what doubtless was a pounding headache. “Why would we be in a cell?”

“Because you are all murder suspects.”

“Unfortunate but true,” Sonny agreed from the kitchen doorway. “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, sorry to have kept you waiting.”

“Good morning, Lieutenant,” they chorused, like the good little children they suddenly were.

Chapter 19

Sonny’s voice was smooth and pleasant as he took a seat at the dining table, coffee mug in hand, tape recorder tucked under his arm. You’d think he had merely invited us all to breakfast.

“As you all are aware, Ms. Terese Segal was fatally stabbed in the early hours of this morning. We have a tentative time of death between one and five a.m.”

He placed the recorder in front of him and took a bite of Danish. “Now we need to establish a time line of events that took place leading up to the death, and immediately following it. We rely on all of you to help us with that.” He grinned. “And perhaps one of you will even be kind enough to narrow it down to the exact moment for us.”

Then he offered his most sweet boyish smile. “I want to remind you, that while you are not under oath, lying to the police is really foolish. Hiding something you know or think you know is equally unwise. So please be truthful, and please be forthcoming with any information you may have, or even think you have. We’ll find out in the long run anyway, and then we wonder just why you lied, and we get a little tense.” His smile faded. “And you know how cops can be when they’re tense.”

Hamlet stood, red-eyed, elegant and condescending to the local cop. “Well, really, Peres, you’re treating us like street corner, lowbrow suspects in a mom-and-pop-store murder. Yet, it is my understanding that there was definitive evidence of a break-in through the French doors. Obviously poor Terese came down for a late snack and stumbled upon a robbery, or perhaps was deliberately killed by some disgruntled local individual. Unless one of us conceivably saw or heard something related to that, which I did not, I see no reason for us to be detained here. It is clearly a matter for the local police to solve over there . . . or not.” He waved in the general direction of the Brownlee place.

“Where was it you wanted to go, Hamlet?” Sonny asked innocently.

“Why, back to my room, since neither you nor Paul has shown the foresight to schedule a press conference. I’ll change into something casual and join my colleagues for a suitable breakfast.” He smirked, having put the dumb local in his place, along with our pastries and non-gourmet tea and coffee.

“Well, Hammy.” Sonny leaned back in his chair. I hated it when he did that, especially when they were
my
chairs. “The Brownlees’ entire house plus cellar and garage are being searched inch by inch, inside and out, as we speak. The contents of every closet and drawer will be inspected, shoes will be examined. Drains will be disconnected and checked for blood. It will probably be late afternoon before you may be admitted long enough, and in company of a police officer, to pick up some clothes. By then, we hope the real estate agent, Ellen Hall, will have found you places to stay for a few days. You will not stay—nor would I think you would wish to—at the Brownlees.”

154

He began to set up the tape recorder. “Let’s start with you, Teri, since you were the first one down this morning. We’ll try to make it fast and painless, just like your favorite dentist.” His smile was gentle. Teri still looked terrified and an inch away from tears.

I closed the sliding doors between living and dining room, so Sonny and the interviewees would have real privacy in that direction. Then I retired to the kitchen with Mom, and closed the door to the dining room and the shutters to the pass-through. Of course I tilted the shutters so we could see and hear through them with ease.

Everyone except Teri settled uneasily in the living room, a motley looking crew if ever I saw one. Especially Elaine, still barefoot in her rumpled gown with its streak of blood along the hem. Cindy had earlier equipped Teri in a pair of her jeans, a shirt and mocs and had offered Elaine a similar outfit of mine, as being more likely to be a reasonable fit.

According to Cindy, Elaine had sniffed that she would “prefer not to be indebted to Alex” and would wait until she could fetch her own clothing. It looked like a long wait, and I pondered making another proposal. I decided against it. I was not in the mood for temperamental actresses. Perhaps later I’d get Mom to make an offer. Maybe Elaine would be more amenable to that.

As I tuned back in, Sonny was asking Teri where she’d been about eight o’clock last night.

“We were all at the amphitheater. Paul had called for a full cast and crew run-through to check the light cues and music cues, starting at six p.m. It was going along the way they usually do— that means lousy,” she said. “We worked until around eight, when it started to rain. Then we all huddled in the dressing rooms, damp and freezing, waiting for it to stop. Finally, about nine, Paul said the hell with it, we’d pick up where we left off this afternoon—I mean today—at two. So we all scattered. Most of us hadn’t had any dinner, and that wasn’t helping.”

Sonny lit a cigarette from a pack I had thought was on the kitchen table. I was strongly tempted to go in and retrieve it.

“So where did you scatter to, Teri?”

“Back to the B&B. I was hungry but not very sociable. Nothing about this play has gone well. Some people say that means a good opening, but I guess I’m not that sophisticated yet. It scares me. I was tired and I asked Horatio and a couple of the stagehands to drop me off on their way downtown in one of the vans. They said sure, no trouble. Noel had already asked them to take him home, so they took us both.” She cupped her hands around her coffee mug as if she were chilled, leaned down and took a noisy sip.

“Where did Horatio and his friends go after they dropped you and Noel off at the house? Do you know?”

“Yeah, they said they were going to Bocce’s for spaghetti and then to the Crown and Anchor for a little mischief. I don’t know where they get the energy.” She sighed.

“What did you and Noel do when you got home?”

“Like I said, I was exhausted and jumpy.” She was sounding irritable now. “Noel found some salami and cheese and asked if I wanted him to slice me some. I told him no and just picked up a pear and a banana and went upstairs. I ate the banana and took one of my panic pills and went to bed and passed out.”

“Then what?” Sonny must have felt like he was trying to pull teeth with tweezers.

“Then nothing. I slept. Woke up about six, starving. This sounds crazy, but now I really wanted some of that salami and cheese. I decided to go get some and bring it back to bed. I went down and saw the . . . red stuff near the refrigerator. I thought someone had spilled tomato juice, and not bothered to clean up the mess . . . but then I—I saw her. And I guess I started screaming and then Elaine was there. And then your sister. Then I was over here and Cindy was making me drink coffee.”

“Okay, thanks, Lady Ophelia. You’ve been a help. Just one more question, do you know if any of the people at Brownlees’ wear work boots?”

She looked totally lost. “I dunno, I don’t think so. Maybe some of the stagehands, you’d have to ask them.”

Sonny stood. “Okay, thanks again. Ask Elaine to come in, would you?”

He remained standing until Elaine came in and took a seat. Once again he turned on the Peres personality. “You’ve had a terrible morning, I know, Elaine. We’ll try to move right along here and then get something comfortable of my mother’s for you to wear for the time being.”