“My girls all have lovely hair. But then I don’t allow them to come to class if they haven’t combed their hair and washed it properly. I think it’s very important to take care of your personal appearance and be a real lady, don’t you think… what did you say your name was, dear?”
“Olivia,” said Olivia. “So Kate, last night, can you remember what happened?”
Kate frowned at this.“Last night, did you say?”
A glimmer of hope surged in Olivia’s bosom. “Yes, that’s right. Last night.”
For a moment Kate seemed to think hard.“Last night,” she murmured thoughtfully. “Now let me see. Last night…” Then her face cleared. “Of course. How silly of me. Last night was Marjorie’s birthday. We made a cake together, and then we ate it in front of the television. It was a pink cake, with plenty of purple and yellow decorations. Those are Marjorie’s favorite colors, you see.”
Olivia suppressed a groan. Marjorie was Kate’s daughter, and one of her regular visitors. She wasn’t a little girl who loved pink cakes anymore, though, but a grown woman now.
“Okay, so apart from the cake, what else do you remember, Kate? Something to do with Henry?”
“Henry? I don’t know any Henry,” said Kate. “Although… I think I had a Henry in my class once. He was a very naughty boy. Pulled all of my girls’ hair all the time. I had to tell him to stop more than once. Yes, he was very naughty. Naughty Henry.”
“No, I’m not talking about that Henry. I’m talking about Henry Kaur?”
Kate stared at her for a moment, then shook her head decidedly.“Never met him. And now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get ready for school. Can’t be late, you know. Principal Martens doesn’t like it when her teachers are late. And that goes for me, too.”
She got up and shuffled into the bathroom, presumably to start getting ready for school.
And so Olivia decided to give up. If Kate had murdered Henry, chances are that she wouldn’t remember anyway. And if no one saw her do it, how were they ever going to prove it? Now let Liz choke on that one, she thought defiantly.
[Êàðòèíêà: img_3]
The powers that be—in this case Liz Murphy—had assigned the hardest task to Scarlett. She was to interview Desmond, and frankly she wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. She didn’t like Desmond—in fact nobody did—and now she had to try and find out if the man wasn’t just a big bully but also a murderer? Tough job!
But since she was a team player, and didn’t want to let Murder Club down, she went in search of the burly nursing aide, and soon found him outside, buffing his precious car.
“Hey, Desmond,” she said, injecting her voice with as much warmth and kindness as possible. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
“Can’t you see I’m busy?” the man grumbled as he studied a minute spot on his car.
“Bird poop, I’d say,” said Scarlett helpfully. “I’ve always heard that WD-40 does a great job in getting that off.”
“And what would you know about cars?”
He seemed even nastier than usual, she thought, and wondered why he was being so mean to her.
“I heard that Henry left you all of his possessions in his will?” she said, deciding to get straight to the heart of the matter. “I didn’t know you and him were such great pals?”
“We were,” said Desmond. “Not that it’s any of your business.” He looked up at her now. “You’re the one who’s been coaching Isaac to get into Kirsten’s panties, aren’t you? And how is that going?” He gave her an evil grin. “You’re something else, you know that? All of you ganging up on me. You and that sister of yours, and Isaac of course. And for what? Because you don’t think I’m good enough for your friend Kirsten? Huh? Well, I’ve got news for you, sister. Now that I’m rich, I don’t have to be nice to you anymore. I don’t have to grovel in front of any of you lot. Cause I’m telling Brian he can put his job where the sun don’t shine, and I’m out of here. Yeah, that’s right. I’m buying myself a nice condo in Miami, and it’s beach and margarita time for me. And Kirsten is going to wish she’d given me the time of day. But it’s too latenow, isn’t it? Even if she got down on her knees and begged me to take her with me, I’m not going to. And now get lost,” he said, and resumed the scrutiny of his car’s paint.
“Okay, that was a nice speech,” said Scarlett. “Only there’s one problem with that.”
“Oh, yeah? And what’s that?”
“Kirsten isn’t going to be sorry to see the back of you, Desmond. In fact she’s going to rejoice. She’s going to be so happy that you’re gone she’s going to throw a party.”
“Oh, buzz off,” he grunted.
“Okay, so now that we’ve got that cleared up, can you tell me where you were last night? Let’s say between two and three?”
“I said buzz off!”
“Because that’s the time Henry was murdered. And since you’re the one who benefits the most from his death, I’d say you’re going to need a very strong alibi if you want to keep the police off your back, Desmond.”
“Murdered? What are you talking about? The doc said he died a natural death. I was there when he said it.”