CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

 

“All right,” I said, after the gun hit the floor next to the pieces of what I thought was the murder weapon.

“That way,” I said waving the gun. I wanted them to walk together to the sofa, where they sat side-by-side.

That done, I gave Ally a hand up. As she stood, I saw some more clay pieces on the floor.

“That was your sample piece,” she said. “I sat on it.”

“It can still be tested, and so can those. See if you can find two bags, will you? Let’s keep the pieces separate.”

“Right.”

She went to find two bags. Miranda and Devereaux stared up at me. I noticed they were sitting with about two feet between them.

“So which one of you was it?” I asked.

“Which one?” Miranda asked.

“Which of you killed Kessenger?”

“Now wait a minute—” Devereaux snapped.

“I know,” I said. “You’re going to tell me you didn’t kill him.”

“That’s right,” Devereaux said.

“What makes you think we did?” Miranda asked.

“How about you coming into the room with a gun and saying, ‘he knows?’” I asked. “That might’ve been a clue.”

“That has nothing to do with the murder,” she told me.

“Oh, really?” I indicated the pieces on the floor. “With that being the murder weapon one of you did it. My money was on him but now I think somehow you both did it. What I don’t know is why.”

Ally came back with two plastic supermarket bags, a broom and a shovel. She started sweeping up pieces.

“What are you going to do with those?” Devereaux asked.

“Give them to the police. They’ll send them to the lab.”

“I thought his wife killed him,” Miranda said.

“Oh, sure,” I said, “keep playing innocent.”

“Well, she was here that day,” she said.

“What?”

“His wife,” Miranda said, “I saw her here the day he was killed.”

“Inside the building?”

“No, at the front door,” Miranda said. “I was getting the mail. I guess she was pressing his bell.”

“And you didn’t let her in?” I asked.

“Why would I?” Miranda asked. “I didn’t know her.”

“Did she see you?”

“You bet she did,” Miranda said. “She flipped me off.”

“Did you see her?” I asked Devereaux.

“What? No, I never saw her.”

“Okay,” Ally said, “I’ve got all the pieces.”

Miranda and Devereaux were bugging me. They weren’t acting like killers who had been caught.

“All right, here,” I said, handing her my cell phone. “Call detective Leon and tell him to get over here.”

“Is that really necessary?” Devereaux asked.

“Well, since I think the two of you are murderers, yes, it is.”

Ally moved off with the phone to one ear and her hand to the other.

“I told you,” Miranda said, “we didn’t kill him.”

“What about the statue?”

“Henry gave it to me,” she said, “that’s true. But it’s not a murder weapon.”

“What about the chip in the base?”

“I did that,” Devereaux said. “I stupidly knocked it against a wall. You saw how it shattered when Miranda dropped it.”

“Why’d you give it to her and hide the rest of your pieces?” Ally asked, coming back.

“Well, I wanted her to have it,” he said. “It would keep us…connected.”

“The only way we’re connected, Henry, is—” Miranda started, but then stopped short.

“How?” I asked. “In the killing of Kessenger?”

“Oh, you’re impossible!” Miranda said. “I told you we didn’t do that.”

“Then why the gun?” I asked. I looked at Devereaux. “And why were you attacking Ally?”

“I was not attacking her, I was tryin’ to find out what she stole.”

I looked at Miranda.

“And the gun?”

“Oh, fuck you, Headstone!” she said. “Since you’ve already called the police, I’ll talk to them when they get here.” It didn’t matter much at that point how she pronounced my name.

I backed away, keeping them covered. Ally came along with me.

“What do I do with these bags?” she asked.

“Just hold onto them, they’re evidence.” I looked at her. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” she said. “I just panicked when he started comin’ at me.”

“Speaking of which,” I asked, “why did you yell out ‘Headstone?’”

“Because I yelled Johnny and you didn’t hear me.”

“Well, I heard that.”

She looked over at the two of them, still sitting apart.

“They don’t look like lovers, or killers,” she said.

“I know. That last part is what’s bothering me.”

I turned my attention back to the couple on the sofa, although they weren’t sitting like a couple. But before I could say anything, Ally spoke up again.

“Johnny,” she said. When I didn’t answer she said, more stridently, “Headstone!”

“What?” I turned and looked at her, looked at what she was holding. “Where’d you find that?”

“In this bag,” she said. “It must have been inside the statue I sat on.”

I took it from her. A clear plastic bag with white powder in it.

“Look in the other bag,” I told her.

She did, came out with a larger plastic bag with more powder that must have been inside the suspected murder weapon.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what it meant.