Once back from the airport, Miranda and Joe had enjoyed a leisurely early Sunday evening reading the paper and resting after their busy weekend with Sam. Around 7pm, as they were thinking about heading out for dinner, two plainclothes policemen showed up at their door to ask a few questions. What had seemed like it would take just a few minutes turned out to take several hours.
The detectives had wanted to first verify Sam’s whereabouts for the past few days. Once Miranda and Joe confirmed that she had been with them from Thursday night through early Sunday afternoon, the questioning became more intense. After the police stepped out for a few minutes to consult with their superiors and returned, they informed Miranda and Joe that Sam had been a suspect in the murder of an Ariella Fantini. There had been an intense search for Sam in the Boston area. Since they could vouch for her actual whereabouts, Sam could now be cleared.
The detectives stayed with Miranda and Joe in case any other questions came from Boston. They monitored all calls to and from the house and would not let Miranda or Joe make any outgoing calls to Sam or anyone else. Once final confirmation was received that all was clear, the police graciously apologized to Miranda and Joe for the inconvenience and were on their way.
As soon as the police left, Miranda called Sam on her home line, which was busy, and then on her cell phone, which was turned off. She and Joe concluded that Sam had never turned her cell phone back on after the flight. Miranda then called her ex-husband and got Vittoria on the line. Vittoria was able to confirm that Philip was on the phone with Sam and that her friends Kate and Ben were with Sam in her condo. Miranda then called Andrew, who was more than a bit surprised to hear from his stepmother.
“Miranda, how good to hear from you,” Andrew said pleasantly.
“Don’t give me that. Did you know about Sam and about Ariella’s murder?” Miranda asked.
“I found out about it half an hour ago when a friend from Boston called me,” Andrew replied. “Angela and I talked, and Angela was going to call you in the morning to let you know.”
“Well, some detectives just left here. They were confirming Sam’s alibi,” Miranda replied.
“I’m sorry, Miranda. We hadn’t thought they would contact you so we all agreed we’d let you get a good night’s sleep.”
“Since Sam was with us all weekend for my birthday, we are her alibi,” Miranda replied.
“I’m glad Sam came down for your birthday. Did you have fun?”
“It was a great party and it was great having Sam here. We think we have someone to introduce you to, too. He’s the son of some friends of ours. They wanted to fix him up with Sam but he wasn’t interested because he’s gay. Well, Joe and Sam think he’s gay. I thought he would be a nice boy for her. I’m pretty sure his parents either don’t know or are in denial. My god, I can’t believe that this has happened and that I’m babbling like an idiot.”
“Miranda, this is pretty awful. Of all the things to happen. I always thought Rick was a rat.”
“Do you think he did it?” Miranda asked
“I don’t think he’s capable. He can’t even get published. OK, that was really awful of me to say. It’s his lack of skill that’s going to get him into trouble.”
Andrew suggested that Miranda and Joe look at the local news online for more information. He told her about the scene of Sam being escorted to her building. He’d already seen it. Miranda groaned and hung up. As soon as she did, Joe yelled out that she had to come see the Boston news online.
Andrew then called Sam, who promised that that she would call him and their dad the next morning, once she had sorted through what the police had done to her condo as well as through her thoughts on what had happened. Also, the police would be taking a more thorough statement from her, so she needed to go to police headquarters. Andrew promised to relay this information to Angela and Jonathan.