| |
DIANA STOOD LOOKING at them with her hands on her hips. She didn’t glance down at the groceries on the floor, not even once. “Cam, go to your room.”
After the boy left, she tried to lunge for the robot, but Blueberry hissed at her sudden movement. Diana retreated, and Marcy grabbed Adom.
“That’s my property,” Diana said, trying to reach Marcy, but Winston stepped between them.
“It’s Bill’s,” he said. “You want it? Go and talk to his estate lawyer.”
“Cam built it.” She gazed with longing at the robot.
“It’s evidence,” Winston said. “In a murder case.”
Diana’s face drained of color. “You’ve no proof.”
Marcy jerked her thumb in the direction Cam had gone. “Did you do it for your son? Think he’d get a guaranteed sum from Bill? After all, the old man was the kid’s mentor.”
“You think I killed Bill?” She looked at them with wide eyes. “I did nothing of the sort.”
“The robot was there. And you have it now in your house”—he crossed his arms—“explain that.”
“Yes, the robot was near Bill’s place, but I found it. Afterward. Bill had already fallen down.”
Was she telling the truth? Could it really be a simple case of finders keepers? Winston needed Diana to be honest, so he pulled out his ace card.
“We have a video,” he said. “Of you dancing . . . like you were on a pole.”
She cringed. “That can’t be. I saw the broken doorbell lens.”
“You mean you tried to crack the device, right?”
Her face flushed red, and Winston continued, “The footage was stored elsewhere, on a computer.”
“Impossible. Bill didn’t carry a smartphone or tablet...”
“It was old tech,” Winston said. “A desktop.”
She backed away from him. “What are you going to do with the footage?”
“Maybe post it on YouTube—tagged with your name, Cam’s name, and all the colleges he’s applying to.”
She gasped and covered her mouth.
“Unless you cooperate. Tell us the whole truth.”
She held up her hands. “Okay, I will. I was there that day.”
“So you are the murderer.” Winston wanted to drag her over to the police station right then.
“I’m not,” she said. “But I did see something.”
Her cheeks reddened as she continued, “I heard a strange whirring and looked out my window. I saw Adom speeding out Bill’s front door. Bill noticed and started going down the ladder. But then the robot stopped at the base of the ladder, pushed it over . . . and Bill fell.”
She shuddered. “He was all twisted up. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do anything for him.”
“But you still went over and took the robot?” Winston asked. “Why? It was evidence.”
“No, it’s a science project. One that earned Cam a full ride.”
Winston shook his head in disgust. The blindness of an obsessed mom. But with his YouTube threat, he bet she’d spoken the truth.
Why had the robot come rushing out then? Had it been deranged? Winston doubted that. After all, it’d worked well enough to secure a scholarship. So the question was: Who had commanded Adom to push over the ladder? Who was the real killer?