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The minute she walked in the door, Cameron knew something was wrong. Even though it was only five-thirty the Colonel and Danny Garrett were already there wearing somber expressions on their faces.
Kate filled a glass with a couple of shots of Stolichnya Vodka from the bottle on the cocktail table and handed it to her. “Sit down and join us. You’ll need this.” The men nodded and raised their own glasses to her.
She looked around at the little group, sensing whatever they were about to tell her wouldn’t be good. Her favorite ducks that she had given names to—Maxi and little crippled Mini—had come out of the canal and were quacking for bread bits on the patio. However, judging by the mood in the room, this was one time they were going to have to wait for their treats.
“Okay,” she said in a tense voice. “What’s going on?”
Kate and the two men looked at each other as if to say, “Who’s going to tell her?”
“For starters, Al Shady isn’t missing,” Danny Garrett said.
Concern flavored with irritation crept into her reply. “Not missing? Give me all the details, Danny. You mean we’ve been—”
He held up his hands in a stop signal. “Let me finish. A couple of tourists out for a walk spotted his body floating in Grand Canal this afternoon. As I understand it, at first they thought it was garbage or even clothing some homeless person tossed into the canal. When they got closer, they saw it was a body. Fortunately, the husband had the presence of mind to call 911 while the wife went into total meltdown. Apparently, they’re from some small town in Iowa where things like this don’t happen very often, if ever. By the time Detective Barrington got there with his people, a huge crowd had gathered.”
Cameron was stunned. For the moment, all she could do was shake her head. Then the stream of questions began. “Dead? Shady’s dead? What did you find out? Did he fall into the canal and drown? What about Barbara? Tell me—“
“Slow down. One thing at a time. By the time I got there, Barrington was trying to field questions while keeping the bystanders from wrecking any evidence. Then the Colonel showed up.”
For the first time since she had known him, the Colonel looked his age. His face had grown pale and as he raised his drink to his lips, she saw that his hand was shaking. It wasn’t like him to be afraid, but the more she studied him, the more she saw the aura of fear.
He placed his half-empty glass on the table and stood up with some effort. Gripping his cane, he limped across the room to Cameron, then stood before her.
“It doesn’t look good, Cami. Just as I came up to Danny, a woman I didn’t recognize began to yell and point at me. “I’ll bet he did it!” she shouted. That man, the one with the cane. I bet he actually killed that poor man.”
He related the rest of the story in a dejected, shaky voice. Apparently, this woman who was house-sitting for one of their neighbors had been walking along near the Shady house the night he had the confrontation about Clarence. She remembered seeing the old man raise his cane to Shady while threatening to kill him if he didn’t get out of the way. She had taken it literally and recounted what the Colonel said word-for-word.
Danny picked up from there. “So, this woman, who looked like the type that hoped her name would be in the newspaper as an eyewitness, tells Barrington she’s heard of people like that nasty old guy wanting revenge and taking matters into their own hands.
Danny’s voice took on a note of disgust. “There was no way to shut her up. Of course, the body of a prominent citizen floating in the canal is news and the jackals gathered. Cameras, reporters, even a Channel 5 helicopter. We just watched her accusing the Colonel of murder on News at Five.”
They were all silent, until Danny continued. “Fortunately, I was able to take Barrington off to the side and get an insight into his thinking. He said they’ll be performing an autopsy, of course, but the good news is he said in his opinion it doesn’t look like Shady died from drowning. He didn’t elaborate on his reasoning, but said he shared the fact that there was no mystery that he died from a neat bullet hole in his head. That was all I got from Barrington because he had to go back to keeping the reporters at bay, but that information doesn’t leave this room. He shouldn’t have told me key information, but he did say he will keep me informed.” A smile lit his face. “Ah, what my fans won’t do for me. Actually, the detective is a good guy, but Mike still must go down to headquarters tomorrow to be interviewed about the incident. Lucky for us Barrington likes my writing.”
At that point, Kate offered her take despite not knowing most of the details. She thought if they had taken the woman at her word the Colonel might have been arrested. As it stood, he was a person of interest, and hopefully would be cleared very quickly although the memory of the news clip would remain in many people’s minds a lot longer.
Clicking into her PR mode, Cameron added, “Maybe we can get Channel 5 to issue an apology once you’re in the clear, Colonel.”
He placed his head in his hands. “I certainly hope so, but even if they don’t, I’ll just be glad when I’m not a suspect. You know, I killed enemy soldiers in Korea, but that was war. If I wanted revenge for that stupid ass complaining about Clarence, I would probably have let Clarence take a nice dump on his precious postage stamp of a lawn. That would have been the extent of my revenge. I may have killed in wartime, but that’s not who I am.”