In the morning, they reached the conclusion at the same time that Daniel needed to be "borrowed" for a while and questioned intently. They had the headmaster pull the boy out of his class and they drove him back to the station.

He was a bit grubby, with longish hair, the style that was carefully cultivated to show to the world he didn't care about carefully cultivating any particular "look." Parts of him clearly were not done growing--he was lanky and moved awkwardly at times, as if he wasn't used to his body being the size it was.

At first, he was insolent and resistant to questioning. But Lewis brought him a Coke to relax him. It seemed to work. After he had consumed half the can, he raved about Julia Ferris and ranted about her husband.

"He ignored her, except to beat her. He was having an affair with some scrubber. A real bastard."

"She told you all this?"

"She told me everything."

Lewis decided to keep turning the screws. "Did you know she was pregnant?"

"Of course I did. The baby was mine."

"You . . . were having sexual relations with her?" Lewis sounded surprised.

Daniel gave him a superior sneer. "Well, duh. That's the usual way that women get pregnant, you know."

Hathaway could see Lewis doing a slow burn, clenching and unclenching his fists.

"Anything else you'd like to add, Daniel?"

There wasn't. The lad bore the air of an overconfident bantam rooster.

The two detectives grouped up in the corner, deciding what else, if anything, they could do. Hathaway whispered what they were both wondering.

"Do we take him into custody?"

"Based on what? We've got nothing yet." Lewis was clearly frustrated. All they could do was find a PC to drive him back to school.

As they headed back to the office, Lewis was fuming. "He's an arrogant piece of work." But he carefully held up the Coke can he had given Danny. "Nice of him to give us his fingerprints, though, wasn't it?"

They returned to the office and Hathaway started writing up what was new for the day. Lewis suddenly uttered an expletive under his breath and leapt to his feet.

Hathaway looked at him curiously.

"I'm late for another bloody fitting. I'll be back soon."

"How does it look, this bespoke tux?"

"What d'you mean? It looks like a tux. Black. Posh. What's to know?"

When Lewis returned, they located Julia Ferris in her classroom after school was done for the day. She denied telling Daniel she was pregnant. She was most decidedly not pregnant. Denied there being anything between them. Overheated imagination of teenage boys and so forth.

"It's a serious breach of ethics to get personally involved with a student. Grounds for dismissal. I'm not that stupid, Inspector, even if I did find an attraction." She stopped suddenly when her mobile buzzed. "Sorry." She switched it off.

She squinted at him. "Besides, if anyone was having an affair, it was Samuel."

"What makes you say that?"

"He was absent from home without explanation. Gave me the impression he was keeping secrets. It could have been business-related, though. He never shared with me how well the business was doing."

That appeared to be all the information they were going to get out of her.

"Thank you, Mrs. Ferris. If you think of anything else, call us, will you?" They turned and went out of the classroom. But as soon as they reached the hallway, Lewis put a hand on Hathaway's arm and pulled him to a stop. He put a finger to his lips and tipped his head toward the room they had just left.

"I couldn't talk, the police were here, alright? That's not what I said, just relax, I'll call you later, okay? I do, too. Bye." Whispered.

That evening, Lewis met Hobson for a beer after work. He had begged her presence, claiming to need her help sorting out a couple of issues.

"Doctor, if a woman was pregnant and her husband beat her hard enough to cause her to lose the baby, would there be . . . bruises? broken bones? anything that would show to the casual observer?"

"Not necessarily. Could be, but . . . no. Not always." She brightened. "If you'd kill her, I could examine her and get you all the answers you want."

Lewis was mildly amused. "Nice."

He told her about Julia Ferris saying Mr. Ferris was having an affair. "Any sign of that, condom in his wallet, STD, anything like that?"

She looked at him, incredulous. "Do you ever actually read my reports or do you just use them to shore up the leg of a wobbly table?"

Lewis looked abashed. "Well, of course I read them. I just . . . haven't gotten to this one quite yet, since you gave us such a thorough oral report the other night." It was clear he did not actually expect her to accept that. "I know you said he was sterile, but he still could have . . . y'know. Couldn't he?"

"Not just sterile, Inspector. Incapable of performing the act. Erectile dysfunction. Page four of my report." She was clearly displeased that her work had been ignored. "I recognize the topic makes you men squeamish, but I do work hard at my reports."

He adopted a properly apologetic attitude. "Maybe he had someone as an emotional refuge tucked away somewhere?"

"Were you under the impression that Mrs. Ferris would care so much if that were the case?"

He realized the truth of this. "Yeah, you're right. It's my impression that she wasn't all that sad to see him go."

Laura thought a moment and summed up her conclusions. "She's lying about all of it, I'd say. She twisted that poor boy into killing her husband. And he's so foolishly loyal, he'll never betray her unless you work your interview-room magic and get him to tell the truth. Don't let her get away with this."

His gaze traveled her full length and back, appreciatively. "I could use you on my team, y'know. You're a damned fine detective, Doctor."

She snorted. "I am on your team, Lewis. Anyway, you detectives don't earn enough. Sorry. I'll stick with forensic pathology."