Chapter Fifteen: Murder Suspect

Morning headlines from the REDLAKE EXAMINER:

UNDERWORLD HIT ON OLD TIME COP!

RETIRED CAPTAIN GUNNED DOWN AT HOME!

Retired Captain Edward McCluskey, once considered one of Red Lake's finest, was found dead at his home early this morning. The murder weapon, a police revolver that fired a single shot, was used to kill the retired lawman while he slept. Police are actively seeking suspects, including anyone who may have spoken to McCluskey during his last twenty four hours.

DOWNTOWN STATION, 27th Precinct

"It's not true!" Mary's pale face was streaked with tears, and her hands shook as she pushed the tabloid newspaper off the stained and battered table. The interrogation room was stifling hot, yet the slim, golden-haired society girl shivered as she blew her nose into a handful of Kleenex.

"You had dinner with the deceased on the night before he died," the Homicide Detective said grimly, dropping the crumpled newspaper into the wastebasket. "More than a dozen witnesses saw you talking with him, saw you take the actual murder weapon out of his hands and put it into your pocketbook. The bullet that killed him came from the gun with your fingerprints."

"But I was trying to help him!" Mary sobbed. "The reason I took his gun was to take the bullets out! Somebody must have put them back in after . . . after . . ." the sobs came on again, stronger than ever. Mary just couldn't believe this was happening to her! It was like waking up and finding herself in the middle of a nightmare. "The two of us were trying to talk him out of killing himself," she said at last, stuffing the crumpled wad of tissues into the trash.

"You and your boyfriend, Marco . . . Marco Maselli?" The look of scorn on the tough homicide cop's lined and battered face told exactly what he thought of the name Maselli. "He's the only one who can give you an alibi for last night, is that it?"

"The two of us were together all night long," Mary said bleakly. There was nothing but blackness after the two of them left the restaurant together. Mary realized she must have drunk far more than she meant to at dinner! But she was certain, damn it, that Marco had come home with her, that he had made love to her all night long on the big bed in her fifty-room mansion. The mansion that had been her cousin Elizabeth's before she took control of Tudor Industries. Where was he now? Why couldn't she remember anything after the two of them left the restaurant and climbed into her little car together?

"When the squad car came by your mansion at 8 AM this morning, you were still asleep," Homicide Detective Hogan said grimly. "There was no sign of any other visitor on the premises. No clothes in the closet, no dishes in the sink. No shoes under the bed. Your fingerprints on the wine glass from last night match the ones on the gun. No one will say they saw you with Maselli after you left the restaurant, but a dozen witnesses put you in the restaurant with McCloskey, and the gun. Now is there anything you want to tell us, Miss McCloud?"

"I have nothing else to say until I see my boyfriend and a lawyer. Get me my lawyer, and get me Marco Maselli!"

Just then the door to the interrogation room opened. Mary looked up, her green eyes lighting up for a moment as though she were certain it was Marco coming to the rescue like a knight of old.

Instead Elizabeth O'Hara strolled in, wearing a navy blue skirt suit, a white ruffled blouse, and a look of unfathomable disdain. "Poor, sweet, stupid Mary," she said, tossing her bag on the table and running slim white fingers through her dark red hair. "What sort of a mess have you gotten yourself into this time?"