'Anyone else home?' asked Don.
A television set was on somewhere in the house. A woman in some show was laughing. The laughter sounded insincere to Don.
'All alone and getting bored,' said Taxx, stepping back to let the two men in and closing the door behind them. 'I'm still on leave till the department finishes its investigation.'
Taxx led the way into the living room, asking over his shoulder if he could get either of them some coffee or a Diet Coke. Both men declined.
Taxx sat in an overstuffed chair and Don and Danny on the sofa.
'What brings you here?' asked Taxx, taking a sip of coffee.
'A few questions,' said Flack.
'Shoot.'
'When you knocked down the door to Alberta Spanio's bedroom, you immediately went to the bed?'
'Right,' said Taxx.
'And you sent Collier to the bathroom?' Flack continued.
'I wouldn't say I sent him. We just did what we had to. What…?'
'Collier said you told him to check the bathroom,' said Flack.
'Probably,' Taxx agreed.
'Did you go into the bathroom after he came out?'
Taxx thought and then answered, 'No. We went into the living room and called in the murder. Neither of us went back in the room. It was a crime scene.'
'Collier said he stood in the tub and looked out the open window,' said Flack.
'I wasn't in there with him,' said Taxx, looking puzzled.
'Danny, show him the photographs,' said Flack.
Danny opened the briefcase and took out the stack of crime-scene photographs he and Stella had taken. He selected four of them and handed them to Taxx. All four photographs were of the bathtub and the open window. Taxx looked at the photographs and then handed them back to Danny.
'What am I supposed to be seeing in those pictures?' Taxx asked, putting down his coffee mug.
'There's no snow, no sign of snow or ice in the tub,' said Flack. 'It was too cold in that room for the snow to melt.'
'So?' asked Taxx.
'If someone came through the window to kill Alberta Spanio, he'd have to push in the snow that had piled up against the window.'
Taxx nodded.
'Maybe he swept the snow out with his arm or leg instead of pushing it in,' said Taxx.
'Why?' asked Danny. 'Why let go with one hand or reach in with a foot and pull the snow back outside. It wouldn't help cover the crime. The window was open. It makes no sense to do anything except swing through the window, pushing or kicking the snow in, climb in and out of the tub, murder Spanio and go out the way he came in.'
'Someone inside the bathroom pushed the snow out,' said Flack.
'Why? And who? Collier? Alberta?' asked Taxx.
'Alberta Spanio was knocked out from an overdose of sleeping pills,' said Danny, 'and even if she weren't, why open a window to let in zero-degree air and snow?'
'Collier?' asked Taxx.
'We think whoever killed Alberta Spanio pushed that snow out, wanting us to think someone had come through the window,' said Flack. 'Because if the murder wasn't committed by someone coming through the window, that leaves only two possible suspects.'
Taxx said nothing. His tongue pressed against the inside of his right cheek.
'Collier?' he repeated.
'When and how?' asked Danny. 'The door to the bedroom was locked all night.'
'And the bathroom window was closed,' Taxx reminded them. 'Both Collier and I confirmed that. We left the bedroom together.'
'But in the morning you broke down the door and one of you went to Spanio's bedside while the other went to the bathroom,' said Danny. 'That was the only time Spanio could have been murdered. You were the one who went to the bed, pulled the knife out of your pocket, and stabbed the unconscious Spanio in the neck. You could have done it in five seconds. A CSI investigator timed it.'
'The woman,' said Taxx, looking out the window.
'Stella figured it out,' confirmed Don.
'Dario Marco hired Guista and Jake Laudano to get that room at the Brevard Hotel,' said Flack. 'They were supposed to be seen, a big strong man and a tiny one. We were supposed to think they had murdered Spanio so the real killer, you, wouldn't be suspected.'
'Guista was there to pull the window to the washroom up by dangling a chain down and hooking it onto the hoop you had screwed into the bathroom window.'
'Far-fetched,' said Taxx.
'Maybe,' Flack agreed, 'but we're pulling Jake Laudano in and when we have both him and Guista, the DA starts dealing and they start talking.'
'Am I under arrest?' Taxx asked softly.
'You are about to be,' said Flack.
'I think I should call a lawyer,' said Taxx.
'Sounds like the thing to do,' said Flack.
The detective rose with a sudden sharp sting from the broken ribs in his chest. He took the four steps to Taxx and handcuffed the man's hands behind his back.
Don adjusted his glasses and put the photographs away while Flack began the Miranda. Don said the words slowly, and for some reason it sounded like a well-memorized prayer.
Aiden examined the bolt cutter and the broken lock. She had done a magnified close-up photograph of both the edges of the bolt cutter and the ridges and scars where the lock had been cut.
She sat in the lab now comparing the two.
The small ridges of the blade were almost invisible to the naked eye, but close up they were as good as fingerprints. There was no doubt in her mind. There would be no doubt in the minds of jurors. The lock Aiden had found at the firing range had been cut by the bolt cutter Mac had found in the basement of Louisa Cormier's apartment building.
She picked up the phone, called Mac and told him what she had found.
'It's enough,' said Mac.
'Enough for…?' she said, letting the question hang.
'An arrest,' said Mac. 'I'll meet you at Louisa Cormier's with someone from homicide.'
Aiden hung up. All the evidence against Louisa Cormier was circumstantial. There were no eyewitnesses and they had not found the smoking gun. But most cases were won in court with a preponderance of compelling circumstantial evidence. Smart defense lawyers could attack it all, create alternative scenarios, explain mistakes, confuse the issue, but Aiden, who was on her feet and heading for her coat, didn't think any obfuscation would override the evidence.
The bolt cutter used to open the lock to a box in which a.22 caliber handgun was kept, a handgun Louisa Cormier used to practice with; the manuscript with two bullet holes Louisa had taken from the dead hands of Charles Lutnikov and which she had frantically been copying; the evidence that Lutnikov was writing Louisa Cormier's novels.
Aiden put on her coat and headed for the elevator, thinking, We still don't have the murder weapon and we still don't have a motive and Louisa Cormier has Noah Pease.
Maybe they should wait, keep gathering evidence, find the gun and a motive. But Mac had said they had
