A Clean Kill

'Did someone?' April asked, writing it all down.

'I don't know. Some guy was reading a paper across the street. I don't know if he followed her or not. She said it was a cop.'

April didn't comment on that. 'What was on her mind?' she asked again.

'She said she wanted to warn me that I was getting fired today.'

'How did she know?'

'She heard Wayne and Andrew talking on the phone.'

'Did you get fired today, Lynn?' There was the big question. April watched her face as she answered.

'Yes. Alison said I wasn't reliable. But then she told me to take the kids to play school. That was off, too,' Lynn replied, calmer now.

'What was the problem with that?' April asked.

'If you're going to fire someone, you don't send them out with your children.' She said it as if anybody should know that.

April nodded again. 'Why didn't she take the kids herself?'

'She had to go back to bed.' Lynn wiped her runny nose with the back of her hand. April handed her a tissue from a package in her purse.

'Why did she have to go to bed?'

'Oh . . . she probably took a couple of Vicodin. She was pretty much out of it when we left.'

'Could she have taken too many?' she asked.

'Enough to kill her? No, no. She wouldn't have hurt herself. She loved her children, her dogs. She would not have left them. She liked to take the edge off, that's all. She might take two, and then two and then two throughout the day whenever she started coming off it, but she wouldn't do more than that,' she said with authority. 'I know her.' 'Are you sure?' April asked.

'I know all about this. She wouldn't make that kind of mistake. I know what they do. My mother was just like her.' Lynn ducked her head as if in pain. 'They drink; they tell their doctors they have back pain and get pills for it. They go from doctor to doctor. They'll take cocaine whenever they can get it; it's a party all day long. They want to take the pain away; they don't want to die.'

'Maddy, too?'

Lynn's soft features hardened as she nodded. 'Not as bad. She was an athlete. With her it was an occasional thing.'

April finished what she was writing and looked up. 'What was Alison wearing when she told you to take the girls to play school?'

'Oh, jeans, a T-shirt.'

'Where was she when you left?'

'I told you. She had to go back upstairs to bed.'

'Did you see her before you left?'

'Yes, I always take the girls upstairs to say goodbye. Most of the time she doesn't have breakfast with them, but she always says good-bye. It's their thing.' Lynn closed her eyes again. 'The dogs were on the bed with her. She was still wearing jeans. The room was a mess. Her clothes were all over the place.'

'Like yours,' April murmured.

Lynn smiled. 'Worse.'

'Any sign of drugs or alcohol in her room when you left?'

'A wineglass by her bed. I know she keeps the Vicodin in her makeup bag.'

'Okay, let's return to when you got back. What

did you do when you found the door open and the dogs barking?'

'I don't know. I kept thinking about what happened to Remy—you know, finding Maddy dead like that. 1 just had the strangest feeling—I don't know what it was. Even with the dogs barking, the place just felt dead. I don't know what it was.'

'Lynn, if you were so certain something had happened, why did you go to her room?'

She shook her head. 'My mother was a drunk. You take care of them. You go to make sure . . . my feet went there. I wanted to find her asleep. I really did.'

'So you went upstairs.'

Lynn nodded.

'What did you find?'

She closed her eyes, and more tears squeezed out. 'I could tell right away she was gone.'

'Did you go into the room?'

'No. No way I was going in there.'

'How did you know that she was dead?'

'Her eyes were open, and the room was clean.' The words came out a whisper. 'Alison never did that. '

Bingo. April had been right about Maddy's killer being a cleaner. Already she was thinking homicide. She nodded because unlike yesterday when she'd had a lot of questions about Remy's version of events, she believed every word this nanny said. It all played. Lynn admitted that her boss fired her this morning, and she was experienced enough to know addict behavior when she saw it. She didn't believe it when her boss fired her because she'd taken a pill. 'Would the dogs let someone hurt their master?' she asked after a pause.

'Not if they were in the room, but they're food-driven. If Alison was out cold, and someone offered them dog biscuits, they'd go for it. Is it okay if I take them out when we're done? I feel bad for - them.'

April noted another thing. Lynn was very responsible; she was still thinking of her chores. 'Yeah, you can take them out, but you'll have to go out upstairs. But one more thing before you go. Did you like Alison?'

Lynn chewed on her lip. 'Loved her and hated her, just like my mom,” she said.

'Is your mother living?' April asked.

'If you call it that,' she replied.

'Okay, you can take a break. We have an officer at the front door who will go with you. When you come back, we're going over the whole house together. Are you up to doing that with me?'

'Do I have to?'

'Yes. I want you to tell me if anything is missing.'

'Will I have to look at her?' Lynn shuddered.

'The room, the bathroom. The closet . . .' And Alison's remains would still be there, she didn't add. Yes, she'd have to look at her.

A few minutes later, April found an unusual trio in the formal living room on the second floor. Sergeant Minnow, dressed in a sports jacket, slacks, and a ratty-looking tie, and Mike, in his sharp blue captain's uniform, sat in two of the armchairs. Andrew Perkins, wearing an expensive-looking business suit, a yellow shirt, and a blue- and-yellow tie, looked like a bull beside them. He was a beefy man with thick black hair that stood straight up on his big head. His bulk dwarfed his own sofa as he leaned forward, talking earnestly to Mike.

He stopped talking when April came into the room and was even more startled when Lynn went out the front door with the two dogs and a uniformed officer. Mike nodded for April to join them and quickly introduced her. 'This is Lieutenant Woo Sanchez. She spoke with your wife for some time yesterday.'

Perkins's expression showed that he, too, knew who she was. He resumed talking. 'I was afraid this would happen someday. I warned her about taking too many pills,' he said angrily. 'I can't believe she did this, today of all days.'

April sat in the chair farthest away from them and prepared to listen. People often behaved strangely immediately upon learning that a loved one was gone. One mother of a hit and run victim had been furious with- her dead son for having crossed the street on a green light. It was revealing that Andrew Perkins immediately assumed that his wife was responsible for her own death.

'What was her mood this morning?' Mike asked.

'Her mood was never chipper in the morning,' Perkins said sarcastically. 'If I said, 'Have a good day,' she'd reply, 'That isn't in my plans.' Can you imagine?' It was clear that her death was not in his plan for the day.

'Was she, depressed?' Mike asked. He was taking the lead, and April could see that Minnow was making an effort to pretend not to mind.