Mrs. Samuelson gave an impatient shake of her head.
“There was a mud puddle down by the camp. Had ice
across it, but it wasn’t solid and she backed into it ac-
cidentally and wound up sitting down in it. Got soaked
to the skin, she said. Cut her leg and her hand, too, so
she came over here and took a shower and changed into
one of his shirts and an old pair of jeans.”
“What did she do with her own clothes?”
“Took ’em home to wash, I reckon. They went out of
here in a garbage bag. And before you ask me, it was her
own shoes she went out in and they certainly weren’t
bloody.”
Dwight raised a skeptical eyebrow at Mrs. Samuelson’s
assertions. “Anybody see her take this tumble?”
“I don’t know. Maybe one of the women helping
me?” She stood as if to go call them.
“In a minute,” Dwight said. “Your apartment. It’s
over the garage, you said?”
She nodded.
“So you would hear the door open and Mr. Harris’s
car start up?”
“If it was in the garage. A lot of times he parked
around by the side door.”
“Where you could see it from your windows?”
233
MARGARET MARON
“If I was looking. If he was gone and I didn’t hear him
come in during the night, then I’d look out the window
first thing every morning to see whether I needed to
come over and start breakfast. There’s an intercom, too,
and sometimes he’d buzz me and say he wanted break-
fast earlier than usual.”
“So when’s the last time you heard or saw his car?”
She frowned in concentration, then shook her head.
“I’m sorry, Major Bryant. He came and went at all hours
and I just can’t fix it in my mind. All I can say is that
it wasn’t there Monday morning and I really did put it
down to Mrs. Harris coming. Now can I please get back
to my work?”
Dwight nodded. “One thing more though. Who did
you really work for, Mrs. Samuelson? Buck Harris or his
ex-wife?”
“He signed my paycheck,” she said promptly.
“But?”
She returned his gaze without answering.
“Is there a Mr. Samuelson? Or do you and Mrs. Harris
have that in common as well?”
Tight-lipped, the housekeeper stood up. “Which one
of those women you want to talk to first?”
Before he could answer, his pager went off and he im-
