Show of Evil

blue. Her confused look of the night before had been replaced with a mien of cold, controlled calm and she greeted Eckling with the attitude to go with it. Antagonism permeated the room.

'Eric.' She nodded curtly. 'Do you know Gary Angelo?'

'We've met,' Eckling said, shaking his hand.

'Mr Angelo is the family attorney,' she said. 'He's going to handle things for me. I'm sure you don't mind if he joins us.'

'Not at all,' the chief of police answered, as if he had a choice.

'Would you like coffee?' she asked, motioning towards an ornate silver service. 'Or perhaps a drink?'

'Nothing, thank you. I hope I'm not comin' at a bad time.'

'Not at all,' she said with a grim smile. 'We were just discussing how well off Farrell left me and the children. At least he did something thoughtful.'

'I'm sorry, Ada - '

'Forget the compulsory grief,' she said brusquely, cutting him off. 'The fact is, you were one of his friends, Eric. You knew what was going on.'

'Uh, it wasn't my business to - '

'To what? Raymond Firestone told me all about it. Parties, poker games, weekend retreats, as Farrell called them, for his in crowd. You were one of them. Now you come here implying - '

'I'm not implyin' anything,' Eckling said with chagrin. 'I'm just doin' my job. These things have to be addressed.'

'Well, at least you came yourself, you didn't send one of your flunkies.'

'Please,' Eckling said, obviously ill at ease. 'I want to make this as pleasant as possible.'

'I'm sure. What is it you want to know?'

'Do you know of anyone who might have had a motive to do this to John?'

She sneered at the question. 'Don't ask stupid questions, Eric. It was very easy to hate Farrell Delaney.'

'How about, uh…' Eckling started, letting the sentence dangle.

'Women? Are you usually this diplomatic when you grill suspects?'

'Please, Ada.'

'Don't please me. That's why you're here and we both know it. I'm sure my comments last night put me at the top of the suspect list.'

'There's no list as yet.'

'Well, why don't you just get out the phone book and start with A,' she said with a sardonic smile.

Eckling looked helplessly at Angelo, who ignored him. He sat with his legs crossed, appraising freshly manicured fingernails.

'So you can't provide any leads?'

'You might start with his business partners. He was famous for screwing his friends. Or perhaps infamous would be a better word. Frankly, I don't really care who shot him. I hope whoever did the world that favour doesn't suffer too much for it.'

 'Christ, Ada!'

'Oh, stop it. Don't be such a hypocrite, ask me what you really came here to ask.'

'Yes,' Angelo said, appraising Eckling with a cool stare. 'Why don't we cut through the felicities and get on with it. I'm sure we've all got better things to do.'

'All right, where were you between seven-thirty and nine P.M. last night?' Eckling asked bluntly.

'I was having dinner at Les Chambres with my daughter and son-in-law,' she answered with a smug smile. 'They picked me up here about seven-thirty. I had been home about thirty minutes when Raymond Firestone called me.'

Eckling mentally calculated how long it would take to get from the Delaney house in Rogers Park to the restaurant located in the Gold Coast. Thirty minutes at least. Les Chambres was ten, fifteen minutes from Delaney's penthouse. Five or ten minutes to do the trick…

'We arrived at the restaurant at eight,' she said. 'We were there until nearly ten-thirty. We saw several people we know.'