“Move him to an empty room. I think I’ll let Ellis have a shot at him.”
Ellis arrived, breathless and looking eager. “I’ve got some news.”
“Not now. Things are moving a bit fast at the moment.”
“There’s a break?”
Pratt couldn’t help smiling. “I hope so. It’s too soon to know.” He filled the young man in on what had been happening. “You question Harvey more thoroughly. I didn’t have time to go into why he has his cousin’s cello. It may have something to do with the case, it may not, but we need to know.”
Ellis hustled Harvey out. Pratt closed the door and leaned against it to catch his breath-and think.
In his twenty-eight years as a detective, he’d never had a case like this. In one way, it was a dream. Unless there was something he was missing completely, the murderer was still here. Any evidence was still here.
The silliness of the orchestra’s massconfession aside, the big problem was that any one of them could have done it. That meant questioning a really huge pool of suspects.
Spadafini had obviously been a bastard of the first water. His womanizing alone was outrageous, but his treatment of the people he worked with was contemptible. Pratt felt sure that was the reason for his death.
So, who did it? Pratt was looking for a crowbar, that bit of information he could use to pry the truth loose. The real issue was being able to pick out the important clues from the mass of information they were collecting.
His biggest enemy was time. All these people couldn’t be kept here forever. Getting them fed and watered was only buying him a bit more time. Would the murderer give it up under questioning? He doubted it. For the moment he or she could hide in plain sight.
The tired detective shook his head. And that indeed was the problem: how to smoke out the murderer.
Pulling out his cell phone, he dialed the captain.
“Pratt! What have you got for me?”
The situation was quickly outlined.
“I could really use more people,” Pratt told his boss. “We’re stretched too thin, and time is running out. I can’t keep the orchestra here forever.”
“I’ll have to shake someone else’s tree. You’ve got everyone from here.” The captain changed the subject. “Did you talk to
“Yeah, Norris was here. He may still be around, as a matter of fact. He wanted an update on where we stood. I got called away.”
“Not a nice man to cross, I would think. When I got called up to the chief ’s office, he was there with the mayor to turn up the heat on us.” The captain chuckled. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but Norris said he was going to go down there to personally shake things up. On his way out he was grumbling that it was his second trip down of the day and he had better-”
“What did you say? Pratt interrupted. “He was here already this morning? When?”
“Norris said he’d had to come down to thank the orchestra for coming in for the extra rehearsal. He talked about what a sensitive bunch they are, how they needed to be stroked all the time. Didn’t he tell you about that?”
“No, he didn’t,” Pratt growled. “And I’m going to find out why.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Pratt took the stairs back up two at a time. His tiredness was forgotten. He hated being played by someone.
He found Norris in his office with Browne. Both men looked up in surprise at the abrupt entry.
“Why didn’t you tell me you’d already been down here this morning?” Pratt asked angrily.
“Look here, Detective! I don’t like your tone.”
“I don’t like people not being honest with me.”
“In case you don’t remember our earlier conversation, you never asked me.”
“Well, I’m asking now.” Pratt sat on the other vacant seat in front of the desk and made a show of taking out his notebook and pen. “When were you down here and why?”
“I don’t have to talk to you.”
The detective got to his feet again. “Okay. Play it that way. We’ll talk downtown. Bring a whole law firm to hold your hand if you want. I don’t care. But just remember that you’re going to be escorted out of here in front of all those reporters outside.”
Pratt pulled out his walkie-talkie and turned up the volume again.
After looking at Browne for a moment, Norris got to his feet too. “Perhaps I spoke hastily, Detective. Please…take a seat.”
Knowing he had to keep the upper hand, Pratt nodded, then sat. “Tell me about this morning.”
“Our concert last night wasn’t the best, at least in Spadafini’s eyes. The man was a bloody perfectionist. Tonight’s performance was going to be recorded for a radio broadcast, so he demanded an extra rehearsal. To keep him happy, I agreed. Of course, our musicians were furious, so it was up to me to placate them with a little pep talk before the rehearsal.”
“What time was that?”
“Nine o’clock. I spoke for about five minutes and promised them all a bit of a bonus as a token of thanks from the board. I departed immediately afterward.”
“Where did you go?”
“Directly home.”
In order to build up a little tension, Pratt made a show of looking back at several pages in his notebook. “You and the mayor were in the chief ’s office before the press even got wind of what happened down here. How did you find-”
“From me,” Browne interrupted. “I called Mr. Norris right after my call to the police.”
Pratt turned to the orchestra manager. “Who else did you call?”
“Um…my wife to tell her I certainly wouldn’t be home for lunch.”
“Oh really.”
“And where did you call Mr. Norris from?”
“I used my cell phone. As chairman of the board, he needed to know right away.”
“Your cell phone.”
“Yes.”
“Detective Pratt,” Norris said, “I appreciated that Browne was doing such a good job under very trying circumstances. I’m not sure I would have thought of something like that if I had been in his place. We’re very lucky to have Mr. Browne.”
Pratt brought his attention back to Norris. “When you left, did anyone see you?”
“The security guard was at his desk, if that’s what you mean.”
“I was with him too,” Browne added.
Pratt looked at Norris, again with a pause. “And you went right home.”
Norris returned the stare. “I went right home.”
“At home, who saw you?”
“My daughter and her boyfriend.”
“Anyone else?”
“I wasn’t home long. Maybe our maid. I really don’t remember.”
Seeing that there wasn’t much more to be gained, Pratt got to his feet. “I see you’re working on a press release,” he said, looking down at a sheet of paper on Norris’s desk.
“We have to say something. The longer we wait, the worse it will be.”
“I have to ask you not to release this until I’ve taken a look at it. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to compromise the investigation.”
“No. Of course not. Speaking of which, are you any closer to knowing what happened?”
