fact that the yard was well-tended and the house ignored suggested to him that the occupant took care of what she could afford.
He rang the bell and waited. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the curtain move in the front window. He rang the bell again.
A woman called out through the door. 'What do you want?'
'I'm looking for Rosa Vincetti.'
'Are you police?' the woman asked.
'No,' he answered. 'I'm a friend of Jake Renard.'
The woman opened the door a crack with the security chain in place. 'I'm Rosa,' she said. 'What do you want?'
She was obviously frightened. He should have taken the time to shave. 'Jake Renard told me that he often talked to you on the phone when he called Catherine.'
'Yes,' she said. 'Mr. Renard loved Catherine.'
Theo couldn't see the woman's face. She was hiding behind the door. There was a light flickering behind her. He thought it might be a candle burning.
'You aren't with the police?' she asked again.
'No, I'm an attorney,' he explained.
Rosa shut the door, slipped the chain back, and then opened it again. She stepped back so Theo could come inside. Theo stayed
on the porch. Concerned she would panic when she saw his gun, he explained quickly why he had to carry the weapon. And
when he finished, he once again assured her he wasn't a policeman, and he hadn't driven to her house to cause her any trouble.
Rosa was a surprise. She was much younger than he'd expected, around fifty he judged, and almost as tall as he was. Streaks of gray highlighted her dark hair. Heavy brows framed midnight black eyes. There were tears in those eyes now as she once again motioned for him to come inside.
'My name is Theo Buchanan,' he said as he walked into her living room.
She was already nodding. 'I know who you are. I prayed to God, and He sent you to me.'
He didn't know what to say to that, and so he simply nodded. 'Please sit,' she said and pointed to a gray brocade sofa, 'and tell
me why you have come here.'
Theo waited until she had taken her seat across from riim. An oval glass table was between them. Theo leaned forward with his arms on his knees and told Rosa how he had met Michelle Renard. He was trying to put her at ease and help her understand his relationship to the Renard family. Rosa listened intently.
She obviously was a deeply religious woman. Signs of her faith adorned every surface in her home. Against the wall behind her was a long sofa table that had been converted into an altar with a lace runner on top. At one end, two votive candles burned, and at the other end was a framed picture of the Blessed Mother. Black rosary beads were draped over the frame.
Theo explained what had happened the night before and how he and Michelle had been ambushed. 'Catherine sent Michelle a package,' he said.
She nodded. 'Yes, I know.'
He kept his excitement hidden. His guess had been right.
'I believe the men who came after Michelle and me were trying to get that package,' he said. 'They weren't successful,' he added. 'The police have it now.'
Rosa stiffened. 'Did you have a chance to read the papers?' she asked.
'Not yet,' he said. 'However, I'm sure that John Russell is behind this, and I want to get him. To do that, I'm going to need your help.'
'He's an evil man,' she whispered. 'He will go to hell when he dies. He killed her, you know.'
She said it almost casually, as though the startling news had been in the papers for weeks.
'He killed Catherine?'
'Yes, he did. I don't have any proof,' she hastened to add. 'But in my heart I know he did it. The ambulance people who came
to the house… one of them told me she choked to death on caramels.' She was shaking her head. 'I knew the truth then.'
'How did you know?'
'She wouldn't eat caramels. She had a loose bridge and she constantly fretted that it would break. She would never leave the house to go to a dentist, so she was extremely careful. Mr. Russell brought her a box of chocolates every night, and then he left
to be with his whores, but Catherine only ate the soft candies. She never would have touched a caramel.'
She made the sign of the cross and folded her hands as though in prayer. 'You must find proof and arrest John Russell. It would be a sin to let such an evil man get away with murder. You must do this for Catherine and me.'
Theo nodded. 'I'm going to try,' he promised. 'Catherine found out about John's affairs, didn't she? That was the reason she left him only a hundred dollars in her will.'
'Yes, she heard him on the phone. He called her terrible names when he was talking to his mistress. She cried for days,' she added. 'And then one night she heard him talking to a man about a deposit he had made in an account outside of the United States. She heard him tell the man not to worry, that no one would know because all the records were in his computer at home.'
Theo began to make notes as Rosa fed him the information she'd been given by Catherine.
'How did she break into his files? How did she come up with the right password?'
'John gave it to her,' Rosa said. 'Of course, he didn't know it at the time. She listened to his phone conversations, and twice she heard him refer to the Sowing Club. The next day, after he had gone to work and I had sent the maid to the grocery store, I helped her go down to the library. She typed in the words but was denied access. The spelling, you see, was incorrect. Catherine was a very smart woman,' she added. 'The second time she typed in the correct spelling, and the files opened up to her.'
'So it's
'Yes,' she said. 'That's what Catherine told me.'
'Did she tell you what was in those files?'
'She said her husband was doing illegal things with money.'
He rubbed his jaw. 'Why did she instruct her attorney to wait until after her death to send copies of the files? Why didn't she just have John arrested?'
'You don't understand.'
'Help me understand,' he urged.
'Catherine had many fine qualities, but she was also a very controlling woman. She wanted things done just so, and she wanted her husband to respect his marriage vows.' She shook her head as she added, 'She wouldn't let him go, but after she died, she wouldn't let any other woman have him. She was going to use the papers she'd given Mr. Benchley to make him… '
'Toe the line?' Theo asked.
'Yes.'
'Did you meet any of John's friends?'
She shook her head. 'He never invited anyone to the house. I think he was keeping Catherine isolated. He was ashamed of her, but even after she took to her bed and stayed in her room, he still didn't have friends to the house.'
Theo closed his notepad. 'May I ask you a personal question?'
'What is it?'
'Why are you so afraid of the police?'
She looked down at her hands. 'My son got into trouble last year. The police… they came to the house in the
