'I insist on buying you a new one.'
'Oh, hell, Elayna, there's no need for it. It doesn't matter, really. I have plenty of robes.'
She had one other one that I knew of, a yellow thing with cats and dogs printed all over it in various colors. I had seen it in her closet, but she only wore it when I wasn't around, along with the flannel pajama bottoms and the oversized tee-shirt.
'No, I absolutely insist,' Elayna said. 'What size?'
'No,' Susan said. 'Elayna, really. It's nothing. Don't be silly.'
'Size six,' I said. 'If it's well made. If you buy her a cheap one, where they chintzed on the material, it might have to be an eight.'
Erika continued to cry steadily. Elayna and Susan both stared at me. Erika tried to bite her mother's hand to get her wrist free. Elayna swept her up off the ground and held her kicking and struggling and crying and said loudly, 'I've got to get her out of here. Susan, I'll call you.
When they were gone, Susan went and stood looking out the living room window for a while. Finally she turned and looked at me.
'Should I have let Pearl go?' I said.
'Do you think she'd really have bitten her?'
'With proper coaching,' I said.
'God, wasn't she awful.'
'Awful,' I said.
'My beautiful silk robe,' Susan said.
'Now I guess you'll have to sit around naked and drink champagne,' I said.
Susan smiled at me, almost sadly.
'There's always a silver lining,' she said. 'Isn't there.'
Chapter 18
PEMBERTON DID NOT wish to acknowledge crime. The Pemberton Police Station had been moved as far from the center of town as it was possible to move it. It was barely within the town limits, on the edge of Route 128 in an old brick Department of Public Works building they had leased from the state. I parked in the spacious lot out front.
Inside they were still partitioning off some of the rooms, and the carpenters were making a lot of noise. I worked my way past the front desk officer to the detective who'd worked the Henderson case, and sat with him at a desk in a half-finished office, while the sound of power saws and pneumatic nailers competed for attention. He looked about twenty, though he was probably older. You saw a lot of cops like him on suburban forces.
High-school football player. Not good enough for a scholarship. Smart kid. No money for college. Did a stint in the Marines, maybe, came home, went on the cops. Probably got term of service credit.
'Name's Albrano,' he said. 'Evidence specialist. I don't know how much I can help you. We turned things over to the State as soon as we discerned that it was a homicide. We're not set up to cover a major crime like they are, sir.'
'Miller?' I said.
'Yes, sir.'
'You the one got the letter?'
'Letter?'
'The letter tipped you off that it was Alves.'
'Well, we got it here at the department,' he said. 'Didn't come to me personally.'
'But you read it.'
'Yes, sir, and checked it for prints. Nothing we could use.'
'And you bucked it on to Miller?'
'Yes, sir. He made it pretty clear he was in charge of the case.'
'I'll bet he did,' I said. 'Who notified him?'
'I guess I did, sir.'
'You remember just how you notified him?'
'How?'
'Yeah. Did you show it to him here? Did you bring it over to him? Call him up? How'd you notify him?'
'I believe I mentioned it to him on the phone and then somebody took it in to Boston and gave it to him.'
'When you told him on the phone,' I said, 'did he call you or you call him?'
'Hell, I don't remember. This was what, year and a half ago? What's the difference?'
'Got me,' I said. 'You know how it goes, just keep asking questions till you find something. What did you think of Miller?'
'He has a good arrest conviction record, sir. I know that.'
