Silver Scream : A Bed-and-breakfast Mystery

sounding thin. “The sink may be a crime scene.”

“Oh.” Judith stared into the murky water. “Oh,

damn. You’re right, I should have realized that.” For

the first time she saw something bobbing listlessly

around in the sink. Judith reached out to touch it, then

quickly withdrew her hand. “Evidence,” she murmured. “It looks like my aspirin bottle. I found a pill

on the floor.”

“When I talked to Bruno the last time,” Winifred

said, clicking off the cell phone, “and he complained

of a headache, I told him I’d seen some aspirin in the

kitchen.” For a brief moment she looked as if she were

going to cry, then rallied. “Morris will be issuing a

statement. He’ll hold a press conference later for the

early newscasts.” She looked up at the schoolhouse

clock. “That will be four A.M. our time for the seven

o’clock news on the East Coast. Perhaps I should join

him at the Cascadia. I doubt I can do anything here.

Those cretins upstairs don’t need to be consoled.” With

a swish of her bathrobe, Winifred started to leave the

kitchen, but stopped abruptly. “Where is he?” she

asked in a hollow voice.

Judith was puzzled. “You mean . . . Morris? I

thought you just—”

“No!” Winifred exploded, waving a frantic hand.

“Bruno! Where did you put him?”

In the dishwasher? Judith almost said as the giddiness she’d felt earlier tried to reclaim her emotions.

But Joe intervened. “His body was removed just

minutes ago.”

SILVER SCREAM

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“Oh.” Winifred’s shoulders slumped. “Of course.”

Without another word, she left the kitchen.

The doorbell sounded. Joe got up to answer it while

Judith gazed at the mess that still hadn’t been—

couldn’t be—cleaned up. She, too, felt like crying.

But there was no time for tears. Joe, whose face had

become so red that he looked as if he might explode,

came storming back into the kitchen.

“It’s Stone Cold Sam,” he said under his breath, and

then swore such a rapid blue streak that Judith—mercifully—could hardly understand him.

“Who,” she finally dared to inquire, “is Stone Cold

Sam?”

Joe stared at her. “You don’t remember? Stone Cold

Sam Cairo, my nemesis in the department? The

world’s biggest pain in the butt?”

“Oh!” Judith did remember. There had been several

occasions when Joe had come home from work fuming because Stone Cold Sam had interfered with an investigation, offered unwanted criticism, and generally

tried to make Joe’s life miserable.