The stocky man with the goatee and mustache
swaggered into the kitchen. Following him was a small
young woman with short blond hair sticking up in
peaks and an intimidated expression on her pretty face.
“You know, Flynn,” the man said in a rough, deep
voice, “it looks like you’ve got everything here, including the kitchen sink. Har, har.”
Joe cradled his drink and leaned against the refrigerator. The gold flecks glinted in his green eyes, but
with malice rather than mischief. “We don’t know if
we have a homicide or not,” he said without inflection.
Stone Cold Sam Cairo chuckled, an unpleasant,
grating sound. “Yeah, I guess it always took you a
while to figure out the facts.”
Judith didn’t know whether to introduce herself or
not. Not, she decided. Any gesture of hospitality would
annoy Joe.
Cairo, however, took matters into his own hairy
hands. “Meet my new partner,” he said, dragging the
small blonde forward by the hand. “Dilys Oaks. Dilys,
this is Joe Flynn, a former colleague, now retired.
Don’t be misled by the choirboy outfit. Joe can’t sing
a lick.” Cairo glanced at Judith. “Let me guess. You’re
either a Roman empress, Joe’s wife, or Joe’s slave.
Maybe the last two combined. Har, har.”
“I’m Judith Flynn,” Judith said, as noncommittal as
Joe.
Cairo gave a faint nod. “Okay by me.” He looked at
the sink, and noted the phony spider, which swayed
grotesquely from the overhead light. “Halloween stuff,
huh? Nice touch. What was this movie guy doing, bobbing for apples?”
Joe didn’t respond, which forced Judith to speak. “I
think he was taking some aspirin. He had a headache.”
“Hunh.” Cairo steered Dilys to the sink. “What does
this tell you?”
Dilys’s smoky-gray eyes widened. “That the drain is
plugged?”
Cairo put an avuncular arm around Dilys’s narrow
shoulders. “Think a little harder. Take in the whole picture. Remember, you’re a rookie. This isn’t like your
first two cases with the drunks popping each other and
the spousal murder-suicide.”
“But,” Dilys protested in her little-girl voice, “is it a
homicide?”
Cairo removed his arm and wagged a finger at his
partner. “There you go, young lady. Is it? How can we
tell?”
“We don’t have the body,” Dilys noted. “Shouldn’t
