a good sign that she’d managed to break her smoking habit. She’d gained a few more pounds, and with her exotic Asian-American features and long, shiny black hair, she looked prettier than ever. I could learn to hate her if I didn’t respect her so much.
“Hello, Inspector Lee,” Derek said cordially.
“Always a pleasure, Commander Stone,” she said, her tone a bit lighter. I suppose she had a soft spot for Derek-along with every other woman on the planet.
Four uniformed officers climbed the stairs in Inspector Lee’s wake. With eight people standing around, the normally spacious landing was starting to feel claustrophobic.
Derek passed Robin’s house key to Inspector Lee, then asked, “Will Inspector Jaglom be joining you?”
“Yeah, he should be here any minute. Why?”
Derek smiled. “Just curious. You two work well together.”
“Yes, we do,” she said, casting a wary glance his way. “Once we’ve seen what’s going on inside the apartment, I’ll have my uniforms canvass the neighborhood and watch things here until the ME and the lab folks arrive.”
He nodded. “Sounds good.”
“Yeah, thanks,” she said with just a touch of sarcasm. “What’s going on, Commander? Have you already been inside the premises?”
“Yes,” he said succinctly.
“Care to share your thoughts?”
“Of course.” He lowered his voice. “Body’s in the master bedroom. Blood has been tracked throughout, especially in the bedroom and attached bath. It’s a bloody mess, you’ll pardon the expression. Walls, sheets, hardwood floors. Victim was shot once in the head, once in the chest. Death appears to have been instantaneous. Ms. Tully was asleep in bed with the victim when he was shot.”
“Good to know,” she said, sliding a curious glance at Robin, who noticed her looking and shrank back into her chair.
Inspector Lee turned back to Derek. “Thanks for the info.”
I figured a rundown like that from a civilian would normally grate on her, but coming from Derek, Lee took it well. She was no fool, and Derek was no run-of-the-mill witness. As a former Royal Navy commander who’d gone on to work for Britain’s MI6 before starting his own private security company, he knew what he was doing, to say the least.
But with his brief recap of the crime scene, I could feel my eyes goggling as my brain painted some really gross mental images. There went my stomach again.
Derek noticed and swore under his breath.
Lee turned and looked at me with interest. “How you holding up, Wainwright?”
“Not well, thanks.” Seriously, with as many times as I’d landed in the middle of a murder scene, you’d think I’d be getting better at handling the sight of blood.
“Did you go inside the apartment with Commander Stone?”
“Not exactly.” I stood on unsteady legs, grabbed hold of the landing rail, and took deep breaths. It was getting bad when even the mere thought of blood made my stomach clench.
“Then what, exactly?” Inspector Lee asked, tapping the toe of her shoe against the wood floor.
I turned. “I just poked my head inside for a second or two.”
“Yeah, sometimes that’s all it takes,” she said philosophically. “Guess you got an eyeful.”
“Guess I did.”
With an evil chuckle, Inspector Lee turned from me to Derek. “Since you’ve been inside, we’ll need a print of your shoes for comparison. Probably be a good idea if you took them off right now.”
“Certainly,” he said.
She caught the eye of one of the cops and jerked her chin up. That was all it took for the officer to hurry downstairs to the squad car. He was back in less than a minute with an evidence envelope large enough to carry Derek’s shoes.
Finally, Lee turned to Robin. I was pleased to hear her use a gentler tone than she had with me or Derek as she said, “It’s Robin, right? We’ve met a few times.”
“Yes, hi.” Robin stood unsteadily and shook her hand. She tried to smile but it was a shaky effort. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“This your place?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, good. So what’s going to happen is, as soon as my partner arrives, he and I will go inside to look around. In the meantime, I’d like to get some preliminary information from you. I understand you’ve been through a bad time, so we’ll take it slow.”
“Thanks.”
“Now, I assume that since the commander and your good friend Ms. Wainwright are here, you called them first and they came over to keep you company.”
“No, I…” She glanced at Derek and me, and I noticed she looked as though she might fall over any second now. Lee seemed to notice the same thing.
“Let’s sit,” the inspector said as she maneuvered Robin down onto the director’s chair.
I watched Robin more carefully. I’d never seen my friend so wiped out before. It wasn’t just shock or grief. Her eyes were unfocused and she seemed unstable whenever she was standing. I was beginning to wonder if maybe she’d taken a sleeping pill or something. Was that why she’d slept through Alex’s death? But as Inspector Lee questioned her, she seemed to rally and was able to repeat the same story that she’d told us earlier, going into even greater detail than before.
As Robin finished, her upstairs neighbor Sharon, still wearing pajamas and a plaid bathrobe, opened her front door. She glanced around, her forehead lined with concern, until she spied Robin. “What’s going on out here?”
“Oh, Sharon, I’m sorry we disturbed you,” Robin said. “There’s been a… an accident in my apartment. The police are here to look into it.”
“An accident?” Sharon said, taking a step out onto the porch. “Are you all right?”
Robin waved her back as if she didn’t want her neighbor to get too close. “I’m okay.”
“Good morning, ma’am,” Inspector Lee said, standing up and pulling a business card from her pocket. “You live upstairs?”
“Yes.”
She handed Sharon the card. “We’ll need to ask you some questions in a little while. Will you be home all day today?”
“Yes, I’m off on Sundays.” She stared down at the card, then back at Lee. “You’re a homicide detective?”
“Yes,” Lee said. Before she could say anything else, she spied Inspector Jaglom strolling down the sidewalk.
“Nate,” Lee called, and waved. “Up here.”
He glanced up, saw me and Derek, and his eyebrows rose in mild disbelief. “What’s all this?”
I was grateful Inspector Lee didn’t shout something pithy like,
As Jaglom walked toward Robin’s building, Lee turned to finish her conversation with Sharon. “As soon as one of my officers is free, he’ll come by and get some preliminary information from you.”
“Of course. I need to take a quick shower first. Then I’ll be available.”
“Appreciate it.”
Unsure what else to say or do, Sharon gave Robin another anxious look, then went back inside and closed the door.
“Commander, Brooklyn,” Inspector Jaglom said in greeting when he reached the top of the stairs. “This is quite a surprise.”
Was it a good thing or a bad thing that I was on a first-name basis with a homicide inspector?
“Good to see you, Inspector,” Derek said, shaking hands with Jaglom.
After introducing her partner to Robin, Inspector Lee said, “Ms. Tully, I’d appreciate it if you would remain on
