from Amanda Warburton. However, when the killer used it on Miss Warburton, it was a gentle tap to stun. Murray got the full force of a very strong man-massive internal hemorrhages,” said Patrick O’Donnell. “I think he was prepared to encounter Amanda, but Hank came as a surprise. He didn’t really care how Hank died as long as he did. Amanda’s death was planned, I believe. A hunting knife sharpened to split a hair used when the head and neck were up but not stretched-if the neck is stretched by pulling the head way back, the carotid arteries are hard to get at. Most of the traction occurred after he’d done the cutting, to direct the blood spray well away from himself.”
“How did he move the glass teddy bear? Any ideas?”
“First off, he was alone. Paul went over the shop and the back room minutely, and there are no signs of an accomplice. One set of footprints in the shop carpet-size tens or thereabouts, but no chance of a sole pattern or a full outline. From the solid tire tracks, he used an upright dolly to move the bear, which means he’s very strong physically. Of course the dolly might have had a platform raised and lowered by an electric motor-that would help him move the bear off the window shelf on to the dolly. But think of the gall, Carmine! The bear must have been out of the window, wrapped and on its dolly before Amanda and Hank appeared at ten-thirty. Security everywhere!”
“Luck. I also think that he should have put a notice in the window saying the bear had gone for repairs,” said Carmine. “Though his luck is phenomenal, as Delia rightly pointed out.”
“He hadn’t gotten as far as moving the bear out of the premises,” Patrick said. “In the back room the dolly tracks travel clear of the blood even when that necessitated a slight detour. What might have happened if he’d run into a guard?”
“Dressed all in black? A shot between the eyes from a.22 with a silencer. Or he might have been in coveralls by then, had a sheaf of papers, and bluffed his way past the guard.”
Something in his voice made Patrick look up quickly, to meet innocent yellow-brown eyes. “Any other questions?”
“No.” Carmine glanced at his watch. “I have to see the Warburton twins and break the news.”
“Do me a favor, Carmine?”
“Anything, Patsy.”
“Before you let the Warburtons loose in the glass shop, how about sending Helen up there to have a really good look at the contents? She was the one spotted the value of the glass teddy bear, and I notice she seems to have an eye for glass art.”
“Good idea. I’ll do that.”
Helen was waiting in his team’s room, looking flustered and upset. “I wish you’d pulled me out of my teaching session!” she greeted him. “I missed it, I missed it!”
“There are times, Miss MacIntosh, when you remind me of my least favorite queen, Marie Antoinette. You can’t always have what you want, and Judge Thwaites for one would agree with me. His time is more valuable than yours, little though you may care to hear that. Don’t grumble, and bear his crotchets with a good grace. I understand that you feel a special interest in Miss Warburton, but you can still do her a big favor.”
“Yes, yes, anything!” Helen cried eagerly, the crux of Carmine’s homily scarcely impinging.
“Go out to the Busquash Mall and examine the glass shop with a very sharp eye,” Carmine said. “I want to know if anything else is missing, down to the last china-headed pin or glass tear drop. Don’t miss a thing.”
“Yes, Captain.” She was on her feet. “Where are Delia and Nick going?”
“Through Hank Murray’s office and apartment. You stick to the glass shop-is that clear?”
“Yes, sir.” And she was gone.
The Glass Teddy Bear had emotional connotations for Helen that even Carmine, so perceptive, had not really grasped. It was the workplace of a woman who had become a genuine friend, and genuine friendships were scarce in Helen’s world, for she had as yet not formed one properly-who was real, who was not? Amanda, she had divined, was a woman who hadn’t had things easy: sweet but iron-hard. They had looked at each other, and clicked.
So when she entered the shop she found it filled with echoes of someone undeservedly dead; Helen had to blink the tears away.
Black shops were extremely rare, perhaps limited only to glass; the lighting, she realized now, was so cunning. Every spotlight or lamp fell upon a treasured piece, with the more economical lines clustered so that they blazed pinpoints of fire. On a slim black pedestal stood a magnificent prism; beside it was an atomizer of water that, squeezed, liberated a cloud of droplets that lit from within as a perfect rainbow. Gorgeous!
The yard and the half yard beer tubes, so different in construction, sat above Lalique and Murano glass picture frames; an exquisite glass teaset, dazzlingly plain, sat in pride of place atop arrays of wine glasses, and a Baccarat crystal ball of solid glass spun the world upside down. How beautiful everything was! If the Warburton twins had a sale to close the shop down, she would be here to buy the prism and the crystal ball.
But this was not doing her job, and she owed the dead woman her very best. Up and down Helen prowled, concentrating hard on the arrangements; what luck that she had paid for Dad’s urn and borne it away a week ago-why had she done that? Clairvoyance?
The counter contained a shelf on which sat jewelry and tiny objects: animals the size of thumbnails, buttons, strings of crystal beads, some faceted, some round globes. Why the buttons in particular made her smile she didn’t know, except that some were suitable for the most ornate of wedding gowns, while others, austere enough to please monks, would look great on a man’s yachting jacket. Though the ones she liked best were dark blue glass on which were gold glass cameos of lions. I’ll be buying Kurt a set of those for Christmas, she made a mental note, and saw a choker of glass beads shading in color from pale pink to deep burgundy. Oh, how perfect for Mom, with her swanlike neck! So ideal! Scorpion hues for a Scorpion lady.
No, no, this wasn’t doing the job!
Back to the shelves, until finally she came to the paperweights, a wonderful collection. One beauty, she was horrified to see, had a label that said $5,000! And there, in the middle, was a vacant space. A space that, Helen was sure, Amanda would have filled immediately after its occupant had been sold.
The insurance company was stringent and Amanda had obeyed their dictates. The paperweight display, thirty in all, was laid out in a plan. The missing one, she was bewildered to discover, wasn’t expensive at $300. Clear glass containing tiny trails of colored glass. According to its photograph, it looked like a map of some metropolitan subway system in a city that gave each route a different color.
Had the killer broken it? Or did something about it appeal when others, far more valuable, didn’t?
“Nothing else is missing,” she said to Carmine on Friday morning, giving her report.
“But you think he took it,” Carmine said.
“If he didn’t, Captain, then it was sold so late in the day that Miss Warburton didn’t replace it,” Helen said. “My hunch is that he’s responsible. I searched the storage drawers until I found an identical one, and left a receipt.” She reached into her capacious bag and withdrew it, put it on the table.
“It looks like a 3-D map of a city subway.”
“It does indeed,” Carmine said, picking it up. “Maybe it’s a dead ringer for his way home?”
She looked shocked at the joke, but wisely held her tongue; the Captain could sometimes be facetious for no apparent reason. Best change the subject. “How did the twins take the news?”
“About as I imagined. Squawks, shrieks, crocodile tears, a fit of hysterics from Gordie that Robbie dealt with by emptying a vase of dead daisies over his head. Underneath, gratification to find themselves Aunt Amanda’s heirs. I gave them the will, since she doesn’t seem to have employed a lawyer, wise woman. But when I told them about the glass teddy bear, they were as chagrined as astonished. If it comes to light, it belongs to Chubb. I’m picking they’ve rushed off with the will to see if they can challenge Chubb’s right to the
“I’ll back Chubb,” said Helen with a grin. “Though it’s irrelevant at the moment, sir, not so? First, get your teddy bear back, then worry about ownership.”
“Exactly.”
“What happened to her pets, Captain?”
A peculiar look came over his face; Delia could have told her that it was embarrassment. “Er-well-er-I took them home for the kids. Mature, already house trained, you know.”
“That’s great, sir! What a relief! I’ve been racking my brains how I could talk my father into taking them, but now I don’t need to bother. I envy you.”
This reception made Carmine feel much better, especially after a rather traumatic night with a howling dog and
