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“Can you tell me how many voices?”
“Oh.” He frowned, looked sweetly bewildered. “I’m not sure, not at all sure, but at least two, as it was a kind of conversation—I should say it felt like hearing a kind of conversation. I couldn’t hear the words, and I’m afraid I was distracted. But they stopped talking when I called out for Edward. I’m sure of that. I called out, as I didn’t want to startle anyone.”
“At least two voices. You couldn’t make out the words, but could you tell if they were male or female?”
“That’s an excellent question.” And one he looked a bit startled by. “I assumed one was Edward’s, but I wasn’t paying attention. I often don’t. I have a little trick Charlie taught me that helps me remember when I haven’t paid enough attention. It seems I’m too often thinking of something else.”
He closed his eyes, took some quiet breaths. “I’m walking into the house. It’s warm after the bitter wind. I smell lemon oil, so I know Sila’s been there to clean in the last day or so. I feel sad because I can imagine it as it was, with my grandparents. Some of the furniture’s been taken because it was left to some of us. There were always fresh flowers on the entrance table. I’m sorry they’re not there any longer, sorry it’s so dim. It’s such a raw, gloomy day, and I wish there was more light. I hear voices. I’m annoyed and sad and hear voices coming from down the hall. The study, I think, but I’m not sure. They’re... angry or excited. I didn’t realize, but yes, raised voices. My cousin’s, I think, yes, and someone else. A woman. I think a woman.”
He opened his eyes again. “I think a woman was with him. Is that helpful?”
“Yes. What did you do then?”
“I went back. I hated to be rude, but I intended to tell the Realtor there was no point in being there, as I didn’t intend to sell. I knew Edward and I would argue, but it had to be done. I turned into the study, and saw him. I was... thrown off, you could say. Primed to argue, braced for it, and he was in the chair, but the chair was in front of the desk, not behind, and his face was bleeding—at the mouth. His eye—ah...” His closed his own again, patted his hands in the air. “His right eye was blackened and swollen. He looked terrified. I started to rush in, to help him, and...”
He lifted a hand to the back of his head. “Something hit me, and the next thing I clearly remember, I was waking up—my head throbbing—on the floor of the study. Edward was gone, and the chair was back behind the desk. I might have thought I imagined it all, but my head was bleeding, and I was on the floor.”
“What did you do then?”
“I looked for him, called for him. Initially I was a little dazed, and I was confused. I went back to the kitchen, and upstairs, looking for him. When I couldn’t find him, I knew something had to have happened. I contacted Charlie. Charlotte. Dr. Mira. Told her something had happened, and could she come, bring you to my grandfather’s house. I looked some more, then you came.”
“Why didn’t you call nine-one-one? Your cousin had been injured and was missing, you’d been attacked. But you called your wife instead of the police.”
“I didn’t even think of it, not then. She works with the police—my Charlotte. She works with you. I probably should have called nine-one-one, as you say, but I wanted you. Something had happened to my cousin.”
“I’m a murder cop, Professor Mira. Did you believe your cousin had been murdered?”
“No. No, I never thought... I still can’t quite... But it’s the cop that counts the most, isn’t it? And you’re the best I know. I knew you’d find out what happened to Edward.”
“You contacted your wife,” she said again, pushing a little, “and requested a police officer you have a... friendly relationship with.”
“Yes, that’s true.” He measured out milk, poured it into the chocolate. And crushed some sort of bean in a little marble bowl with a little marble dowel. “But then, my wife is a renowned and respected criminal profiler, and you are a renowned and respected police lieutenant. I’d have been foolish to settle for less with such talent available.”
He added the crushed bean, sugar, and stirred methodically.
He’d given good answers, she thought. Very good, simple, logical answers. But she wasn’t done.
“Did you fight with your cousin, Professor Mira?”
“Oh, yes.” He said it so easily, without even a hint of guile. “Over the years we fought—argued, that is—numerous times. Our worldviews had shifted away from each other’s, on different orbits you might say, and we had little in common. Not like when we were boys.”
“You argued about the disposition of the property on Spring, which was left to both of you equally.”
“We did.” No hesitation, and no animosity. “We’d promised our grandfather to keep it in the family, and Edward believed that promise had an expiration date. I didn’t.”
“Did you argue yesterday, at the house?”
“No. We didn’t even get a chance to speak. I said his name, but then someone struck me. I never got to speak to him, or him to me. I believe we would have argued if...”
Though he continued to stir, he looked down at his pot as if he’d forgotten why it was there.
“Upon his death, what happens to his share of the disputed property?”
“I’m sorry? Oh, yes. Unless he changed his will—I can’t be sure—it would go in equal parts to his two children.”
He took the bowl out of the freezer, along with something she was pretty sure was some sort of whisk. Into the bowl he poured... milk, cream—something out of a small container—added some sugar. He stuck the whisk on some little hand tool.
It hummed busily in the bowl.
