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Failing to curb her impatience, Steffi pressed him for accuracy. “Either you saw somebody or you didn’t.”
Mrs. Daniels came to her feet. “He’s very tired. Couldn’t this wait until tomorrow? After he’s had another night’s rest?”
Instantly Steffi saw her mistake and forced herself to relent. “I’m sorry. Forgive me for being so abrasive. I’m afraid I’ve picked up a few bad habits from the people I prosecute. I’m accustomed to dealing with killers, thieves, and rapists, usually repeat offenders, not nice folks like you. It’s not too often I get to interact with tax-paying, law-abiding, God-fearing people.” After that speech, she didn’t dare look at Smilow, knowing that she would see derision in his expression.
Gnawing her lower lip, Mrs. Daniels consulted her husband. “It’s up to you, honey. Do you feel like doing this now?”
Steffi had sized them up and immediately concluded that there would be no contest between her I.Q. and theirs. She took advantage of their indecision to do some more manipulating. “Of course if you want to wait until morning for our questions, that’s fine, Mr. Daniels. But please understand our position. A leader in our community has been murdered in cold blood. He was shot in the back with no provocation. None that we’ve determined, anyway.” She let that sink in, then added, “We hope to catch this brutal killer before he has another opportunity to strike.”
“Then I can’t help you.”
All were taken aback by Mr. Daniels’s unexpected declaration. Smilow was the first to find his voice. “How do you know you can’t help?”
“Because Ms. Mundell here said the killer was a ‘he,’ and the person I saw was a woman.”
Steffi and Smilow exchanged a glance. “I used the pronoun generically,” she explained.
“Oh, well, it was a woman I saw,” Daniels said, settling back against his pillow. “She didn’t look like a killer, though.”
“Could you elaborate on that?” Steffi asked.
“You mean what she looked like?”
“Start at the beginning and talk us through,” Smilow suggested.
“Well, we—that is, our choir group—left the hotel directly after lunch. About an hour into our tour, I started feeling queasy. At first I thought it was the heat. But a couple of the kids with us had already got sick with upset stomachs, so I suspected it was more than that. I got to feeling worse by the minute. Finally, I told my wife that I was going back to the hotel, take some Pepto or something, and would catch up later.”
Mrs. Daniels confirmed all this with a solemn nod.
“By the time I’d walked back, I was on the verge of… of being real sick. I was afraid I wasn’t going to make it to my room in time.”
“When did you see the woman?” Steffi asked, wishing he would get to the point sooner rather than later.
“When I got to our room.”
“Which was on the fifth floor,” Smilow verified.
“Five oh six,” Daniels said. “I noticed another person at the end of the hall and glanced in that direction. She was standing outside another door.”
“Doing what?” Smilow asked.
“Doing nothing. Just facing the door, like she had knocked and was waiting for somebody to answer.”
“How far away from you was she?”
“Hmm, not far. But pretty far. I didn’t think twice about it. You know how awkward it is when you make eye contact with a stranger and you’re the only two around? It was like that. You don’t want to seem either too standoffish or too friendly. Got to be careful of folks these days.”
“Did you speak to her?”
“No, no, nothing like that. I just glanced her way. Truth is, I wasn’t thinking of anything except getting to the bathroom.”
“But you got a good look at her?”
“Not that good.”
“Good enough to determine her age?”
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