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“Am I interrupting?”
The four of them turned toward the doorway. There stood Calder.
Chapter 32
At first they were all too stunned to speak; then everyone began talking at once. Except for Elle. Regardless of what she’d resolved after her crying jag only minutes earlier, at the sight of Calder, her heart swelled with relief, not angst.
His eyes connected with hers and held, while Perkins watched him through calculating eyes, Glenda muttered scornful remarks about car theft, and Compton fired a volley of pertinent questions.
He finally looked away from Elle, disregarded Glenda, and addressed the two detectives. “Arnold Draper isn’t your guy.”
“How do you know?” Compton asked.
Calder, as though riled by the question, got right in her face. “Why did you drop his name to me last night?”
“You mean as you were fleeing the scene of a double homicide?”
“She dropped his name because I asked her to,” Perkins said.
“Why?”
“At the time, to bait you, to gauge how you would react.”
“I figured that out for myself,” Calder sneered. “So all of this was a fucking hoax?”
In a voice loud enough to override the other three, Elle said, “Who is Arnold Draper?” With anger and accusation, she gave each of them in turn a hard look, landing on Calder. “Obviously this is important, so why didn’t you tell me about it last night?”
“Because I didn’t know anything last night.”
Going back to the detectives, she said, “If this concerns the murder of my son, I deserve to know what you’re talking about. Who is this person Draper?”
“He’s a patient in a memory care facility.” Calder’s calm and unarguable tone stifled the detectives. “I was just there. That man didn’t shoot anybody.”
“You expect them to take your word for this?” Glenda said. “You’re a private eye now?”
Elle whispered, “Glenda, please.”
Calder turned to face her. “You don’t like me, and that doesn’t bother me in the least. I don’t care for you, either. But we’ve got a shitload of stuff to talk about here that concerns Elle, who you do care about. So unless you can contribute something enlightening or useful, please either shut up or go away entirely.”
“This ismyhouse, remember.”
“And I’ve thanked you repeatedly for the use of it. You went above and beyond for us last night. I don’t know what’s behind your snarky wisecracks, but they aren’t helpful, not to anybody, but especially not to Elle.”
Ever the diplomat, Compton said, “We do need to ask your forbearance, Ms. Foster. Thank you for the snacks and for the use of this room.”
Glenda saw the detective’s intervention as the dismissal it was. She huffed. “Make yourselves at home. Enjoy the brownies.”
After she left, Perkins waited a beat, then said, “I need to call off the APB.”
Calder said, “Her SUV—”
“It’s been found.”
“Intact?”
“So I’m told.”
“I left a jacket—”
