Free Murder Is Secondary by Diane Weiner Page B

have child care at the police station?” asked Zach. “It’s very convenient when you can take the baby with you.” Susan was surprised that he’d even known on-site daycares existed.
    “Oh,” she said. “Do you and Dalia have children?” She had assumed they didn’t.
    “Dalia and I? Heavens, no. I did have a son, but he died when he was very young,” said Zach. “His mother used to take him to the preschool at her work site.”
    “I’m so sorry,” said Susan. She felt a fleeting twinge of empathy for the man.
    “Don’t be. It was a long time ago. I’m over it now.” He shuffled in his seat. “That pie looks delicious. See Dalia. Some women actually know how to bake pies.” Zach lifted his shirt and programmed something into a small machine which was no bigger than a deck of cards. “It’s my insulin pump,” said Zach. “I’ve had type 1 diabetes practically my whole life.”
    “I didn’t know,” said Susan. “We have some sugar-free ice cream in the freezer.”
    “This will be just great,” said Zach as he grabbed a slice of pie. “It’s a fallacy that diabetics can’t eat sugar. That’s what the pump is for.”
    “You know, one of the boys at Westbrook High developed a simple test for detecting the likelihood of developing diabetes,” said Susan. “He even won a big award for it.”
    “Zach, didn’t we see that on Sixty Minutes ?” asked Dalia.
    “Yes, we did. Must be one brilliant boy to have come up with that.” Zach smiled.
    “Zach, maybe we should be getting back to the Ranch. It’s getting late. Lynnette looks sleepy. I guess pregnancy does that to you,” said Dalia. They left followed by Jason and Lynette. Susan closed the door behind them. She was pretty worn out herself and couldn’t wait to crawl into bed.

Chapter 23

    Susan kissed Mike goodbye and nursed a second cup of coffee while reading the newspaper. Johann was curled up at her feet. She could hear Ludwig using the scratching post in the living room. An article in the newspaper caught her eye. It said that Amber Bernstein’s father was in the process of suing the school board over the sexual harassment case. He insisted that the school should have gotten rid of Tank when they found he’d been previously accused of sexual harassment, and that Tank’s teaching license should have been revoked. Again, Bernstein vowed to get even with his daughter’s killer.
    Susan was furious. This man was out for blood––Tank’s blood. She had to do something. She was planning on stopping by the school to help Janet in the media center anyway. The media center had received a large, incoming book order and all those books needed to be processed. She might just happen to run into Joey. After finding that report with Amber’s name on it under his bed, Susan had some unanswered questions. As she was about to leave, her phone rang. It was Lynette.
    “Hi, Lynette.”
    “Mom, I have something important to ask you. I know this will sound strange, but do you know whether Tank carries a handkerchief or whether he uses Kleenex?”
    “Why do you want to know that? He always carries a handkerchief, like a real gentleman. He joked that he carries it in case he comes upon a damsel in distress.”
    “Mom, the CSI team found a handkerchief at the crime scene. They were able to get DNA from it, and we have a sample from Tank already. I’m waiting for the lab report. I was hoping the answer to my question would have been no.”
    “Oh God, I hope it isn’t Tank’s.”
    “Me too, but how many men carry handkerchiefs these days? I’ll let you know when I get the report.”
    Susan felt more urgency than ever to help Tank. The police already had an eye witness who saw Tank outside on the construction site the night of the murder. If the DNA on the handkerchief matched Tank’s, they might have enough to make an arrest. She arrived at the school midmorning and, as expected, Janet was overwhelmed and thrilled to have the extra help.