Free Murder 101 by Faye Kellerman Page B

children do without when we can plainly do with.”
    She stopped pacing.
    “Anyway, this is all very beside the point. I don’t know anything about the theft. It’s not like it’s been preying on my mind. To tell you the truth, Tiffany isn’t my style. I am all about sleek and modern. This one room is my compromise to Rick. I mean where would I even put the windows? Although I suppose if I did steal them, I wouldn’t hang them out in the open. That would be pretty stupid.”
    Decker nodded.
    “Anything else? I’ve got a nail appointment.”
    “Can you think of anyone in the family with money problems?”
    “No . . . none of my business. I just wish they’d keep their noses out of my business.”
    “Anyone in the family who has an addiction—drugs, gambling, sex, bad business? Or bad business deals?”
    “Ken’s extended family is large: lots of cousins and second cousins. I’m sure there must be a couple with problems. Who doesn’t have a family without problems?”
    “But nothing jumps into your head?”
    She thought about it earnestly. “No . . . not really. But Rick and I try to mind our own business. We’re both way too busy to worry about other people. If other people don’t have a life, that’s not my problem. Are we almost done?”
    “Just a few routine questions that I’m asking everyone on the list. When was the last time you were in Greenbury?”
    “The funeral in the summer when Ken’s cousin died. We came in and left the same day. We were with everyone else.”
    “So you haven’t been to Greenbury or the crypt since then?”
    “No. I’ve got better things to do than to schlep up to a musty old crypt in the middle of nowhere.”
    “Besides Max, who do you think might have wanted to steal the panels?”
    She looked aghast. “I didn’t say Max stole them.”
    “So who do you think did it?”
    “How would I know?”
    “I’m not saying you would know. I’m just asking your opinion.”
    She stood up, examining her nails that looked perfectly groomed in contour and color. Then she shrugged. “No idea. All I know is it wasn’t me.”
    TWO PHONE MESSAGES, three texts, and five missed calls: all from McAdams. The kid either missed his company or had info. Decker dialed his cell. Harvard was peeved.
    “What’s the purpose of giving me assignments and telling me to call back when you don’t answer your phone?”
    “I was in the middle of an interview. What do you have for me?”
    “Since I outrank you, what do you have for me ?”
    Decker smiled. He recapped the interviews.
    McAdams said, “She sounds like a nutcase.”
    “She’s intense.”
    “We should look into her financials.”
    “Great idea except we have no legit reason to pull paper on her. Now it’s your turn.”
    “Well, it seems that grave robbing and stealing from cemeteries are time-old traditions. I found quite a few cases of people stealing from cemeteries. The items usually taken are for personal use, things like urns, planters, gravestone decorations, and statues. The thieves usually live close to the graves and were caught with the items displayed in their houses or yards. Then there are the practical thieves who lift things like lawn mowers or weed whackers or shovels for their own gardening purposes.”
    “Okay. What about valuable items?”
    “I don’t know how relevant it is to our case because it’s old, but I’ll tell it to you anyway. A very well-known art dealer named Alastair Duncan was caught selling a stolen Tiffany window to a guy in Japan. It was looted from a local cemetery by a guy named Anthony Casamassima who used to work as a caretaker there.”
    “Where’s there?”
    “Salem Fields, New York. It’s a massive cemetery on the Brooklyn/Queens border. And it has a lot of Jewish mausoleums because a lot of the families used to belong to Congregation Emanu-El in Manhattan, which used the cemetery to buy plots for its membership. That’s the synagogue I told you about with a Tiffany