Free A Wrongful Death by Kate Wilhelm Page A

got here. I didn't go into any other room and doubt that I touched anything except her neck, the door, the bell and this chair."
    He didn't like it, but she was in the way and would be more so when the forensics crew got there and went about their business. He let her go, and told her to wait at Frank's house as if it had been his own idea.
    "Christ on a mountain," Frank said softly. "Shot?"
    Barbara nodded. "Twice, in the midsection and again in the face, the side of her face." She shuddered. "I have to go wash my hands. I touched her."
    He took her jacket and she went to scrub her hands. He was by the fire in the living room when she returned, coffee cups and a carafe on the table. He poured for her and motioned toward the chair nearest the fire, and she realized that she was still shivering, not just from the penetrating chill of the fog outside, but from deep inside.
    "Bailey's on his way," Frank said, sitting opposite her. "You want to wait to tell us together?"
    "I'm all right," she said. "Cold." She began to tell him about Elizabeth's phone call, and was still at it when Bailey arrived. She started over after Bailey was seated with a drink in his hand.
    "That was at ten after four. I got there about an hour later, ten after five, and she was dead. From what she said, I assumed that no one knew where she was, or even if she was around. She said that someone could be watching the office and she was afraid to go there, and afraid someone would follow me. No one followed, they got there first."
    "The window of opportunity wasn't open long," Bailey commented.
    "Less than you think ," Barbara said after a moment. "The call to me was at ten after four. She was ready at that time to come to the office, and changed her mind. Then she went in to take a shower. I could smell a shampoo fragrance, and her hair was done up in a towel. One light was on, probably in the bedroom, maybe the bathroom. She put on a robe, but no slippers after the shower. Let's say that took ten minutes at least, more like fifteen. About four-thirty by then, and we don't know when Leonora found her. Check the flights in," she added to Bailey. "Allow time to collect luggage, rent a car, find the apartment. Anyway, from four-thirty until Leonora got there was the window of opportunity. Half an hour? Maybe." She thought a moment, then said, "Leonora wasn't making much sense, but she said that in the bedroom things were on the floor, tossed around. A search? Could be. That's cutting it really close. If she had arrived minutes sooner, she might have become a second body on the floor."
    And if Barbara had arrived earlier, she might have been there, too, Frank thought. He got up to give the fire a poke it didn't need.
    "I can tell you a little about Leonora Carnero," Bailey said.
    Barbara shook her head. "After I talk to the cops. I intend to tell them every single thing I know about all this. Let's not add to it yet. See what you can dig up about the Knowltons and their father."
    He nodded. He had already made a note about Brice and Rita Knowlton.
    "How old's the Carnero woman?" Frank asked then.
    "I don't know" Barbara said. "Thirty, thirty-five."
    "Thirty-four," Bailey said.
    "Doesn't make much sense," Frank said. "Her first thought was to go call her mother."
    "Good trick," Bailey muttered. "Her mother's dead." Barbara stared at him. "She said her mother's coming," she said softly. "She said it several times."
    "Even a better trick," Bailey said.
    Frank glanced at his watch. "Let's have a bite to eat before the investigators get here. I suspect it's going to be a long night." Barbara had said that Standifer hadn't seemed to know about the attack from two weeks earlier, but whoever came to question her no doubt would. A long night was certainly in store for them.
    Bailey looked hopeful and Frank nodded. "You, too. It's mostly leftovers, but of what there is, there's plenty."
    He had combined leftover chicken and vegetables — green beans, peas, a little