Free Eye Wit by Hazel Dawkins, Dennis Berry Page A

eyes told her that she had been thinking along the same lines: drastic changes were coming.
    “We just have to wait a little longer for the police,” Jessica said, as soothingly as she could. “Remember? They said they needed to see us one more time after talking to Sophia. Then we can go home…. Wait, what about that auction at Gump’s in two weeks? Did you finish our input for their catalogue?”
    “Already emailed it to the printer. Everything else on my desk needs Marco’s approval…Oh…” Iona’s face crumpled.
    “Here,” Jessica said. She tossed a box of tissues at her partner, not even trying to mask her irritation. “Don’t worry. Sophia will keep everything moving along. She always does.”
    “I don’t understand why the police need to see us again. How many times do we have to go over and over the same questions?”
    “Until they think they’ve got all the right answers,” Jessica said.
    Iona mopped her face and straightened her shoulders, tears replaced by hiccups.
    “What do you think happened?” she said.
    “How do I know? It probably was an accident, like Sophia says. Or maybe he just got some pay-back from someone he told off once too often. You know how Marco was. There were two ways to do something, his way and the highway, if you didn’t agree. You know how rigid he could be.”
    Iona grabbed another handful of tissues as her tears started again.
    “That’s just not true, Jessica. Marco only wanted to help people. You didn’t know him. Look at all he did for us, the archery lessons, the therapy at the eye doctor.”
    “Sure, and don’t forget our weekends of R&R on Bainbridge Island or Squaw Valley after whirlwind trips to Chicago and San Francisco.”
    Iona’s mouth hung open as she stared at Jessica. “‘Our’ weekends?”
    “Oh, don’t be such an innocent. Marco took me on a few of those trips, too,” Jessica said.
    “He did? I never…. But…?”
    “Relax dear, it was a couple of years back, a short fling that didn’t last long. Before you were hired. Look, you’re not the only one who’s tense right now, I’m as jittery as Jell-O. But you need to face facts. Marco sent us to the eye doc for one reason only, to improve our aim at archery. That was the reason for the archery lessons, too. He wanted some good PR for himself. That was the driving force behind everything he did that looked like charity. Public relations, it all boiled down to PR. The optometric vision therapy for the kids at PS 41. The archery lessons for the police. Everything. It was all PR.”
    “You’re so cynical. You, and Sophia too.”
    Jessica tried not to smile. Finally, she’d gotten Iona mad enough to dry up those silly tears.
    Iona continued to sputter. “I’ll bet Sophia’s just been blowing smoke, saying it could be an accident. Marco told me that Sophia said she’d give him a divorce over her dead body.”
    “Iona, Marco’s the one who’s dead. Sophia’s alive.”
    “That’s what I mean. What if Marco said he had to have a divorce? What if Sophia lost it?”
    “Sophia never ‘loses it,’ Iona. She’s into yoga, and you know that she hasn’t been up to the archery run for the longest time.”
    “But still knows how to use a bow and arrow, I’ll bet––and she’s strong from all that yoga.”
    Jessica could see that Iona wasn’t going to give up her suspicions about Sophia. “She does have quite a temper under that sophisticated veneer,” Jessica said, choosing her words carefully. “Did you talk to the police about this?”
    “Not yet. I just thought of it. But you bet I will. When are they coming? What’s taking them so long?”
    “Relax, dear. Have a cup of tea. It’s herbal. Chamomile with lemon balm. Great for the nerves.”

16
     
    From containers on the open shelves of the dispensary, Luludji Krietzman selected fresh rubber gloves, four transfusion bottles, two catheters, a roll of white tape, lengths of sterile rubber tubing , and four in-li ne