Free Act V by Ansley Adams Page A

mustard. “That new deli’s
pretty good.” He swallowed. “Here’s something interesting. It seems
that Hawkins and Handy did uncover something from their interview
with Mrs. Danning.”
    “ And…” Brice took a bite of
his own sandwich and waited for the revelation.
    “ And…it looks like Mrs.
Gloria Danning has the same routine every Friday night. She takes
the kids out for supper and a movie followed by a trip to Moo Juice
for ice cream. Usually gets home between eleven-thirty and
twelve.”
    “ So anybody that watched her
for a few weeks would know when Danning was in the house alone. You
suppose there’s any chance she might have slipped out of the movie
and done this herself?”
    “ Probably not, there’s the
weight issue. She’s not nearly big enough to handle a long sword,
if that’s what it was. Plus, there wasn’t enough time for her to
get home and back without the kids thinking something was
up.”
    “ Yeah,” Brice said. “Seems
like a pretty gruesome way to off your spouse anyway. A woman,
especially a wife, might use poison or maybe…”
    Addison was thinking along the same
lines. “Or hire somebody.”
    “ It doesn’t ring true
though. By all accounts they were very loving and she seemed to be
genuinely upset when we saw her. No, we’ll keep that on the back
burner though. What else have we got?”
    “ Mrs. Danning says she saw a
car drive off in a real hurry as she was driving in. Could be the
guy.”
    “ Did she give a
description?”
    “ You know women. ‘It was a
blue car.’ But the boy did better.”
    “ Oh yeah?”
    “ Yeah. We’re looking for a
blue or maybe black, sedan. Boy said it looked like an older Ford,
he thought it was a Mustang. He said he noticed it because it was
‘cool’. This is the best part though—he got the first three letters
of the tag—BRL something.”
    “ Sharp kid.” Brice was about
to take another bite when Karen Rogers called over. “Hey guys,
Captain Ferguson wants to see you right now.”
    “ Naturally he’d want to see
us during lunch,” growled Addison. “We’re coming.”
    “ Do you think he’s gonna
ream us about going over to the Danning place when it wasn’t our
case?” Addison asked.
    “ Without a
doubt.”
    They strode to the
glassed-in office and knocked. With the captain, it was better to
get it over quickly, whatever it was. The voice from inside answered, “Come in,
fellows.”
    “ He sounds okay,” Brice
observed.
    “ He’s sneaky. Plays poker a
lot.”
    They sat down opposite the desk,
waiting. The captain looked at them both for at least thirty
seconds before speaking. When he did speak, he sounded almost
chummy, but neither Brice nor Addy were fooled. “I hear you boys
checked out the Danning house this morning.” Captain Ferguson’s
ruddy complexion and short red hair were dead give-a-ways to a
Scottish heritage but he was as southern as the next guy. His face
and tone became deadly serious. “You reckon you should’ve been
there seeing as it’s Handy’s and Hawkins’ case and all?”
    That was a rhetorical question but
Brice answered anyway. “Sir, we were asked to observe the crime
scene because we had a strange report before the fact
and…”
    “ Yeah, I know all about the
psychic woman with the legs. Everybody in the place has heard about
her by now.” He put one foot up on his desk and retied a loose
shoe-lace. “Did you interview her yet…since the murder I
mean?”
    “ Yes sir,” Addison told him.
“I can’t say how helpful it was but…”
    “ I’m gonna cut to the chase
here.” The captain waved off the response. “This is the first,
honest to God murder we’ve had here in a long time outside of open
and closed redneck gets piss-drunk and offs his father-in-law
stuff. What we’ve got here, gentlemen, is a true, for real, mystery
on our hands. No real good leads yet except for that car thing, and
we need more than one team on this one. So since you two are
already involved,