Free A Knight at the Opera by Kenneth L. Levinson Page B

don't. I think she planned all of this out."
    "You really think she drugged him and just left him there, hoping that by some
miracle he'd fall over the balcony?"
    I instantly regretted saying it, but it was too late to take it back.
    He was all over it. "How do you know he was drugged?"
    "Come on, Stone, You've been asking the widow about Rohypnol. Why would
you do that if you didn't find some of it in his bloodstream?"
    That seemed to calm him down. "That's how you know about it?"
    "Exactly. I don't have any inside information."
    "Maybe you're telling me the truth. Why did she hire you, Larsen?"
    "You know I can't answer that. It's privileged."
    I was expecting his usual threats and belligerence. Instead, he surprised me.
"Then I'll do to you what you always do to me. Let's talk in hypotheticals."
    He was right about that. In my past encounter with Deputy DA Swain, I had used
a hypothetical as a backhanded way of providing him some information he desperately
needed. Stone had been there during the conversation. It amazed me that he was proposing
that same procedure.
    Maybe you could teach an old dog new tricks.
    "Okay. That's fair. What's your hypothetical?"
    "Try this. We'll assume that a woman--who happens to match the description of
a suspect in a possible homicide--hasn't officially been named as a suspect in her husband's
death. You, the great genius lawyer, tell me she couldn't have done it. But she hires you
anyway. Why would she need to hire you if she couldn't have done it? What could she
possibly be hiding?"
    "That's not really a hypothetical, but I'll answer it, anyway. First, she only
superficially matches the description of the woman at the opera, meaning that she happens
to have blonde hair and is an attractive woman. That describes half of the cheerleaders for
the Broncos or the Nuggets. But, for the purposes of your hypothetical, I'll give you that.
Second, as far as I know, there's no evidence this was a homicide. But setting all that aside,
you're on the wrong track, Stone. I can't tell you anything she and I have discussed, but
what she's hired me to do is no secret. Several people already know about it. Her husband's
will contains a provision whereby she is supposed to become a partner in his accounting
firm. His surviving partners have a different view about that. We met with them this
morning, to try to negotiate something. They're considering their options."
    "Yeah? Then why the hell were you calling Semper Security?"
    "Wouldn't any woman in her position want to know whether her husband was
cheating on her? Speaking hypothetically, of course. Think about it. They'd been married
less than a year. He tells her he's going out to play poker with the boys--you already know
all of this, so I'm not giving away any secrets--and she finds out he took some blonde babe
to the opera. Wouldn't you expect her to ask questions?"
    "Her, yes. But not you. And not by calling Semper Security. In my book, you're
interfering with my investigation."
    "Did Johnson say I asked him to do anything improper?"
    Stone didn't answer, which of course didn't surprise me. He was one-way Stone.
He didn't answer questions. He just asked them.
    "And did he say I told him to keep my call a secret?"
    No answer.
    I took advantage of his silence to ask one more question. "Were you calling
Johnson to talk about Rohypnol?"
    He said, "Go to hell!" and slammed down the receiver.
    I didn't take it to heart. Most of our conversations ended that way.
    Maurice had listened to my side of the conversation with a quizzical expression
on his face. "What's he accusing you of now?"
    "The usual. Interfering with his investigation. But, for once, our conversation
wasn't a waste of time."
    "Yeah? Why not?"
    "We've now established that Markowsky was there with a woman, that it wasn't
his wife, and that she fed him Rohypnol before she left the scene."
    "Great," he said. "Why would she do that?"
    "We haven't figured that out yet."
    The intercom sounded. I