Free Very Bad Men by Harry Dolan

him a while, for observation.”
    â€œWhen he leaves, he might want to try a different exit. There’s a news crew outside.”
    â€œLovely.”
    Shan started to ask what she had learned from Bell, but Elizabeth was only half-listening. She had spotted a woman sitting at the end of a row of chairs, in the shadow of a tall artificial fern. She wore a white silk blouse and a gray skirt. She matched the description of the woman from the Eightball Saloon.
    Shan had noticed her too. “What’s she doing here?” he asked.
    Elizabeth answered automatically. “She followed the ambulance that brought Bell in.”
    â€œDoes she know him?”
    â€œI don’t know, but she saw his attacker. We need to question her.”
    â€œShe witnessed the assault on Bell?” Shan said. “She’s a busy little thing, isn’t she?”
    Something in his tone made Elizabeth frown. “What are you talking about?”
    He raised his hand in a wave, and the woman waved back.
    â€œShe was at Kormoran’s apartment,” he said. “She’s the one who found the body.”
    They watched the woman rise under the shadow of the fern.
    â€œThat’s Henry Kormoran’s sister.”

CHAPTER 8
    T he woman in the silk blouse had a dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose. She had tried to cover them with a layer of foundation, but they had managed to fight their way through. Elizabeth estimated her age at twenty-five.
    â€œI’m afraid I lied to you,” the woman said, looking at Shan.
    â€œThat’s unusual,” said Elizabeth.
    â€œIs it? People never lie to you?”
    â€œThey lie all the time,” Shan said. “What they don’t do is admit it. It’s disappointing.”
    â€œI shouldn’t have done it. I apologize.”
    Elizabeth traced a finger along one of the plastic leaves of the fern. “It’s disappointing because Detective Shan here would much rather catch you in a lie. If you’re just going to admit it, there’s no challenge. You could at least make him work for it. What you should have done is let us take you back to the station, put you in a room alone—”
    â€œUnder glaring lights—” added Shan.
    â€œIn a chair that wobbles, because we’ve filed down one of the legs. And once you’re there, we’d let you wait. For an hour—”
    â€œMaybe two.”
    â€œAnd then Detective Shan would come in and slap a thick folder down on the table. And just when you’re prepared to admit everything, he’d find an excuse to leave—”
    â€œI usually pretend I forgot to bring a pen,” Shan confided.
    â€œThat’s a classic move,” said Elizabeth. “And by the time he gets back with a pen, you’re so anxious that you blurt out a confession before he even sits down, because you’re afraid he’s going to leave again.” She paused, shaking her head. “And it could have been like that, you would have made his night, but you had to come out and admit that you lied.”
    The woman in the silk blouse looked back and forth between them, a faint smile on her lips. “I’m almost sorry I missed all that,” she said.
    â€œIt’s a lost opportunity now,” said Elizabeth. “What did you lie about?”
    â€œI’m not really Henry Kormoran’s sister.”
    â€œWho are you?” Shan asked her.
    She reached into her handbag and passed Shan a business card.
    Elizabeth glimpsed her name, LUCY NAVARRO, and the title of the paper she worked for— The National Current.
    â€œA member of the press,” Shan said.
    â€œThe rest of what I told you was true,” said Lucy Navarro. “I arranged to meet Henry Kormoran for lunch yesterday, but he never showed. So I went to his apartment tonight. I told the manager I was his sister so he’d let me in.”
    â€œWhy did you want to meet