A Cold Christmas (26 page)

“You're my princess right here.”

Adam got a kiss and a hug from Caley, and Ettie took his hand and led him to one of the tweed couches. Mat tried to get Caley to sit with them. She shook her head.

“Daddy?” Bonnie patted Mat's face. “You didn't ask what he wanted.”

“What, sweetheart?”

“The pictures with the numbers,” she said, proud to know something he didn't.

“Of course,” Mat said with a great show of astonishment. “He wanted to paint.”

Bonnie giggled.

Mat took Caley's elbow. “Sit down, Cal. Come on.”

She ignored him and asked Susan, “Do you think they'll let me in now?”

“I'll check for you.”

Susan fell into step beside Dr. Sheffield as he left Zach's room, and had to hustle to keep up. “I need to talk with Zach.”

“I assumed that's why you were hanging around. Give it a minute until the bandage gets replaced, then okay.” He gave her a severe physician's look. “Ten minutes.”

“Yes.”

When a slender young woman in white pants and flowered shirt came out and gave her a nod, Susan went in.

“You rescued me from that guy.” Zach's voice was tight with embarrassment.

“With a lot of help from you. I don't know what we'd have done if you hadn't jumped the guy. That was a very brave thing to do.”

He watched her, waiting for the rest of it.

“And very stupid. He had a gun to your head. You could have been killed.”

“It's just that your way was taking forever and I had to—”

She eyed him. “Had to what?”

“Go to the bathroom,” he admitted.

“Ah. I can see the problem. How did you get into that situation?”

He got a look on his face that she'd seen on one nephew or another over the years. It went along with, Do I have to?

“An officer got shot tonight,” she said.

“Is he hurt bad?”

“He'll be all right. Talk to me, Zach.”

Zach told her about seeing his father handing an envelope to Baines, seeing the money and almost being hit by Porter Kane, and being chased by Baines. He looked at her pleadingly. “Is my dad in trouble?”

“He might be.”

“Sometimes he does things without thinking.”

“Uh-huh. Like somebody else I know.”

Zach grinned. “Mom said for a smart kid, I can be pretty dumb sometimes.”

Susan nodded. “Like going to Kane's house.”

“I wanted him to give Baines back the money. And he was going to. I could tell he was. Then you guys showed up and he just went into orbit. Totally blew. I thought I was dead.”

“So did I, there for a minute. Were you ever in Ida Ruth Dandermadden's backyard?”

He looked sheepish. “Once. I wanted to tell her to quit saying bad things about my mom.”

“Did you?”

“I didn't even see her. By the time I got there I figured it wouldn't do any good anyway, so I just left.”

She squeezed his hand. “I'll probably be back, but right now your family is waiting.”

Caley, Mat, Ettie, Adam, and Bonnie were all in the waiting room. Bonnie was singing.

Itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout.

Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

Out came the sun and dried the water up.

Mat put down the book he was reading to Adam. “After I see Zach, I'll finish it.”

Itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout.

Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

Out came the sun and dried the water up.

Itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout.

Down came the rain and washed the spider out

Out came the sun—

“Bonnie, darlin',” Caley said. “You've been singing that for five minutes. Your grandma has heard it enough. Find another song.”

“Have you, Grandma?”

“Yes, sweetheart, I think I have. What else can you sing?”

“Itsy Bitsy Spider” was maddeningly running through Susan's mind as she headed down to the second floor to stop in on Demarco.

He was back from surgery, settled in a bed, sleepy from all the drugs he'd been given. Blood dripped into his arm from the unit on a pole. “Hi,” she said. “It looks like you're here for a while.”

“Nothing major damaged,” he mumbled.

“Good. You did a courageous thing, protecting that little girl.”

He started to shrug and winced. If he hadn't been so dopey from the surgery he probably would have said, Just part of the job.

“I'll stop in later to see if you need anything.”

“Itsy Bitsy Spider” ran through her mind as she headed back to the department. She snapped on the radio and wiped it out with
“Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.”

Hazel grinned at her when she came in.

“What?”

“The mayor left a message. Al Wily has the flu. Our mayor wants you to take his place in the parade.”

“What was Al Wily supposed to do?”

“Al's a clown.”

“What?”

Hazel laughed. “Won't that be fun? You'll get to paint your face and—”

Susan went to her office. As she worked on the folders stacked on her desk, something kept trying to touch her conscious mind, like the soft flitter of a butterfly wing.

She gulped a mouthful of coffee, then told Hazel to have someone pick up Mat James and bring him in. “He was at the hospital a few minutes ago.”

*   *   *

In the interrogation room, Mat sat with his back to the one-way glass and rose when she came in. He looked tired, deeper lines in his face, bloodshot eyes, unshaven, clothes wrinkled.

“Thank you for coming in, Mr. James,” she said.

“I wasn't given a choice. What's this about?”

She clicked on the tape recorder, stated the date, time, and names of all those present. When she recited the Miranda warning, he looked up, startled.

“Should I have an attorney?”

“Up to you. Would you like one?”

He hesitated, then sat down. “I'd like to know what I'm doing here.”

Susan sat across from him. White stood with his back to the door. “Can I get you something, Mr. James? Glass of water? Cup of coffee?”

“Coffee would be nice.”

He was soon to find out how wrong he was. “Cream or sugar?”

“One sugar.”

She nodded at White, who left and returned a minute or so later with a thick white mug of coffee. He set it down in front of Mat and Mat took a gulp.

“You gave Will Baines a large amount of money,” she said.

“Forgive me for saying so, but that's none of your business.”

“You killed Holiday/Noel because it was you twelve years ago who murdered his wife. Not Noel. He came here for revenge. Or did he have some evidence that didn't come out at the trial? Was that it? Something that showed you were in the house the day she was stabbed?”

“None of that's true,” he said tiredly.

“No? Then you won't mind telling what the money was for.”

“I was paying back a loan.”

“With cash?”

“That's how Baines does business.”

“Why did you borrow it?”

He put a hand on his jaw, thumb on one side, fingers on the other. “I got behind on some bills and needed to take care of them before they got delinquent.”

“What bills?” Susan asked.

He moved his thumb and fingers together at his chin, as though wiping something off. “There's no reason I need to answer that, but just to make sure you don't get the wrong idea, it was for car payments and furniture I bought for my apartment.”

“How do you know Will Baines?”

“I've known him for a long time. I knew him in Kansas City.”

“Have you borrowed money from him before?”

He smiled. Even though he was tired and the smile was ragged around the edges, it was still charming.

“Once again, Chief, I don't have to answer that.”

“Why did he move to Hampstead?”

“You'll have to ask him. I believe he came to see me once and liked it here. Now, if that's all you have in mind, I'm leaving.”

Susan thanked him for his time and watched him walk out with a confident, everything-under-control walk.

The damn itsy bitsy spider came back and spun away at her sanity.

37

“His name is Martin Thackeray,” Ellis said. “He runs the rare book and sewing machine place that Will Baines bought.”

“Oh. Right.” Susan leaned back in her desk chair.

“The place was closed, but he was working on the inventory and heard somebody up in Noel's apartment.”

“Break-in?”

Ellis nodded. “The guy wasn't even subtle about it. Took a crowbar and went at it. Tore the hell out of the door. I called for backup, and when Adler got there we went in and found him.”

“He say anything?”

“Naw. Just that we were making a mistake.”

She shuffled the folders on her desk until she found the Branner Noel case file. Taking out the two snapshots she'd found in Noel's apartment, she put them side by side on her desk. Snapshots of Mat James with two different young women. Flipping them over, she looked at the numbers on the back.

“Come with me,” she said to Ellis, pushed her chair back, and stood up.

Mat was standing with his back against the table. He straightened and sent her his engaging smile when they came in. “We meet again, Chief Wren?” The smile was less captivating now than it had been when she'd had him here twelve hours ago. After very little sleep last night, a day at work, and then breaking into Noel's apartment, Mat was starting to look a little frayed; his age was showing with more pronounced lines around his tired, bloodshot eyes. Even his skin was beginning to look slack, and stubble covered his jaw. He was still wearing a suit and tie, but his white shirt was less than pristine and he'd loosened the tie.

“Sit down, please, Mr. James.”

He moved a chair around to the head of the table and sat down.

She clicked on the tape recorder, stated the date, time, the names of all those present, and repeated the Miranda warning.

“Mr. James, what were you doing in Branner Noel's apartment?”

“He was an old friend. I felt I had to see where he'd been living before he died.”

She raised an eyebrow. “That doesn't sound even slightly likely.”

“Yeah, you're right.” He leaned back and hooked an elbow over the back of the chair. “I was looking for a key.”

“A key to what?”

“Safe-deposit box.”

“Where is this box?”

“Bran asked me, if anything ever happened to him, to take care of whatever needed taking care of. I wanted to see what needed to be done.”

“That didn't answer my question.” She waited. “The only key we found was for a safe-deposit box in Woodsonville. Is that the one you were looking for?”

“Woodsonville? That may be it. I've got it written down somewhere.”

He was playing games with her and she was tired of him. “There was a great deal of money in that box. Is that what you were after?”

He looked astonished. “Money? I had no idea what was in there.”

“Or were you looking for snapshots, Mr. James?”

She placed one on the table in front of him. “Who's the woman?”

“Kathleen,” he said softly. Cleared his throat and said, “My wife. First wife.”

She put the other snapshot in front of him. “This woman?”

“Deirdre—”

“Yes?”

“Noel. Deirdre Noel, Bran's wife.”

“The one you had an affair with, causing her husband to kill her.”

“No,” he said.

She didn't believe him. “Why were you trying to steal these photos, Mr. James?”

“A lawyer might argue they belong to me. Bran gave them to me and asked me to keep them safe while he was in prison.”

“How did they get into Noel's apartment?”

“Bran must have taken them from my basement.”

“Why take them? Why not ask?”

“I don't know.” Mat got to his feet. “I have to get back to the hospital.”

“Sit down, Mr. James.”

“I'm leaving.”

Susan shook her head. “I can arrest you for the murder of Branner Noel.”

“I didn't kill him.”

“Convince me.”

“What can I say? I didn't kill him. I don't know how to convince you.”

Susan turned over one photo. Mat froze for a split second. If she hadn't been watching so closely, she wouldn't have caught it.

“Is that what you were looking for, Mr. James?” She flipped it back before he could memorize the numbers.

“I don't have any pictures of Kathleen. I wanted it for Zach. One day he might want a picture of his biological mother.”

“How did you know Noel had taken the snapshots from your ex-wife's basement?”

He bent one leg and rested the ankle on his knee.

“That's what Bonnie was talking about at the hospital, wasn't it?”

He flashed a quick smile. “She's the only one who looked at those old albums.”

“You're under arrest—”

“For what?”

“Come come, Mr. James, surely you didn't think you were getting away with it. Breaking and entering. Grand theft—”

“Grand theft? A couple of old snapshots?”

“It's not the snapshots you were after. It's the account numbers on the back. You wanted to get at Noel's money.”

“It isn't his,” Mat said, dropping all pretense of not knowing what was going on.

“You want to tell me whose it is?”

“Ours.” Mat looked a bit more weary and wilted. “I had those photos all these years and didn't know the numbers were on the back.”

“Yours and Noel's.”