File M for Murder (20 page)

Kanesha stared at me for a moment, her expression deadpan. “I have that effect on some people.”

The woman did have a sense of humor after all. I sputtered with laughter, and Diesel meowed a couple of times. Kanesha maintained her demeanor, though I would have sworn I saw one corner of her mouth twitch slightly.

“Come on in the kitchen,” I said when I stopped laughing. “Laura’s in here with a visitor.” I motioned for her to precede me.

When we walked into the kitchen, Diesel ahead of us, Laura and Frank sat at the table, involved in an animated discussion. I worried that Laura was overdoing it, because to my eye she was beginning to look a bit flushed—a sure sign that she was tired and needed rest.

Sean was there as well. He nodded and gave me a thumbs-up to indicate he’d been successful in copying the files on the thumb drive.

The conversation broke off as Laura and Frank caught sight of Kanesha. Sean and Frank stood, as properly reared Southern men should do when a woman enters a room. It might be interpreted negatively in other parts of the country, but here in Mississippi it was just plain good manners, not chauvinism.

Kanesha nodded in response to Sean’s greeting. “Afternoon,
Mr. Harris, Miss Harris.” She regarded Frank with her customary enigmatic expression.

“Frank Salisbury, ma’am.” Frank stepped forward and extended a hand. “Friend of Laura’s.”

Kanesha gave his hand a quick shake. “Chief Deputy Kanesha Berry.” Then her attention focused on Laura. “I have some questions for you, Ms. Harris. I realize you’re probably tired and not feeling all that good after what you went through the past couple of days. But I need answers.”

“I understand, Deputy.” Laura smiled, but I could see the strain in her face. She had overtired herself, and I should have been more zealous about keeping people away from her so she could rest.

“Good. Is there somewhere we can talk privately?” Kanesha shot pointed looks at Sean and Frank.

“Here’s fine with me,” Laura said.

Sean said, “I’ll get out of the way, then.”

Frank, however, frowned and stood beside Laura. “Are you sure you’re up to this, darling?” He regarded her with evident concern.

Laura patted his hand and said, “I’ll be fine. You go on, and I’ll call you later.” Frank didn’t appear convinced, but he didn’t argue. He gave her a quick kiss before he nodded and followed Sean out of the kitchen.

“Can I offer you anything to drink, Deputy?” I moved toward the sink. “Laura, honey, what about you?” I intended to stay in the room unless Kanesha threw me out.

“Wouldn’t mind some water,” Kanesha replied.

“Nothing for me, Dad,” Laura said.

While I filled a glass with cold water from a pitcher in the fridge, Kanesha walked over to the table and sat down in the chair recently vacated by Frank.

Diesel, I noticed, took up position between Laura and Kanesha. He looked back and forth between them.

Kanesha thanked me when I handed her the glass of water. I sat down at the other end of the table from Laura, and all I got from Kanesha was a raised eyebrow. Then she turned back to Laura.

“The incident this morning.” Kanesha had a sip of water, then set the glass on the table. “Tell me everything you remember, from the moment you arrived on campus.”

Laura nodded and took a couple of deep, calming breaths before she answered. “I walked to campus from here. Must have been about seven when I left the house, and I rambled around campus for a while. I glanced at my watch when I reached the building, and it was a couple minutes past eight.”

Kanesha pulled a notebook from her uniform pocket, along with a pen, and jotted the times down. “Did you see anyone in the building when you arrived?”

Laura frowned. “No, I didn’t. But I heard someone, in the stairwell. I always take the stairs, helps me keep fit. When I was about halfway up the first flight—there are two short ones per floor—I heard footsteps above me, but I didn’t think anything about them until now.”

“You didn’t catch a glimpse of this person?”

“No.” Laura shook her head. “When I reached the second floor, I exited into the hallway and walked down to my office. Oh, I stopped by the staff lounge on the way to see if anyone was there, but there wasn’t. So I went on to my office and pulled out my notes on the play to work on.”

Kanesha made more notes. There was silence for a few moments while she wrote. She looked up at Laura. “Clear and concise, like your father.” The ghost of a grin hovered around her lips, then disappeared.

Diesel chose that moment to meow rather loudly, and Laura and I both smiled. Kanesha glanced down at the cat, her expression bland.

“You were working on your notes,” Kanesha said, prompting Laura.

“I meant to, but I couldn’t seem to focus.” Laura frowned. “I just stared at the wall for a long time. Eventually I needed to go to the bathroom. I remember going down the hall to the ladies’ room near the stairs. And I obviously made it back to my office, but I’m afraid that’s where my memories of the morning end. Until I woke up, that is.”

“How long would you say you sat in your office before you went to the bathroom? Kanesha drained her water glass as she waited for an answer.

Laura thought about it for a moment. “Probably thirty minutes, at least. I seem to remember checking my watch at one point, and it was about eight forty-five. I think.”

“Good.” Kanesha nodded. She turned to me. “What time did you arrive on the scene?”

I had been thinking about that and trying to remember. The morning’s events seemed oddly distant now, but I forced myself to concentrate. “Sean called me about nine to say he couldn’t get Laura to answer her cell phone, so I decided to see if she was in her office. I ran, along with Diesel, from my office to Laura’s, and it took only four or five minutes, maybe. So I’d say I found Laura in her office, with Magda Johnston kneeling over her, between nine-ten and nine-fifteen.”

Kanesha made more notes as she resumed questioning Laura. “What you’ve told me so far is from your visual memory.” She waited for Laura to nod in the affirmative before she continued. “But there are other kinds of memories, auditory memories, or scent ones. Think about it for a moment. Did you hear anything or smell anything in the moments before you were struck?”

Laura stared at the deputy for a long moment. “That’s
really strange,” she said finally. “There
was
an odd smell. But what was it?” She had a look of deep concentration.

Neither Kanesha nor I said anything. Diesel, however, chose that moment to warble. “No comments from the peanut gallery,” Kanesha said in a low voice.

Laura didn’t appear to have heard either the cat or the deputy. Suddenly she smiled. “Motor oil. That was what I smelled. Motor oil.”

Motor oil
, I thought.
How very strange. Was Laura’s attacker a mechanic?
This certainly bore more thought. Who among the people associated with Connor might be around motor oil?

“That’s an unusual scent,” Kanesha commented. “Does it bring anyone you might know to mind?”

Laura shook her head slowly. “Not that I can think of. That really is weird, isn’t it? Motor oil.”

“At some point, you might remember something else.” Kanesha tapped her notebook with the pen. “Can you think of any reason why someone would attack you?”

Laura glanced at me, her expression one of mute appeal. “Damitra Vane has accosted Laura at least twice that I know of,” I said. “I wouldn’t put it past her to attack my daughter physically.”

Kanesha faced me. “Miss Vane was at the sheriff’s department when the attack took place.” She turned back to Laura. “Who else?”

Once again Laura’s eyes sought mine. I took a seat at the table, and Kanesha’s eyes narrowed as they focused on me. “The attacker might have been after something in Laura’s possession.” My stomach knotted as I spoke. This wasn’t going to be pleasant.

“Like what?” Kanesha frowned at me.

“This.” Laura had the thumb drive in her hand, extended in Kanesha’s direction. Her hand trembled slightly.

“Place it on the table.” Kanesha stared hard at Laura as she did as the deputy asked. “What is it?”

“It was Connor’s,” Laura said. She paused for a deep breath. “He backed up all the files on his laptop on it. Have you found his laptop?”

“No, we haven’t. How long have you had this?” Kanesha’s tone was harsh.

“Since yesterday. Connor asked me to keep it for him.” Laura focused on the table as she lied to the deputy. “He was kind of paranoid about anything happening to it.”

I frowned at my daughter. What did she think she was doing? Taking the thumb drive from the scene was bad enough. Now she was compounding the act by lying about it.

“Could I have a paper towel to wrap this in?” Kanesha directed her request to me, and I hastened to comply. She took the paper towel and wrapped the thumb drive in it, then tucked it into one of her pockets.

“Thank you,” she said to Laura. “I wish I’d had it sooner, but I reckon you weren’t in too good a condition to think about it before now.”

Laura smiled faintly. “No, I wasn’t.” She still wouldn’t look at me.

What should I do?
I wondered. Rat out my daughter and tell Kanesha the truth? How would Laura react if I did such a thing? I was annoyed with her for putting me in this position,
but I decided that, for the moment, I’d have to go along with her.

“Have you looked at the files on this thing?” Kanesha patted her pocket.

“No, I haven’t.” Laura placed subtle emphasis on the pronoun, and I wasn’t certain whether Kanesha picked up on it. “Was Connor murdered?”

Her blunt question startled me, but Kanesha didn’t appear bothered by it. “We have reason to believe he didn’t die naturally, and I’m currently treating this as a murder inquiry.”

I waited to hear further details, but I should have known better. Kanesha wouldn’t tell us one jot more of information than she wanted us to have. I had thought all along that Lawton had been murdered, and now I was even more worried for my daughter’s safety than before. I started to ask Kanesha about protection for Laura, but she forestalled me with another question.

“Did Mr. Lawton have any enemies that you’re aware of?”

Laura appeared to be tiring rapidly. She rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes as she answered. “Not enemies
per se
, but he definitely had people angry with him.”

“Like who?” Kanesha had her pen and notebook poised to write.

I decided to answer for Laura. The sooner this ended, the better. She needed rest. “Ralph Johnston for one. He was upset with Lawton yesterday over the way Lawton was behaving during the workshopping session. He even threatened to go to the president of the college to try to have Lawton’s contract cancelled.”

Kanesha frowned at me, whether in irritation over my answering instead of Laura I didn’t know. “What happened during this workshopping session? And what is it?”

Laura answered before I could continue. “The actors
read their parts so the director—Connor, in this case, and he was also the playwright—can hear how it sounds onstage.” She shrugged. “Connor was up to his usual behavior—histrionics, yelling at the student actors, at me, you name it. He wasn’t happy with anyone, least of all himself.” She finally looked at me. “Dad, could I have some more tea?”

“Of course, sweetheart.” I jumped up to make the tea for her.

“I’ll need a list of everyone who was at this session yesterday,” Kanesha said.

“I’ll have to look at my class roll for all the names,” Laura said. “I haven’t learned everyone’s surnames yet.” She paused. “I don’t seriously think any of the students are involved. They barely knew him.”

“Maybe,” Kanesha said. “But they’ll all need to be interviewed. Who else disliked him?”

“Damitra Vane.” Laura grimaced. “She probably didn’t dislike him. She’d go on and on about how much she loved him and he loved her. But Connor didn’t, and didn’t want to be involved with her. But she wouldn’t leave him alone.”

I set Laura’s mug of tea in front of her, and she slipped her hands around it with a faint smile of thanks for me. After a moment she lifted it and had a few sips of the tea. Her face regained a bit of color.

“What about you?” Kanesha slipped the question in so smoothly that at first I wasn’t sure I’d heard it.

“Me?” Laura paled slightly. “I didn’t dislike him. He annoyed the heck out of me, sure, but I was used to him. I didn’t let him bother me.”

“You were engaged to him at one time, I believe.”

I wondered where she got that information. After brief reflection I decided Damitra Vane must have told her.

“Yes, I was. But I ended it a few months ago.” Laura drank more tea.

“He got you the job here, didn’t he?” Kanesha leaned forward in her chair, her gaze intent on my daughter.

Laura shrugged. “Yes, he did. He knew I was between gigs, plus he knew my dad lived here. He could be kind, you know.” She blinked away sudden tears.

“Were you still in love with him?” Kanesha’s tone had gained an edge.

Laura’s reply was sharp and short. “No.”

“So you had no motive to harm him?” Kanesha sounded harsh.