Never Tease a Siamese: A Leigh Koslow Mystery (19 page)

"Jared!" Nikki shouted, bolting forward. Leigh leaped after her, careful to avoid her husband’s would-be restraining clutches. The three raced up the back stairs of the kitchen and emerged, one by one, in the upstairs hall.

Jared sat hunched on his knees in the middle of the corridor, swaying slowly backward and forward. His face was buried in his hands, and he appeared to be half crying, half hiccuping from too many lost breaths. He made a noise that seemed as though it were intended to be words, but came out only as a garbled moan.

Nikki was with him on the floor in a flash. "Jared," she said soothingly, pulling his hands down. "What happened? Are you all right? Are you hurt?"

The young man looked at his sister for a long moment, and his breathing gradually steadied. "Nikki’s at the Y on Tuesdays."

"Yes," she answered. "But I’m back now. You cleaned the cages?"

He thought a moment. "I was cleaning the cages in the basement, Nikki."

"You were cleaning the cages in the basement and something happened?" she coaxed.

"I heard the doorbell," he replied more evenly, and adjusted himself to sit in a more comfortable position. One of several Siamese prowling the hall strolled up, approached his arm, and rubbed its face against him. "I heard the doorbell but I didn’t open the door, Nikki. I don’t open Mrs. Murchison’s door."

"No, that’s right, you don’t," she confirmed quickly. "Then what happened?"

"Mrs. Murchison opened the door herself."

Nikki took a deep breath. "Did you see her come in?"

Jared shook his head. "She was already in, Nikki. She opened the door."

Leigh stepped forward. "Jared, do you mean that Mrs. Murchison opened the door for somebody
else
to come in?"

He nodded.

Warren stepped around the women and began looking down the hall, cell phone in hand. Siamese were everywhere, but they were all strangely silent. Leigh squatted down on the floor next to Nikki and Jared. "Did you hear Mrs. Murchison and the other person talking?" she asked calmly.

Another loud crack of thunder shook the still air, and the women both started. Jared didn’t seem to notice. "I heard the doorbell ring," he repeated. "I heard Mrs. Murchison open the door and shut it."

He seemed to have no more to say. The friendly Siamese hopped onto his lap, shamelessly nudging his hand for a stroke. He obliged.

"What happened after that, Jared?" Nikki urged. "Something must have happened. Why did you come up here?"

The man’s eyes misted over. "I heard Mrs. Murchison scream, Nikki."

Leigh heard the familiar sound of Warren’s cell phone beeping from down the hallway. He was talking to someone, but she couldn’t make out the words.

"Mrs. Murchison screamed," Nikki said tensely. "And you came up to see what was wrong?"

Jared’s face was stricken. "I’m not supposed to bother Mrs. Murchison, Nikki."

"No, of course not," she agreed. "But you were worried about her, so you came upstairs."

"She stopped screaming."

"That was when you came upstairs?"

He didn’t respond immediately. "When something’s around your neck tight you can’t breathe, Nikki. People got to breathe, Nikki. Animals too. Everything’s got to breathe, Nikki."

Leigh’s pounding heart seemed to stop in mid beat. She rose.

"That’s right, Jared," Nikki answered. "Everything’s got to breathe."

"She couldn’t breathe, Nikki."

Leigh continued down the hall in the direction of Warren’s voice. She found him standing at the doorway of a bedroom on the left side of the hall, and he quickly put out a hand to stop her.

"Who couldn’t breathe, Jared?" Nikki was asking.

Leigh looked over his husband’s outstretched arm and into the bedroom. Not five feet in front of her, a woman’s body lay on the floor, legs and arms sprawled, neck reddened, open eyes bulging. On one side of her blond head lay a heap of thin leather that looked like a whip. On the other lay a particularly ancient Siamese cat.

Jared’s trembling voice drifted down the hallway.

"Mrs. Murchison, Nikki."

Chapter 15

"If that cop so much as looks at Jared funny I swear to God I’ll pound him," Nikki fumed, pacing the hallway outside the Murchison kitchen. Leigh had practically pushed
the female fireball out after she had begun to accost the perfectly polite Ben Avon police officer with her biceps-flexing routine. "Those cops’ll look at him like he’s some sort of animal and they’ll arrest him on the spot, I know they will."

"No, they won’t," Leigh assured, projecting more confidence than she felt.

"Do you have any idea what would happen to Jared in the county jail?" Nikki practically screamed. "Any idea?"

In truth, Leigh knew much more about the Allegheny County jail than she cared to relay. "It won’t happen, Nikki," she continued. "Jared was just an innocent bystander, and the detectives will realize that when they get here."

Nikki stopped pacing and threw her back against a wall of cabinets. "He pulled that whip away from her neck. His prints are going to be all over it."

"That’s perfectly explainable. Any detective worth his or her salt knows that just because a person is first on the scene doesn’t make them the murderer." Leigh tried to get the words out without thinking unkind thoughts about Maura’s detective boyfriend, but it was tough.

"Maybe we can help them figure out who their real suspects should be," she suggested. "Have you ever seen that whip before?"

"Of course not! Mrs. Murchison would never keep anything like that lying around."

"All right. There’s something. Whoever killed her brought it with them. And if someone came over here to kill her, they must have known that she wasn’t already dead."

The younger woman sighed. "But everybody already
suspected
she was alive. Rumors were flying all over the place."

"Okay," Leigh reasoned. "But only two people we know of stood to benefit from her death—at least monetarily. The mystery heir…and Dean."

Nikki seemed to think a moment, then shook her head. "I still don’t believe there is a mystery heir. I told you Ms. Lilah liked to jerk people around. Why do you think she didn’t come forward after the airplane crash? She had to know it went down and that everyone thought she was on it." She muttered a series of extremely unkind words. "Screwing around with other people’s minds was what Lilah Murchison did best, believe me."

"So then Dean must have done it."

"No!" Nikki protested angrily.

Leigh’s eyebrows rose. "Why not?"

Nikki made an unintelligible sound of frustration and bounced back off the wall. "Because Dean’s a moron, that’s why. And a crybaby. He’s not the sort that goes around strangling people, least of all his mother. He talked a big game, but I’m telling you he was scared to death of her."

"What about Rochelle?"

"She can be a schemer, but —" Nikki shook her head. "I just can’t see it. Why would they kill Ms. Lilah now? Geez, once he knew she was alive, Dean would have been better off to make nice to her and try to get her to change her will again. Even if they got away with killing her, as things stand now they’d have to wait a whole five years for the money."

Leigh debated with herself. She could swear Nikki really didn’t believe Mrs. Murchison had another child. Much less…  "Nikki," she began before she could talk herself out of it. "Why are you so sure that Mrs. Murchison doesn’t have another heir? Because I’ve got to tell you; I think she does."

The other end of the hallway filled with the form of a large man, and a familiar face looked them both over. He seemed puzzled for a moment, then smiled ever so slightly. "Hello. Detective George Hollandsworth, here. Allegheny County Homicide." He pointed a notebook towards Leigh. "You’re Bess Cogley’s niece, aren’t you?"

She smiled too, also ever so slightly. Whenever she got referred to as Bess Cogley’s niece, it made her nervous. She had met Hollandsworth over a year before when he had investigated an incident near her aunt’s house in Franklin Park. Why he should remember her aunt’s name and not hers was something no one who knew her aunt would have to wonder.

"Um, yes. Leigh Koslow. Nice to see you again."

"Quite," he said pleasantly. "I understand you’re married now, to a County Councilman."

Leigh nodded mutely. Evidently, the incident in Franklin Park had not been the last he had seen of her hopelessly flirtatious Aunt Bess. Interesting.

The detective turned toward Nikki with his hand extended, but the younger woman stood perfectly still, staring daggers at him. When her tiny fists started to twitch, Leigh decided to intervene. "Why don’t we all go into the kitchen?" she said smoothly, waving Hollandsworth ahead while planting herself between him and Nikki. "I’m sure you have questions for all of us."

And that he did—though when he proposed questioning them one at a time in the adjoining family room, starting with Jared, Nikki’s fists immediately went back into action. "I stay with my brother," she snarled. Jared was still sitting quietly at the table next to Warren, his head down. It was the same position he had been in since the police arrived, and he hadn’t said another word.

"He’s mentally challenged, sir," the Ben Avon officer explained quietly. "He hasn’t responded to any of our questions."

"My brother was born with Down Syndrome," Nikki explained stonily. "You have to ask him questions in a certain way, or he won’t answer you. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t know the answers. He knows a hell of lot more than most people."

Hollandsworth sized Nikki up with a tired look, then nodded. "All right. Stay as you are, then, if he’s comfortable. How about I ask the questions, and you translate as necessary. Just translate—no answering for him."

Seeming a little more content, Nikki nodded. Jared relaxed again as she sat beside him, and when the questions came from her, he answered easily. They moved quickly through the business of establishing why he was in the house and what he was doing, but when they reached the part where the doorbell had rung, the young man got increasingly nervous.

"And how long was it between the time the doorbell rang and when you heard the scream?" Hollandsworth asked, his eyes moving back and forth between the brother and sister as he scribbled on his pad.

"He can’t—" Nikki began, but then she got an idea. "Jared," she asked, "Whose cage were you cleaning when the doorbell rang?"

"Mr. Moto’s, Nikki. It was very messy, Nikki."

"And whose cage were you cleaning when you heard the scream?"

Jared thought about it. "Dr. Goldfinger, Nikki. Almost done with Dr. Goldfinger."

Nikki looked up at Hollandsworth. "He always cleans left to right, top to bottom. Those cages are right next to each other, so I’d say five to ten minutes, max."

The detective looked impressed. "And after he heard the scream, did he hear anyone leave? A door slamming?"

Nikki bit her lip. "Jared, the person that Mrs. Murchison let inside the house. When they left, did you hear the door slam?"

He seemed to shiver a little. "I heard a door slam, Nikki."

"What were you doing when you heard the door slam?" Hollandsworth asked for himself.

"I was taking off the thing, Nikki," Jared said softly. "The thing around her neck."

His sister exhaled with a shudder. "The person was still in the house, then," she said out loud, her eyes wide. "They saw him with her."

"Did you ever see the other person, Jared?" Hollandsworth asked.

Jared simply shook his head.

"Why did you go upstairs?" Nikki asked, cutting off the detective’s next question. "Did you go up right after you heard the scream?"

Jared began to rock back and forth in his chair, obviously agitated. "I heard the scream, then I got Dr. Goldfinger’s food and water, Nikki. I’m not supposed to bother Mrs. Murchison. I got the food and water for Dr. Goldfinger and I—. I wanted to know why Mrs. Murchison was screaming, Nikki. I shouldn’t have bothered her. I don’t bother Mrs. Murchison."

"You did good, Jared," Nikki broke in firmly. "You did everything just right." She stood up and walked over to Hollandsworth’s chair. "He’s had enough for now, do you hear me?" she whispered intently. "He feels guilty because he went against my instructions by going upstairs when Mrs. Murchison was home. He also feels guilty because another part of him thinks that if he’d gone upstairs as soon as he heard the scream, she might still be breathing. But none of this is his fault, and I won’t let
anyone
make him think it is. Understand?"

Hollandsworth, who had the good sense to show no reaction at all to Nikki’s display of bravado, offered a solemn nod. "I think Jared can take a break for a while while I interview the rest of you. Just one more thing, though: how does he normally get through Mrs. Murchison’s security system to come in and clean?"

"He has his own code," Nikki answered. "It’s a very complicated system. Any time he goes in or out, he uses his key and punches in his code. That keeps the system on in case anybody tries to open any of the doors while he’s working inside."