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The doctor grumbled something under his breath, then proceeded to pull on a pair of plastic gloves, and give the patient on display his full attention. Moments later, he rose with a serious expression on his face.“Francine will be devastated. She loved his designs.”

“Who cares what your wife thinks?” said Gran. “Give us the verdict, medicine man.”

“She picked up a nice pair of pants from Costco last month. Two blouses, too. Discounted, of course. Still, she was happy as a clam. Guy knew his stuff.”

“Oh, my God! Are you going to keep flapping your gums or are you going to get to the point already?”

“Well, as far as I can tell—and this is very preliminary, mind you—he’s been dead for three or four hours. Cause of death is almost certainly a stab wound to the heart. I’ll know more once I get him on my slab.”

“Thanks, Abe,” said Chase, nodding.

“You’re welcome. Now if there’s nothing else…”

“We found a wrapper for a syringe under the bed,” said Gran.

“Probably something his nurse dropped,” said the doctor. He moved over to the nightstand and picked through the small collection of medication collected there. “Heart medicine, and diabetes, of course. Hypertension, anxiety… the usual. I’ll make you a list if you want.”

And as they were about to leave the room, allowing the coroner’s people to move the body down to a waiting ambulance and then to the morgue, there was suddenly a commotion at the door and a strange-looking man dressed in a long black overcoat came waltzing in.

“Not so fast,” he said, fixing all those present with a steely look.

“And who are you?” asked Chase.

The man drew himself up to his full height.“My name is Christopher Cross. And I was hired by that man’s mother,” he said, pointing to Leonidas.

All eyes swiveled to the old man on the bed.“Leonidas Flake had a mother?” asked Odelia, voicing the question that had occurred to everyone.

“Yes, he had. She’s ninety-eight years old but still in full possession of all her faculties. And upon learning the fate that has befallen her one and only son, she’s decided to engage my services.”

“And those are…” Gran prompted.

“I’m a private detective, with a long list of accolades and clients, and I’m here to take over this investigation.”

“I’m Hampton Cove PD, buddy,” said Chase, “so you’re not taking over anything.”

“Pardon me, sir. Of course I meant taking over from the amateur detectives present.” He directed a pointed look to Odelia and Gran. “Odelia Poole, if I’m not mistaken? I thought I’d find you here. And you must be Vesta Muffin. Charmed, I’m sure.” And he actually grabbed Gran’s hand and tried to press a kiss on it. He would have succeeded if Gran hadn’t pulled back her hand and in the process managed to smack the guy across the face with it.

“Ouch,” he said, then gave her a nasty look. “If that’s the way it’s going to be…”

“Look, I don’t know what your game is,” said Chase, “but this is a police investigation, and this is a crime scene, and you’re not invited. So buzz off.”

The guy cut a quick glance at the body, then took out his phone and started snapping pictures of the dead body.

“Hey!” said Chase. “What part of buzz off don’t you understand?”

“I have an official mandate from the victim’s mother,” said the detective. “And I will not be bullied!”

Officers Flunk and Skip had returned, and now attached themselves to the man’s arms and proceeded to escort him from the room.

“This is an outrage!” the detective was saying. “You’ll regret this, Detective Kingsley! Mark my words!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” said Chase. “So are we finished here?”

“Yes, we are,” said Odelia.

“You can take him away, Doc,” Chase told the coroner.

“So what’s the verdict?” asked Gran as they left the room. “What did your people find out?”

“Nothing much,” said Chase as they descended the stairs. “The maid is the only one who witnessed the aftermath of the crime. We talked to the rest of the staff, and all of them tell the same story: Flake was a very private man, who kept himself to himself. When he was in town he lived here with his boyfriend, and they rarely ventured out. Even though Crier is twenty-five years Flake’s junior, the match was a happy one, by all accounts, and they’re all shocked Crier could have done what he did. No one expected this.”

“Let’s hope you find out more when you talk to him,” said Gran.

“We will,” said Chase. He directed an apologetic look at Odelia. “I’m sorry for dragging you all the way out here.”

“That’s okay,” said Odelia. “I’m glad you won’t need my help.”

They walked out of the house.“So…” said Chase. “I’m sticking around, to make sure we wrap this up nice and tidy, and to make sure that idiot private detective doesn’t give us any more trouble. You two head on back to town.”

That idiot detective was at that moment talking to a member of Flake’s staff.

“You might tell the guy the case is closed,” suggested Gran. “Otherwise he’ll only waste Flake’s mother a lot of money and his staff a lot of time.”