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“Is Gabriel Crier the killer, Chief? Why did he do it?” asked the woman. “And is it true that Leo Flake left his entire fortune to his cat? Any comment?”

“Get out!” thundered the Chief. “Out! Out! Out!”

More officers had arrived on the scene, and managed to muscle the twosome out of the room before their chief had a conniption fit.

“Can you believe that?” he demanded hotly.

“Actually, I can,” said Chase, who seemed amused at the interlude.

And as Alec stood reeling, he remembered the woman reporter’s last question: Is it true that Flake is leaving his entire fortune to his cat?

“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said. “Maybe that’s our motive, buddy. If Flake had decided to leave everything to his cat, then maybe this made Crier so angry he decided to kill him.”

“Which means he’ll get nothing,” said Chase. “Not much of a motive, Chief.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he said, frowning as he tapped his lip with his index finger. “We’re not talking about a rational person, here, though, Chase. And he might be lying about the fight. They could have been fighting over the inheritance, not about Leo Flake being a workaholic.”

“Let’s get back in there and have another crack at the guy,” Chase suggested.

They both joined Gabriel Crier in the interrogation room once more, and this time Alec decided to change tack. Instead of being the nice cop, he decided to play the bad cop and go for broke.

So he pounded the table with his fist—hard. “Isn’t it true that you and Leo fought about his intention to leave his fortune to his cat?” he demanded.

Gabriel stared at him, the sudden change in the chief’s demeanor shocking.

“N-n-no,” he said feebly. “No, like I said, we—”

“You couldn’t stand that he would leave everything to his cat and nothing to you, could you!” the Chief roared, pounding the table three times in quick succession and causing Gabriel to flinch. “Andthat’s why you fought! Andthat’s why you killed him, because you were so angry you felt you had nothing to lose!”

“N-n-no! I l-l-loved him. He l-l-loved me. The Pussy thing was simply a way for him to… Oh, Christ. Look, he left everything to Pussy, but he also left Pussy to me, so in a roundabout way he left everything to me, you see.”

“Bullshit!” cried Alec, then wondered why he’d said that.

Chase, deciding to take over, said,‘”So is that why you killed him, Gabriel? Because you wanted to lay your hands on all of that money?”

“No! I wasn’t with him for the money. I was with him for love. And I wanted him to live forever, and he could have, for he was in great shape. He was probably in better shape than me, in spite of his age. Look, you have to look into this,” he said, nervously searching Chase’s face. “You really have to. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that I didn’t do this. I know myself. I’m not a killer. Whenever we had a spider in the bathroom I’d yell for Leo. I can’t even swat a fly, or a wasp—or a mosquito! And I definitely can’t kill a human being—or my beloved, lovely Leo!”

“But you did,” Alec pointed out. “And all we need to know is why. But even so, you’re still going to be convicted of this crime, Gabriel, so you might as well talk.”

“Oh, God,” said Gabriel, and thumped his head on the table.

“Hey, Gabriel, hey, hey, hey,” said Alec, realizing he might have taken this bad cop routine too far. “It’s fine. I’m sorry I yelled at you, okay? I’m sorry.”

Chase arched his eyebrows.‘You’re the worst bad cop in the history of bad cops,’ his expression seemed to say.

“Listen, buddy,” said Alec, placing his hand on the man’s shoulder. “We’ll investigate further, all right? But it’s not looking too good for you, you do see that, right?”

Gabriel lifted his head from the table, a big red welt on his forehead. It contrasted nicely with the pallor of the rest of his face.“It doesn’t look too good for me,” he repeated automatically, then added, “Someone is trying to frame me, Chief. There’s no other possibility.”

“Or you killed him and blocked it out,” said the Chief gently.

Gabriel blinked.“Yeah,” he said finally. “I guess that’s also possible.”

Chapter 14

Odelia arrived home a little after six. She’d written the biggest chunk of her article for the paper but there were still a few gaps in the story she needed to patch up. She hoped Max and the others would have sniffed out a few choice tidbits of intel, straight from the horse’s mouth, or, if a horse hadn’t been available, some other animal. The petting zoo should have supplied plenty of material to work with. Those little details that give a story oomph and thatje-ne-sais-quoi your average reader is looking for when picking up his morning paper or checking his morning website, as nowadays was more the habit.