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“Of course not. I was too busy reeling from the shock. Have you ever had a flowerpot aimed at your head? No? Then you have no idea how terrible it feels. Your heart races, you see your whole life flash by in an instant, your blood pressure spikes…” Speaking of blood pressure, he now pressed his index finger against his jugular and checked his watch.

Alec used his pencil to scratch his scalp.“So how do know it was a he?”

“Eh?” Blood pressure seemed normal. Under the circumstances, of course.

“How do you know—”

“I heard you the first time. Well, why wouldn’t it be a he? I can’t imagine a woman throwing a flowerpot at an innocent passerby. Men are more prone to violence. Everybody knows that. And don’t you remember how Brutus almost got run over by that man in the yellow parka yesterday? Obviously someone is targeting this family, Alec, and obviously this person is a man. The same man who killed that poor girl that looked so much like Odelia.”

“I don’t—”

Tex did a double take.“Do you think he may have made a mistake? That he wanted to kill Odelia but he killed this Dany Cooper girl instead?”

“I don’t think—”

He tapped Alec’s chest sharply. “That means Odelia might still be in danger, Alec! You must send a unit round to her house at once. On the double!”

“I don’t think there’s any chance of that, Tex.”

“And why is that?”

“Because we caught Dany Cooper’s killer last night. He’s in custody and he won’t kill again.”

This had Tex stumped for a moment. He was, after all, a doctor, not a cop, and these glimpses into the inner workings of a police department sometimes confused him. Then something occurred to him. He tapped Alec’s chest again, making the other man wince. “Have you considered that you may have arrested the wrong man?”

“The wrong man?”

“Of course! If the killer is in custody, how do you explain him chucking flowerpots at me?!”

Chapter 30

Gran was on her way to work when she noticed that her son-in-law and a whole bunch of cops stood gabbing away across the street. She liked to leave a few minutes after Tex, because she didn’t want him to think of her as a mere employee doing his bidding. She might have accepted to work at his doctor’s office as a favor to Tex, but that didn’t mean she was his underling. She was her own person and not a flunky to be ordered around by Tex.

It had always been Vesta’s opinion that a son-in-law should be kept on a short leash, and a very short one at that. So when she saw Tex having a nice chat with Alec while they should be working, she didn’t even bother to join them. If Tex wanted to spend his time chatting instead of putting in the hours he owed his patients, that was his business. She would make sure she showed up first, and tell the patients the doctor had been delayed.

Or she could put in a quick stop at the deli and pick up some of that strawberry cream chocolate she liked so much. Or maybe she’d get the caramel cream one. And as she pondered this all-important decision, she suddenly stepped on a roller skate, which, true to form, slipped from under her and she fell, hard, on the pavement. And just as she did, she caught a glimpse of something yellow streak past in the front yard of the adjacent house.

Immediately, she started screaming bloody murder. Moments later, Tex, Alec and the entirety of the Hampton Cove Police Department came hopping to.

“Ma!” Alec cried, taking her left arm. “Are you all right?”

“What happened?” asked Tex, grabbing her right arm. Together, they hoisted her up.

“Someone put that skate there on purpose!” she exclaimed, pointing at the offending skate.

“Are you sure?” asked Alec.

“Of course I’m sure. What kind of question is that! I saw him! He was dressed in yellow and he ran that way.” When no one moved, she yelled, “Don’t just stand there! Go after him!”

And after him they went, all cops except for Alec and Tex, who wasn’t a cop but a doctor, and was now examining her for possible fractures.

She yanked her arm from his grasp.“Oh, I’m all right. It takes more than a nasty killer to get the better of me.”

“So you saw him too, huh?” said Tex, who looked shaken.

It was too much to say that her son-in-law’s sudden concern touched Gran’s heart, such as it was, but it did give her a twinge of satisfaction. She’d obviously trained Tex well, for him to suddenly display these signs of affection towards his sweet old mother-in-law.

“Yeah, I saw him. Dressed in yellow. A real fiend, to leave a skate like that. He must have known I’d trip over it and hoped I’d break my neck, being the old lady that I am. Old ladies easily break their necks, you see, on account of the fact that their bones are brittle and stuff. Not my bones, though. He hadn’t counted on that, the piece of skunk that he is.”

Alec was studying the skate.“Are you sure it wasn’t just kids that left this thing?”