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“He did. Sometime late last night.”

“Uh-huh,” Luke said, not showing the least bit of interest.

“So where were you guys last night?” asked Odelia casually.

“Here,” said Luke.

“You and your sister both?”

“Sure. Where else would we be?”

“You didn’t go out?”

“Nope. Had some friends over. Had a little party. Slept.”

When nothing more seemed forthcoming, Odelia decided to broach a sensitive subject.“Did Natalie tell you about her affair with Madison?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And how did you feel about that?”

He frowned.“What do you mean?”

“When Madison broke it off with your sister.”

“Yeah?”

“How did that make you feel?”

“I don’t get it,” he said, confused.

“Were you upset that your sister’s boss got her pregnant and then broke up with her?”

“Why would I be upset about that? It’s her life. Nothing to do with me.”

“No, I get that, but as her older brother—”

“Younger.”

“As her younger brother, you might have been upset with Madison.”

“Well, I wasn’t, all right? Frankly I didn’t care. If she wanted to have an affair with her boss—incidentally the oldest clich? in the book—that was her business.”

“She was clearly upset, though.”

He frowned.“Okay, so who are you, exactly? And why the third degree?”

Patiently, Odelia once more explained who she was, causing the kid to groan with annoyance.

“Just get lost, okay? If I’d known you were a reporter I’d never have let you in.”

“Who did you think I was?”

“How should I know? Natalie’s friend or whatever. But you’re clearly not a friend, so you can just get lost.” And as we removed ourselves from the apartment, as requested, he yelled after us, “And don’t come back!”

Frankly I had no intention of going back to talk to this annoying individual, and neither had Odelia. I felt sorry for Natalie, though, who had to live with this guy.

“Family isn’t always everything, is it, Max?” said Dooley as Odelia drove us home.

“No, it’s not,” I agreed.

“Poor Natalie.”

“Yeah, poor Natalie.”

Dooley turned to Odelia.“If your investigation reveals Natalie as Michael Madison’s killer, maybe you can hold off on having her arrested until she kills her brother, too.”

Odelia laughed at this.“Thanks for the tip, Dooley. But I don’t think that’s entirely legal.”

“No, but it’s the right thing to do,” my friend returned.

Maybe he had a point. With family like that, who needs enemies?

CHAPTER 28

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Before going home, though, Odelia decided to make a detour by the police precinct, to discuss the case with her husband and uncle. And so we found ourselves in Uncle Alec’s office for the second time in one day.

And as Odelia gave the two cops an extensive report of her findings, it soon became clear that she’d been liaising with Chase all the while, and the latter hadn’t been idle either. He’d been checking the alibis of the suspects Odelia had interviewed, and the result was thus: Gary Rapp had indeed spent the night drinking at a bar with some lovely ladies, but had left at two, which would have given him plenty of time to slip back to the office and kill his former boss.

Wayne Piscina hadn’t lied when he said he delivered a meal to a late client, and that same late client had confirmed his story as had Piscina’s new boss. His route had taken him pretty close to Advantage headquarters, though, so who was to say he hadn’t paid a visit to his old boss, gotten into an argument andshoved him out of his window? It would also explain the lack of badge activity, if Madison had personally buzzed his late-night visitor in and taken him up to his office.

Though the same went for Gary Rapp, of course.

“Okay, so as far as the others are concerned,” said Odelia, checking her notes, “Deith Madison was home alone—which we need to check. Natalie Ferrara was home with her brother—at least according to the brother. I haven’t managed to get a hold of her. Tom Mitchell was home with his family.” She looked up with a smile of amusement. “His mom went to great lengths to explain how she’s a light sleeper and would have heard if Tom left the house at any point last night.”

“And the same applies to Danny, I suppose,” said Chase.

“Is he a suspect?” asked Uncle Alec.

“Not really,” said Odelia. “Unless he felt so bad for his cousin that he would go out and murder his boss. Which seems unlikely.”

“Agreed,” said the Chief.

“Okay, so we have Doris Booth, whose dog Froufrou confirms she was home all night.”

“Froufrou,” the Chief murmured, shaking his head. “If anyone heard us, they’d think we’re crazy.”

“Another pet called Joey, a miniature Brussels Griffon, confirmed that Ona Konpacka didn’t leave her apartment,” she continued, ignoring her uncle’s groans of dismay. She flipped through her notes. “Um… So we need to talk to Deith again, and confirm her alibi, maybe by talking to one ofher servants, which I assume she has—she denied knowing about the pregnancy, but I’m pretty sure she was lying. And then there’s Howard White.”

“The Howard White?” asked Chase, sitting up a little straighter.

“I’m surprised you’ve heard of Howard White,” said Odelia, amused.