File M For Murder

“What’s going on here?” Azalea’s voice intruded on my self-absorption. “What you done said to Mr. Charlie?”

Another time I might have been amused at seeing Azalea glaring at her daughter and Kanesha looking guilty and irritated at the same time.

“I’m here on official business, Mama.” Kanesha met her mother’s accusing gaze head-on now. “This is between Mr. Harris and me.”

Azalea snorted in derisory fashion. “Still don’t mean you come in here and upset a man. Look how pale he be.” Her tone turned solicitous. “You need something to buck you up, Mr. Charlie? You still got some of that brandy from Christmas.”

I smiled, hoping to ease the situation. “Thank you, Azalea, I’m okay. Kanesha’s—I mean, Deputy Berry’s—news startled me, that’s all.” Diesel was scrunched under the table now, his head on my feet. Poor kitty. I almost wished I could join him. Being the bone of contention between these two women was no fun.

“I need to speak to Mr. Harris alone.” Kanesha waited, but Azalea didn’t budge. “Please, Mama.”

“You holler if you need anything.” Azalea shot me a pointed glance before she left the kitchen. Moments later I heard her moving heavily up the stairs.

I didn’t dare look at Kanesha for a few minutes. I actually felt sorry for her. Having to deal with her mother under these circumstances had to be humiliating. Azalea had, not so long ago, confided in me that she didn’t think police work was a suitable job for her daughter. She had wanted Kanesha to go to medical school instead. Her daughter, however, was determined to follow her own path.

At the time I’d wondered idly whether Kanesha might have gone to medical school or even law school on her own if her mother hadn’t tried to push her in a particular direction. Azalea was one of the most forceful personalities I’d ever encountered. Had she grown up under different conditions she probably would have been at the helm of a Fortune 500 company by now.

Kanesha was every bit as stubborn and opinionated as her mother from everything I’d seen. Their relationship had to be uneasy at best.

I risked a glance at Kanesha. Her expression was as stony as ever.

“Please sit down, Deputy.” I gestured to a chair. “What do you need from me? Or did you come simply to inform me of Miss Vane’s death?”

Kanesha sat before she answered. She pulled a notebook and pen from her pocket. “Give me a timetable of what happened here last night.”

I could have refrigerated meat by putting it next to her right now, I decided. It wouldn’t do to annoy her.

I nodded, then took a moment to organize my thoughts before I responded. Under the table, Diesel muttered and shifted position. I tried to reassure him by rubbing his side with my foot. He quieted.

“I went to bed before the others, except for Laura, I think. Sean went out to the porch to have a cigar and fell asleep there after he finished it.” I narrated the rest of the events while Kanesha jotted notes. She didn’t look at me the entire time.

When I finished, she stared at her notebook for a moment. “I still have facts to verify, but I’d say y’all are in the clear. At least in Miss Vane’s death.”

Did she throw that last statement in just to be spiteful? “Surely the same person is responsible for both her murder and Lawton’s.” It didn’t make any sense otherwise.

Now she looked at me, and I didn’t bother to suppress a scowl. “It’s likely, but the methods were entirely different. Miss Vane’s throat was cut.”

A gruesome image bloomed in my mind, and I shook my head in a vain effort to dispel it. “That’s horrible.”

“Yes, it was.” Kanesha stood.

I stared up at her. “Why do you say we’re in the clear in her murder?”

“By the time the maid found her around nine this morning, she’d been dead about seven hours, give or take an hour, according to the preliminary estimate.”

“While we were all in the midst of dealing with the fire department and the police,” I said.

Kanesha nodded. “It’s possible someone slipped away during the confusion. The hotel’s only a few minutes from here, especially running. But I don’t think that happened. Whoever did it would have had blood on him or would have to change clothes. Did you notice anything like that?”

“Certainly not.” Even in my dazed state I would have noticed if a member of the household disappeared for that long. Besides, we were all together—and stayed together—shortly after the fire department arrived, first out in the front yard and then in the kitchen. I repeated that aloud to Kanesha.

She nodded again and turned to go, but I had a question for her. “Did your computer expert find any evidence of tampering with Lawton’s thumb drive?”

Slowly she faced me, her expression unreadable. “No.” She turned and left the kitchen. I didn’t bother to see her to the door.

Frustrating woman. I sighed and wondered how this would all have played out had I talked to her at the sheriff’s department instead. Easier on the nerves, I decided, both hers and mine.