File M For Murder

“I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but Mr. Lawton is deceased.” Kanesha spoke more gently than I’d ever heard her.

Damitra Vane goggled at Kanesha. “Diseased? Well, he sure as hell didn’t get it from me. I’m clean.” She scowled at Laura. “That tramp probably gave it to him.”

“You dimwit.” Laura shook her head in disgust. “Not diseased. Deceased, as in dead.”

“Dead?” Damitra practically screamed the word. She launched herself toward Laura, claws extended, but Kanesha stepped in front of my daughter. Damitra recoiled, but not quite fast enough. Her nails raked against Kanesha’s uniform, and several of them snapped off.

Townsend stepped forward and clasped Damitra’s shoulders in his almost dinner plate–sized hands. “You need to calm down, ma’am.” He guided her gently backward a couple of steps.

Damitra shook his hands loose. “You big moose, don’t touch me. I’ll sue you for police brutality.”

“Miss Vane, that’s enough.” When Kanesha used that tone, even big guys like Townsend quailed.

Damitra swallowed, her gaze focused on Kanesha like a cobra facing a mongoose.

“That’s better.” Kanesha maintained the laser stare. “Now, Miss Vane, I’d like you to accompany Deputy Townsend here. He’s going to take you down to the sheriff’s department, where I’ll be talking to you soon. I have some questions, and I’d prefer to talk there.”

Damitra nodded. I expected more attitude from her, but I reckoned she’d finally realized she was no match for the chief deputy. She darted a final hate-filled glare at Laura before she let Townsend lead her away.

Kanesha waited until the voluptuous blonde was well out of earshot before she addressed Laura and me again. “You called your father, you said.”

It took a moment for the question to register with me. Then I realized Kanesha had returned to the point in her questioning we had reached before Townsend called her away to show her the earring. And that reminded me: What was the significance of that earring? Did it somehow implicate Damitra Vane in Lawton’s death?

She had obviously been in Connor’s apartment. Perhaps this afternoon?

Laura cleared her throat. “Yes, I called Dad. I sort of panicked, I guess, and couldn’t think what else to do. Dad calmed me down and said he’d come over. Then he told me I should call 911. So I did.”

“What did you do while you waited for your father and the emergency response personnel to arrive?” Kanesha had her small notebook out again.

Laura’s expression went blank, and her right hand came up to her ear again. “I stayed on the phone for several minutes, but I finally hung up on the 911 woman. She kept badgering me to touch Connor.” She shuddered. “I told her I wasn’t going to. Then I guess I waited outside, because I was so freaked out by…well, you know.”

That disconcerted me, and I hoped it didn’t show on my face. Laura was definitely lying this time, because when I arrived she was inside the apartment. Why was she lying? My stomach started churning. I couldn’t believe my daughter was involved in Connor Lawton’s death, but her actions made me terribly uneasy. I had to get her alone to question her.

Kanesha regarded Laura in silence for a moment. I couldn’t read the deputy’s expression. Had she already picked up on Laura’s body language?

She might well have done, because Kanesha was sharp and experienced. I had witnessed her in action enough the past year to know that much.

I began to be more afraid for my daughter. If only I could warn her not to lie to Kanesha or mislead her. Then I realized the irony of that. I hadn’t always been precisely truthful with Kanesha myself, though I had tried to avoid outright lies. Like father like daughter, I reflected ruefully.

Kanesha focused her attention on me. “Mr. Harris, what about you? What did you do when you arrived on the scene?”

I needed to choose my words with extreme care. “The first thing I did, of course, was to assure myself that Laura hadn’t been harmed. Then I went inside to determine whether Lawton was still alive.” I described my actions while I was in the apartment. “Then, when I was about to go outside again, I heard the two policemen talking to Laura.”

Kanesha finished jotting in her notebook, closed it, and put it and her pen away. “Thank you, Mr. Harris. Now, Miss Harris, I’d like you to accompany me to the sheriff’s department for further questioning.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I spoke before I considered the implications of my words. Then I stumbled over my explanation. “I mean, Laura’s had quite a shock. I think she needs to go home.”

“I understand your concern,” Kanesha said. “But I’m afraid I have to insist.”

“It’s okay, Dad.” Laura moved close and threw her arms around me. Her sudden action threw me slightly off balance, and I turned about thirty degrees to the left, away from Kanesha. I steadied myself and held my daughter in my arms.

To my great surprise I felt Laura’s right hand slide inside my left pants pocket. Then she pulled her hand out and pushed away from me.