D.C. Dead

33

The following morning, early, Stone and Holly were having breakfast with Dino and Shelley, when the phone rang. Dino got up and answered it. “For you,” he said to Shelley, holding up the phone. “It’s the FBI lab.”

Shelley left the table and went to the phone. “Yes?” She listened. “You got both? That’s great. Have you run them against the database? Thank you very much!” She hung up and returned to the breakfast table.

“Come on, tell us,” Stone said.

“This is your lucky day,” Shelley said. “The lab got both a fingerprint and a DNA sample.”

“Any idea whose?”

“They ran it against the database and got a hit on a White House employee.”

“Who?” Dino asked, hanging on her every word.

“One Esmerelda Feliciano.”

“Shit,” Dino said.

“Why aren’t you happy?” Shelley asked.

“Because Feliciano is the White House maid who found the lipstick. I guess she’s been using it ever since.”

“We should have expected this,” Stone said. “I refuse to be disappointed.”

“You go right ahead and refuse to be disappointed,” Dino said. “I’m pissed off.”

They ate for a couple of minutes in silence. Finally, Holly spoke. “I’m going to have to try that lipstick. The people who wear it do such exciting things. What’s it called?”

“Pagan Spring,” Dino said.

Holly began laughing, and soon they were all laughing.

“Where do they get these names?” Shelley said.

“Marketing and advertising people sit around having what they like to call ‘brainstorms’ and make them up.”

“Are they drunk when they’re doing this?” Shelley asked.

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

The phone rang again, and again Dino got it. He pointed at Stone. “It’s for you, this time.”

Stone got up and went to the phone. “This is Stone Barrington.”

“It’s Fair Sutherlin.”

“Good morning. This is a pleasant surprise.”

“First of all, thank you for your thank-you note. I was glad you could come to my dinner party.”

“I was glad, too. We all had a good time.”

“Are you free for dinner this evening?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Come for a drink at my house at seven, and we’ll go on from there. Dress casually.”

“Thanks, I’ll do that.”

“Oh, I almost forgot my original reason for calling: Paul Brandon’s wife, Muffy, was murdered early this morning.”

Stone didn’t speak for a moment.

“Hello?”

“I’m here. Where did this happen?”

“At her home. You were there earlier, I believe.”

“Yes, I was. Where was Paul Brandon at the time?”

“Attending a conference on government and business in Chicago, at the request of the president.”

“I see. How did you hear?”

“A Lieutenant Padgett from the DCPD called me at home five minutes ago. He said the murder bore striking similarities to that of Milly Hart.”

“When did it happen?”

“Between five and six this morning.”

“Thank you for letting me know,” Stone said.

“See you at seven.”

“Yes.” Stone hung up and went back to the table.

“You look kind of funny,” Dino said.

“Well, I don’t feel very funny,” Stone said. “That was Fair Sutherlin, from the White House. The D.C. cops called her a few minutes ago and told her that Muffy Brandon was murdered early this morning.”

“Where was Paul Brandon?” Dino asked.

“In Chicago, sent by the president to attend a meeting.”

“Too bad,” Dino said. “If he hadn’t had an alibi, we might have cleared two murders in one fell swoop.”

“Fair said the cops said the two murders resembled each other.”

“Well,” Dino said, “if you’re a murderer, and you’ve got a technique that’s working, why change it?”

Holly burst out laughing. “You sound like you’re talking about somebody’s golf swing.”

“Golf swing, ball-peen hammer swing, what’s the difference? It’s all muscle memory.”

“Actually, it was a claw hammer,” Holly said. “At least that was the tool in the Hart murder. Lieutenant Padgett told me.”

“Time for you to do me that favor again,” Stone said.

“Call the D.C. cops?”

“Right. It was Padgett who called Fair, so I guess he’s on the investigation.”

Holly looked at her watch. “It’s pretty early,” she said.

“Padgett is already at work, remember?”

“Oh, yeah.” She got up, went to the phone, made the call, and came back. “It’s almost exactly like the Milly Hart murder,” she said, “even to the appearance of the wounds.”

“Who found her?” Stone asked.

“A housekeeper, who was sleeping downstairs. She came up to start breakfast and found Mrs. Brandon in the entrance hall, in her nightgown.”

Dino nodded. “Killer rings the bell, Muffy gets out of bed and answers the door, killer whacks Muffy and leaves.”

Stone looked thoughtful. “Seems to me I remember from our visit to the house that there was an intercom for the doorbell, and they had a multiline business phone system, same system, as mine in New York.”

“So?” Holly asked.

Dino spoke up. “So, Muffy Brandon knew her killer. Why else would she get out of bed and go to the front door? If it had been the milkman or the newspaper boy, she’d have told him to fuck off and then gone right back to sleep.”

“Good point,” Holly said.

“I wonder how many other women Brix Kendrick was sleeping with?” Stone said.

“Why do you care?” Holly asked.

“Because it’s a group of women who are dying at an alarming rate,” Stone said. “I’d really like to know if there were others, so they can be warned.

“How are you going to find out if there were others?” Holly said. “Brix is dead, and so are the only two other women you know he was sleeping with. So is his wife, who might have known.”

“I don’t think we’re going to find out who the others might be,” Dino said.

“Why not?” Holly asked.

“Because if there were others and someone knew about them, we’d have heard about it at Fair Sutherlin’s dinner party the other night. The people there seemed to know everything.”

“It’s Washington,” Stone said.