Foul Play

Five

Stone went downstairs to his office the following morning, and Joan greeted him. “Fred is back,” she said. “He picked up Mr. Troutman at the hospital and delivered him to the Carlyle at about ten o’clock.”

“Good,” Stone said. “The man needs some rest. Our city has not treated him kindly so far.”

“Well,” she said, “if he’s living at the Carlyle, he ain’t doing bad.” The phone rang, and Joan picked up the one on Stone’s coffee table. “The Barrington Practice. Hi, Dino.” She pressed the hold button. “Dino on one.”

Stone picked it up. “Good morning. Did you avoid a hangover this morning?”

“Yeah, a lot of good it did me. Now we’ve got a headache of a different sort. Shep Troutman called me a few minutes ago to tell me there’s a dead woman in his apartment.”

“Oh, swell. Any details?”

“I’m in the car. We’re just arriving at the hotel. Come on up here.” Dino hung up.

“Call Fred and tell him to bring the car up,” he said to Joan.

“What’s wrong?” Joan asked.

“Shepherd Troutman has a dead woman in his apartment.” He threw up his hands. “Don’t ask because I don’t know.” He left his office and waited outside for Fred, who appeared in the Bentley shortly. Stone got in. “The Carlyle,” he said.

“Right, sir. Everybody’s going to or from the Carlyle this morning.” They arrived.

Stone rode up in the elevator and walked into the vestibule to find a uniformed cop standing there, looking bored. “Morning, Stone.” He jerked a thumb. “Everybody who is anybody is in there,” he said.

“Thanks, Harry.” Stone walked into the apartment to find Shep, dressed in pajamas and a robe, sitting on a living room sofa, next to Dino. There were two detectives sitting on the opposite sofa.

“Hi, Stone,” Shep said, looking forlorn.

“Good morning, Shep.”

“Not really.”

“Okay, Shep,” Dino said. “You can start now. Sorry for the delay.”

“Just a minute, Dino.” Stone turned to the detectives. “Sorry, fellas, you don’t get to hear the first performance.”

The detectives got up and trudged across the room toward the study.

“Okay, Shep. From the top.”

“Okay,” Shep said. “After I got back from the hospital, I went to bed. I was very tired, and I fell asleep quickly.”

“What next?”

“I woke up maybe half an hour ago, maybe more, when I heard a woman screaming. At first, I thought she was out in the hall, but she was getting louder, and it was coming from the living room. I got out of bed and went in there to find the hotel maid, hysterical. I got her calmed down a bit, and she pointed down the hallway where the guest rooms are and said there was a dead woman in there. I went and checked, and she was right. In the first bedroom. You can see for yourself. She’s still in there.”

“In a minute,” Stone said. “Did you touch her?”

“I walked over to her and put my fingers to her throat. She was cold to the touch, and I couldn’t find a pulse.”

“That’s all? Did you disturb the room in any way?”

“No, I came back in here and asked the maid to make some coffee, just to calm her down, then I called Dino.”

“You got anything to add to that, Dino?” Stone asked.

“Not yet. That’s what he told me.”

“Is everybody on the way?”

“The detectives are in the study. This place will be full of people in ten minutes.”

“Then let’s go look at Shep’s guest before they get here.”

“She’s not my guest,” Shep protested. “I never saw her before.”

“I did,” Dino said. “Let’s go look.”

Stone walked to the study door. “All right, fellas, you can come out, now. We’re going to view the body, and you can watch, so you can see that we do it right.”

They looked at Dino and Dino nodded.

Stone led the way into the bedroom. It was in good order, except that there was a green dress and some underwear and shoes on or around a corner chair, and there was a corpse in the bed. Naked, as it turned out, when Stone lifted the covers.

“You know her?” he asked Dino.

“I met her at the same time you did,” Dino replied. “Two nights ago at P.J.’s. Well, we weren’t exactly introduced. She and another woman walked past our table, and you, Stone, gave us a lecture on avoiding sin, as I recall.”

“Ah, yes,” Stone said. “I remember. Do you, Shep?”

“I guess it could be the same woman,” Shep replied, walking over and looking at her more closely. “Yeah, it is. I didn’t recognize her in the changed circumstances.”

“That’s understandable,” Stone said. “Neither did I, at first.”

A voice came from the door. “Okay, everybody, out of the way.” The medical examiner, a large man carrying a black bag, bustled into the room and walked over to the bed. He pulled the covers back, looked over the body, listened to the chest with his stethoscope, then turned it over and examined it again, finally returning it to its original position. “This woman is dead,” he said.

“Always the one for understatement, Leo,” Dino said.

The ME produced a thermometer and inserted it into her anus, then read the numbers on an attached electronic accessory.

“Somewhere between six and eight hours.” He took a small zippered bag from his larger one and did a vaginal examination, swabbing the area, then placing the swabs in a slim bottle and capping it. “She had sex before she died, maybe more than once, but there’s no immediate appearance of semen. Preliminary cause of death, strangulation. I’ll know more when I get her on my table, but that concludes my prelim. The investigator can have her now.”

“Let’s go back to the living room,” Dino said, “and let the guys do their work.”

“What work is that?” Shep asked.

“Looking for trace evidence, hairs and such,” Dino said. “Don’t you watch TV?”

“Can I put some clothes on?” Shep asked.

“Nope. The investigator is going to want a look at you, too. Let’s go have some coffee.”

They got their coffee and sipped it silently, until the crime scene analyst joined them. “Mr. Troutman,” he said. “Have you showered or bathed this morning?”

“No,” Shep replied.

“Please come with me, and we’ll have a look at you.” He led Shep into his bedroom and closed the door. A few minutes later, the analyst returned. “Okay, your man’s clean,” he said. “He’s showering now, and he wants you to wait for him.”

Two attendants entered the suite with a gurney and departed with the body. The maid came back.

“Can I change the room, now?”

Dino nodded.

Stone poured them some more coffee, and eventually, Shep came out, dressed in a tracksuit. “Thanks for waiting,” he said. “Where am I in all this?” he asked.

“Innocent,” Stone said, “as far as I can tell.”

“I agree,” Dino said. “Your story is backed up by the maid, and the analyst didn’t find anything. The murder occurred when you were still in the hospital.”

“How did the woman and whoever killed her get in here?”

“My guess is she’d used this apartment before you moved in. She got ahold of a key card somehow, brought her trick up here, and delivered her service, then he strangled her and left.”

“Why?”

Stone shrugged. “Maybe she asked for too much money, and that made him mad. These things should always be negotiated up front.”

“Why was the maid here?”

“It’s her job. She probably came in, called out for you and didn’t get an answer, then went to work.”

“Dino?” Shep asked.

“That’s as good a guess as any. I mean, the guy didn’t leave the cash on the dresser, and the analyst didn’t mention finding any.”

“Maybe I should go back to Massachusetts,” Shep said.

“Don’t deprive us of your company,” Stone replied. “Statistically, I think you’ve used up all your opportunities to experience violence.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Were you thinking of going running?” Stone asked.

“Yes.”

“Don’t. You’re recovering from a concussion, so you should just rest. Read a book or watch TV.”

Dino rose. “I’ll let you know if your Rolex turns up,” he said.

“Take it easy the next day or two,” Stone said, then they both left.

They got on the elevator. “I hope we don’t hear from him again anytime soon,” Dino said.