Confessions of a Murder Suspect

25

Samantha was only an inch or so from my face. “Tandy, say something, please.” She offered me a glass of water, but I shook my head.

“I’m… okay. I don’t know what… It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

Caputo’s smirking features loomed in my vision. He squatted down next to me and said, “Let me tell you something, Tootsie. This could be your best chance to get ahead of what you did by confessing.”

“Do you have any other suspects?” I asked him, getting to my feet. “Or is it the Angel kids and no one else?”

“We like the direction the case is going. Based on my conversations with your uncle, I think your parents might have had an inkling about which of you was out to get them,” said Caputo. “Not to mention that I hear from multiple sources that you’re the smartest kid in the family. I think that you thought you could get away with it. Why? Did you want their money?”

If I were a different person, I would have pointed out how absurd that last part was. What did I need money for? I was practically born in a bank vault. From day one, I had access to as much money as I could ever want.

Just not as much access to light, air, and freedom.

I ignored the impulse to berate him, because more than anything, I wanted to hear what Caputo knew. As Harry had pointed out, I didn’t have a crime lab at my disposal. Right now, Caputo was my best source of information. I would have to draw him out. This was my Q&A, not his.

I said, “Sergeant, what prompted this new search? You’ve already torn the penthouse apart.”

“We found a bottle in the trash room, Sassy. Inside that bottle was a trace of poison that matches the poison we found in a water glass we took from your parents’ bedroom.”

The cops had forensic evidence; that was news. I knew the glasses he was referring to—the handblown Venetian-glass tumblers Malcolm and Maud had kept beside their bed.

“So are you saying that someone made them drink the poison, then threw the bottle in the trash? That’s absurd.”

“Absurd? I call it stupid, but you’ve got a better education than I do.”

“You know what I mean,” I said. “Why would someone leave a bottle with poison in it where the police could find it?”

“Criminals make mistakes all the time,” Caputo said.

Samantha interrupted us. “Come on, Tandy.” She took my arm and led me to a chair. Then she said to the sergeant, “If you’re not arresting anyone, we’d like you to leave.”

“Yeah,” said Hugo. “ ‘We’re done here.’ Isn’t that what they say on all the police shows?”

“We’re done for now. But I’m telling you again,” Caputo warned, “don’t go anywhere.”

“If that’s what we’re being ordered to do, then I guess you’ll be giving us a note excusing us from school.”

“The noose is tightening,” Caputo said. “You feel a little short of air, Snazzy?”

The funny thing was, I still did.