Bed & Breakfast 2 - Fowl Prey by Mary Daheim

Author:Mary Daheim [Daheim, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mary Daheim
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2010-03-22T04:00:00+00:00

“It looks about the same as when I was here earlier,” he observed upon his return to the sitting room. “The carpet and the shopping bag would be the give-aways. I wonder if I can get a man up here to check for footprints or fingerprints.”

His soulful gaze rested on the phone.

Miraculously, there was an evidence specialist on duty, having been called in to assist with a grisly killing at the harbor. “Drunks,” said MacKenzie in disgust. “Why couldn’t they have waited until the strike was over?”

His remark spurred Judith into unloading the story of Helen O’Rourke Brookes Smith. This time, MacKenzie listened with rapt attention. Indeed, when Judith had finished, he beamed his approval. “Now that’s very good, 176 / Mary Daheim

Mrs. McMonigle. Hold it, don’t move, you might ruin the evidence. I’m afraid you’ll both have to just sit there until my man arrives.” MacKenzie himself was being very careful not to disturb anything in the room, his big feet set close together, his shambling body held upright in the armchair like an icon on a throne. “That’s the kind of thing we’re missing from this case. We simply don’t have the resources to get information out of Scotland Yard. Tomorrow, maybe. We’ll contact London and see what we can find out. I must say, this is very promising.”

Judith and Renie both felt partially exonerated, even a little exhilarated. The mood was broken only by the arrival of Jasper Jarwoski, a fussy young man with blond hair that curled over his collar and fell in his eyes. He brought along several plastic sacks and a little machine that worked like a vacuum cleaner. Through rimless glasses, he scanned the sitting room.

“Thick pile in the carpet.” Jarwoski gave a dejected shake of his head. “The shopping bag won’t give good prints.” He made a disapproving face. “Too much upholstery,” he continued in a disheartened manner, “and not enough smooth surfaces. I don’t like this much at all.” Despite the complaints, Jarwoski went to work. In less than fifteen minutes, he was done.

“I’ll have the results in a couple of hours,” he told MacKenzie. “I should be home in bed, you know. Sir.”

“So should we all,” responded MacKenzie in his indolent manner. “Any preliminary conclusions?”

Jarwoski glanced around. “Only the obvious. Whoever came in here wiped his or her feet off very carefully first. Otherwise, there would be more than three sets of damp patches on the carpet.”

MacKenzie nodded. “Good point. Carry on.”

The harried Jarwoski nodded in salute at his superior, mumbled something to Judith and Renie, and was gone.

“You can move now,” said the detective, getting up to stretch.

“By the way, you’ve never explained what you FOWL PREY / 177

were doing in the alley.” His eyes narrowed slightly at the cousins.

“Oh, that.” Judith gave him her idea about Desiree’s picture, her theory no less garbled than when she had presented it for Renie’s consideration. Delving into her purse, she produced the photograph. “As I told Renie, I’m not so concerned about the picture itself, but about why it bothered me.

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