The Fourth Deadly Sin (exd-4) by Lawrence Sanders

Author:Lawrence Sanders [Sanders, Lawrence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: det_police

"Everyone says he was a great guy. Always helping people. This sounds right in character."

"Uh-huh," Delaney said.

"Well, thank you very much.

You've been a big help, and I'll make sure Chief Suarez knows about it."

"It couldn't hurt," Detective Parnell said.

After Delaney hung up, he stared at the notes he had jotted down. He pondered a long while. Then, sighing, he reached for his "agony list" of unsolved puzzles. He added -a fourth item under Minor riddles: Why did Dr. Ellerbee cancel his patients' debts?

And, having done that, he tramped gloomily into the kitchen, hoping to find the makings of a prodigious_ sandwich that might relieve his depression.

Detective Brian Estrella was also thinking of food. Since his wife, Meg, had been in the hospital and nursing home, he had been baching it and hating every minute. He was unused to solitude, and a real klutz when it came to cooking and household chores.

He had what he considered a brainstorm: He called Sylvia Mae Otherton on Friday night and suggested, with some diffidence, that they have dinner together. He would find a Chinese take-out joint and buy enough food for both of them. All Sylvia would have to supply would be hot tea. She thought it was a marvelous idea.

Estrella bought egg rolls, barbecued ribs, noodles, wanton soup, shrimp in lobster sauce, fried rice, sweet-and-sour pork, fortune cookies, and pistachio ice cream. Everything was packed in neat cardboard containers, and they even put in plastic forks and spoons, paper napkins.

It was-like a picnic, with all the opened containers on the cocktail table along with cups of hot tea Sylvia provided.

They agreed it was just the kind of spicy, aromatic food to have on a cold winter night with a hard wind rattling the windows and flurries of snow glistening in the streetlight.

The detective didn't neglect to compliment Sylvia on how attractive she looked, and indeed she had done much to improve her appearance. Her hair was washed and coiffed in a loose, fluffy cut. The excess makeup was gone, and the garish costume replaced by a simple shirtwaist.

More important. her manner had undergone a transformation. She seemed at once confident and relaxed. She smiled and laughed frequently, and told Estrella she had gone out that afternoon and spent two hours shopping, going from store to store -something she hadn't done since Dr. Ellerbee died.

"That's wonderful," the detective said.

"See, you can do it.

You should try to get out of the house every day, even if it's only for a few minutes."

"I intend to," Otherton said firmly.

"I'm going to take charge of my life.

And I owe it all to you."

"Me? What did I do?"

"You cared. You have no idea how important that was to me. They finished everything and cleared away the empty containers. Then Sylvia asked about Estrella's wife, and he told her the doctors didn't hold out much hope, but Meg was in good spirits and spoke optimistically of coming home soon.

"I think she knows she's not going to do that," the detective said in a low voice, "but she tries to keep cheerful so I don't get depressed.

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