DIVISIBLE MAN--EIGHT BALL by Howard Seaborne

Author:Howard Seaborne [Seaborne, Howard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Trans World Data LLC

40

Mrs. Palmer seated us on elegant postmodern furniture in a screened sunroom at the back of the house. Andy and I silently marveled at the artistic chairs while our host fetched a tray with tall glasses of iced tea and a plate covered in brownie squares.

I settled in and leaned back. “These chairs are amazing.”

“Why, thank you! My own design.” Mrs. Palmer handed out sweet tea.

“You made these?” I asked.

“I did.” She placed the tray on a small table.

“You shouldn’t go to such trouble, ma’am,” Andy protested.

“Don’t be silly. I get so few guests out here. I’m delighted you came.” She heaved herself into a chair facing us. Her wide face fixed a smile in our direction, made warmer and more welcoming by round cheeks and sparkling eyes.

“I apologize for just showing up like this,” Andy said. “I wasn’t sure how to contact you, but I found your address on your website.”

She has a website.

Mrs. Palmer laughed. “It’s hardly an address, but letters and packages manage to find me.”

“We almost didn’t,” Andy said. She described the stop at the roadside stand.

“You met little Laurel! She’s a sweetie. I make the best pies from those strawberries,” she said. Mention of pies caused me to note the absence of a Southern accent. I guessed Midwestern.

“I know!” Andy said. “They’re so good.”

“You’ve gone to some trouble. Let me guess—you’re going to write a paper on measurable metallurgic deformation as a key to determining impact force—that was part of your question at the lecture, I believe.”

Andy blushed again. “I just can’t believe you remember me, ma’am.”

“You don’t give me enough credit, Detective Stewart,” Mrs. Palmer said, one-upping her with glitter in her eye. “I never give a lecture at the Academy without obtaining a full class list. The genuine law enforcement professionals in the room stand out among all those lawyers, some of whom think that ballistic science is just a report that will be delivered like room service by a lab that never seems to work fast enough.”

“There may be some entitlement in the ranks, that’s true,” Andy said politely.

“I prefer young people like you, dear. People who ask the questions, seek the knowledge, investigate. People who drill down to a full understanding, not just a lab result they can use to justify a warrant.”

Oh, you have no idea, I thought. I had a feeling that the woman with the brownies and sweet tea would be doing a deeper dive into Andy’s biography before the dust settled behind us when we left.

“I don’t have much experience with gun crimes,” Andy said. “Thankfully, that hasn’t been an issue in my job to date. But I don’t believe that any investigating officer, at any level, can operate without a foundation in the sciences that support accurate analysis of the evidence.” Andy stopped abruptly and pressed her fingers to her lips. “Oh my god. I sound like a complete suck up, don’t I?”

The woman laughed, a deep and genuine expression of humor that made me chuckle. Mrs.

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