Winter Wonderland by T. Lee Harris

Author:T. Lee Harris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Per Bastet Publications LLC
Published: 2013-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

Nine

Phyllis called it. Mrs. Le Coeur welcomed us with open relief and all but dragged us down the hall. She tapped once on the half-open door and pulled us into the sickroom.

Delia Hammond was propped up in a hospital bed surrounded with starched white pillows and sheets that accented the unhealthy yellow of her skin and eyes. Seeing her like this was a bit of a shock. The mental image I had of her was built from the photos and clippings in the files. The statuesque, shapely brunette had withered to a scarecrow with sparse colorless hair and stretched parchment skin. Only the eyes were the same, blue steel that bored a hole through each of us as we entered.

Mrs. Le Coeur said, "These are the gentlemen from the insurance company you wanted to see." Then she beat a hasty retreat. Phyllis was hard on her heels. Looking on the face of the Dragon Lady, herself, I wished I could go with them.

"I know you," Delia said pointing a shaking finger at Levitz. "You ain't no insurance guy, you're a goddam cop!" The outburst took a lot out of her, she sagged against the pillows, scrabbled for the oxygen feed and took a long pull. When her breathing regulated, she said, "Ah, it don't matter. Place'll be lousy with cops since you found Jess. I told Sherm we shoulda dug deeper. Stupid sonuvabitch never wanted to do a lick more than he absolutely had to." She pinned Levitz with the steel glare. "I know you figured out it's Jess Wynan in that hole. My daughter was burnin' up the phone lines first thing this mornin'."

"Are you telling me that you and your husband killed Wynan?" Nonplussed, Levitz plopped into a chair. "If I'da known this was gonna be a confession, I'da brought a tape recorder."

Her laugh turned into hard coughing again. "Tough. Write it down later. You got more time than I do, so lissen up." She took a few more drags on her oxygen, then said, "When me and Sherm opened that coffee shop, we was strictly small time. Little bit o' fencing, little bit o' dealing -- that sort of thing. That was back in the 70s, just when the hoohah for the Bi-Centennial was gearing up. There was all kinds of money floating around then in the shape of grants, we jumped on the bandwagon hoping to hook a little for ourselves." Her voice trailed and she took another hit of oxygen. The steely blue eyes closed.

Levitz had pulled a beat up spiral-bound notepad and pen from his pocket when she started to talk. From my position on the other side of the bed, I could just see the page he'd started. I almost laughed out loud when I recognized the chicken scratches as shorthand. Who'da thunk it, right? The lieutenant watched her for a moment, then prompted, "That's how you and Sherm hooked up with Wynan, right."

"Hooked up. Good way to say it," Delia said without opening her eyes.

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