“It was in the report I gave you.”
“Yes, I finally found it, afte ^siz a="1em"r I had been told it was there.”
?
?Don’t blame me.”
“Why not? I’m certainly not going to blame myself.”
“I didn’t expect you to,” she laughed.
“Somehow, I don’t necessarily equate his taking full responsibility with a confession of murder.”
“The FBI does,” Holly said.
“Shelley mentioned that,” Stone said. “Of course, the FBI wants desperately for it to be true, because that way they don’t have to find a murderer.”
“Have you got a candidate for that title?”
“Well, I don’t believe it was the president, the vice president, or the secretary of state—or either of the secretary’s associates,” Stone said.
“That’s very patriotic of you.”
“Each of them has the others for an alibi, and that’s tough to shake.”
“You have a point,” Holly said.
Stone crawled up the bed and rested his head on the pillow next to Holly’s. “Dino found the murder weapon, though.” He told her about the brick. “We’ll get the lab report in the morning, so I guess we can hope the murderer spat or bled or sweated on it.”
“That would certainly simplify things, wouldn’t it?” Holly said.
“Yes, but life is rarely that simple, and murder, even more rarely.”
“Can I quote you on that? Or are you stealing from Sherlock Holmes?”
“That was entirely original,” Stone said, “or at least, I can’t remember anybody else ever saying that, and I haven’t read Sherlock Holmes since about the eighth grade.”
Holly didn’t reply, and her breathing had become slow.
Stone’s breathing followed hers, and shortly, he was asleep, too.
STONE AND HOLLY APPEARED for breakfast in robes and found Dino and Shelley, in robes, already attacking their meal.
“We ordered for you, too,” Dino said.
“Good morning, Holly,” Shelley said, without apparent embarrassment.
“Good morning, Shelley, Dino,” Holly replied, shaking out her napkin and pouring herself and Stone some orange juice. “I hear your conclusions in the investigation are holding up.”
Shelley nodded. “I expected them to, thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” Holly said. “This wasn’t my idea. Actually, Stone and Dino were my idea, but only after I had my orders.”
“I like your choice of investigators,” Shelley said, pulling Dino’s earlobe.
“So do I,” Stone said, helping himself from a platter of scrambled eggs and bacon.
“Then nobody has any complaints?” Holly asked.