“What, did you think I asked you over here for the sex?”
“God, I hope so.”
“Come on, cough it up.”
“The detective lieutenant I spoke with expressed considerable disappointment,” she said.
“In what was he disappointed?”
“He was disappointed that he couldn’t find a way to hang the murder on you.”
“Well, gee, the poor guy. Maybe I should send him roses, or something.”
“Or something.”
“What else did he say about the case?”
“In addition to being disappointed, he was relieved.”
“Relieved that he couldn’t hang it on me?”
“No, relieved that he couldn’t hang it on Paul Brandon, Muffy’s spouse. Mr. Brandon is very prominent and well connected locally, and he could have created all sorts of problems for the department if they’d charged him. They were very pleased that there was no substantive evidence against him.”
“Well, I’m so happy Mr. Brandon has been spared their further attention. Do they have any fucking idea who killed Milly?”
“Oh, you and Milly were on a first-name basis, were you?” she asked archly.
“Oh, yeah, I mean we knew each other for a good twenty-four hours.”
“‘Knew,’ in the biblical sense?”
“Come on.”
“She was, after all, a very beautiful woman,” Holly pointed out.
“I can’t argue that point.”
“Do you think her death has anything to do with your investigation?”
“Of course I do. As a result of speaking to her, Dino and I are conducting a new round of questioning of people who work in the White House. We’re talking with Brix Kendrick’s former secretary tomorrow.”
“And what do you expect to learn from her?”
“More about Brix Kendrick, and who he was fucking in the White House.”
“I’m sorry, I must have missed something.”
Stone told her about the questioning of Mrs. Feliciano.
“So she found the lipstick!”
“Yes, and Dino is giving it to Shelley so the FBI lab can do its thing.”
“You think they’ll find something on the lipstick a year later?”
“Once again, I refer you to Fats Waller.”
“And what she saw in the family quarters happened on the same day the Kendricks died?”