D.C. Dead (Stone Barrington 22)

“Actually, it was a claw hammer,” Holly said. “At least that was the tool in the Hart murder. Lieutenant Padgett told me.”

“Time for you to do me that favor again,” Stone said.

“Call the D.C. cops?”

“Right. It was Padgett who called Fair, so I guess he’s on the investigation.”

Holly looked at her watch. “It’s pretty early,” she said.

“Padgett is already at work, remember?”

“Oh, yeah.” She got up, went to the phone, made the call, and came back. “It’s almost exactly like the Milly Hart murder,” she said, “even to the appearance of the wounds.”

“Who found her?” Stone asked.

“A housekeeper, who was sleeping downstairs. She came up to start breakfast and found Mrs. Brandon in the entrance hall, in her nightgown.”

Dino nodded. “Killer rings the bell, Muffy gets out of bed and answers the door, killer whacks Muffy and leaves.”

Stone looked thoughtful. “Seems to me I remember from our visit to the house that there was an intercom for the doorbell, and they had a multiline business phone system, same system, as mine in New York.”

“So?” Holly asked.

Dino spoke up. “So, Muffy Brandon knew her killer. Why else would she get out of bed and go to the front door? If it had been the milkman or the newspaper boy, she’d have told him to fuck off and then gone right back to sleep.”

“Good point,” Holly said.

“I wonder how many other women Brix Kendrick was sleeping with?” Stone said.

“Why do you care?” Holly asked.

“Because it’s a group of women who are dying at an alarming rate,” Stone said. “I’d really like to know if there were others, so they can be warned.

“How are you going to find out if there were others?” Holly said. “Brix is dead, and so are the only two other women you know he was sleeping with. So is his wife, who might have known.”

“I don’t think we’re going to find out who the others might be,” Dino said.

“Why not?” Holly asked.

“Because if there were others and someone knew about them, we’d have heard about it at Fair Sutherlin’s dinner party the other night. The people there seemed to know everything.”

“It’s Washington,” Stone said.

34

TODD BACON WENT OVER HIS CHECKLIST AGAIN, READING IT aloud so Tank Wheeler could see that he had forgotten nothing. He walked down the long table, pointing at items and checking them off his list.

“Perfect, Todd,” Tank said. “You’re in the groove already. Now let’s get those two officers down here and go over it all with them.” Tank picked up a phone and spoke to someone. “They’re on their way,” he said.

“Tank,” Todd said, “did you ever work with Teddy Fay when he was here?”

“Sure I did. Teddy trained me. He must have put me through hundreds of quizzes like the one you’ve just gone through. Teddy was terrific at briefing agents, and a genius at anticipating what kind of equipment they would need. He invented a big chunk of the electronic stuff that we still use to equip field people.”

“I heard that he was important to the department,” Todd said.

“He was more than important, he was essential. The Agency tried everything to get him to stay on, but he retired right on time. He’d made a bundle inventing kitchen and household gadgets that got sold on television in the middle of the night, so he could afford a happy retirement.”

“I heard that, too,” Todd said.