D.C. Dead (Stone Barrington 22)

“Neither do I.”

“You know, if the March Hare hadn’t killed Charlotte Kirby, we’d be happily back in New York, and the Lees would have put this whole thing out of their minds.”

“Yeah, and the March Hare would be safe. Charlotte was a murder too far. a murdes r div

“Why was Charlotte a danger to her?” Stone asked.

“Because she was talking to us,” Dino said.

“Yes, but she was through talking to us. The newspaper articles put an end to that. She would never have spoken to us again.”

“I guess the March Hare didn’t know that. The same was true of Milly Hart and Mrs. Brandon. They had told us everything they knew, too, but still Ms. Hare felt she had to kill them.”

Stone put down the list of White House women. “So she didn’t know enough about our investigation to see that we were getting nowhere.”

“Either that, or she just likes killing other women.”

“Dino, can you remember a case of a woman who was a serial killer killing other women?”

Dino thought about it. “Now that you mention it, no. Men who are serial killers kill mostly women, and women serial killers always seem to kill men.”

“Can you remember a case where a serial killer, male or female, killed this many people for this reason—the elimination of witnesses?”

“Well,” Dino said, “maybe that’s happened with the Mafia at some point in the past. They sometimes had a tendency to wipe out a list of people they considered threats.”

“But these people weren’t threats to the March Hare.”

“She didn’t know that,” Dino pointed out. “She just assumed they were.”

“And she didn’t linger at the scenes. She hit these women in the head—or, in Charlotte’s case, shot her—and got out of there, not leaving any trace evidence. Could she be a cop?”

“Stone, everybody in the United States knows how crime-scene evidence is collected and analyzed—you don’t have to be a cop anymore. There are three or four very popular TV shows every week that explain it in detail.”

“Okay, so it didn’t have to be a cop. But she knew which women we were talking to.”

“It’s Washington, remember? Everybody in town seemed to know who we were talking to.”

“There’s one possibility we haven’t discussed,” Stone said.

“Tell me, please.”

“Suppose Charlotte’s death really was a suicide, not a murder.”

“Well, that’s a very attractive notion,” Dino said, “since it would confirm everything we told the president and the first lady the other night. But how do you explain the lack of prints on the magazine and the ammo in it?”

“Look, we know the March Hare is a very careful killer. Assume for a moment that Charlotte was the March Hare. She may have prepared the gun for use in a future killing, thus wiping the magazine and the ammo free of prints.”

Dino looked hopeful. “Now that, I like. It makes perfect sense, and it has the wonderful added advantage of making us look right the first time.”

“So why am I not calling the president right now and explaining that Charlotte Kirby committed suicide?”

The phone rang, and Stone picked it up. “Hello?”

“Hi, it’s Holly.”

“Good morning.”

“I’ve had a thought,” Holly said.