"I'm Grace Detweiler. How do you do?" she said, flashing a quick smile. Then she turned to Matt. "I don't know what to think about you. It's natural to see you here, under these absolutely horrible circumstances, but not as a policeman. I really don't quite know what to make of that."
"We're trying to find out what happened to Penny," Matt said.
"You're driving your mother to distraction, you know," she said. " I can't fathom your behavior."
"Grace," H. Richard Detweiler said, "that's none of your business."
"Yes it is," she snapped. "Patricia is one of my dearest friends, and I've known Matt since he was in diapers."
"Matt's no longer a child," Detweiler said. "He can make his own decisions about what he wants to do with his life."
"Why am I not surprised you'd say something like that?" she replied. "Well, all right then, Mr. Policeman, what do you think happened to Penny?"
"Right now we think she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Matt said.
"How can parking your car in a public garage be the wrong place?" she snapped.
"We think she was probably an innocent bystander," Matt said.
"Probably?What do you mean, 'probably'? What other explanation could there possibly be?"
"Ma'am, we try to check out everything," Washington said. "That's why we were interested in the jewelry."
"Penny doesn't have any good jewelry," she said.
"They didn't know that until they asked," Detweiler said. "Ease off, Grace."
Washington gave him a grateful look.
"Mrs. Detweiler, what about money?" Washington asked.
"What about it?"
"Did Miss Detweiler habitually carry large amounts of cash?"
"No," she said, "she didn't. It's not safe to carry cash, or anything else of value, in your purse these days."
"Yes, ma'am, I'm afraid you're right about that," Washington agreed. "You would say, then, that it's probable she didn't have more than a hundred dollars in her purse?"
"I would be very surprised if she had more than-actually, as much as-fifty dollars. She had credit cards, of course."
"There were seven or eight of those in her purse," Washington said. "They weren't stolen."
"Well, this pretty much shoots down your professional-thief theory then, doesn't it, Mr. Washington?" H. Richard Detweiler said.
"Yes, sir. It certainly looks that way, doesn't it? We're back to Matt's theory that Miss Detweiler was an innocent bystander."
"Does that mean that whoever did this to my daughter is going to get away with it?" Grace Detweiler asked unpleasantly.
"No, ma'am," Washington said. "I think we'll find whoever did it."
"I called Jeanne Browne, Matt," Grace Detweiler said, "and told her that there is absolutely no reason to let what happened to Penny interfere with Daffy and Chad's wedding."
"I was out there this morning," Matt replied. "They were worried about it. What to do, I mean."
"Well, as I say, Mr. Detweiler and I have agreed that this should not interfere with the wedding in any way. Are we going to see you there?"
"I'll be holding Chad up," Matt said.