“Good evening,” Dino said. “I am Lieutenant Dino Bacchetti.”
She offered her hand without getting up, like a lady. “How do you do?” she said.
“I do very well,” Dino replied, shaking her hand.
“Why on earth was I brought here?” she demanded, half angry, half frightened.
“Before we go any further, I have to advise you of your rights under the United States Constitution.” He recited the Miranda mantra. “Do you understand these rights?”
“Of course. So you think I have never watched television?”
Dino handed her a sheet of paper and a pen. “Then please sign this statement to that effect.”
She read it and signed it.
Dino placed her passport on the table. “This says you are Marie-Thérèse du Bois, of a Zurich, Switzerland, address. Is that correct?”
“Yes, it’s correct.”
“I’d like to ask you a few questions,” Dino said.
“About what?”
“When did you arrive in the United States?”
“It’s in my passport.” She had put the stamp there herself.
“And where do you reside?”
“At the Hotel Kirwan, on Park Avenue at Thirty-seventh Street, room one-oh-oh-three.”
“When did you check in?”
“Today . . .” She glanced at her watch. “Rather, yesterday. Do I need a lawyer?”
“I don’t know, do you?”
“I am happy to answer your questions, but I would like a lawyer present, please.”
Dino sighed. “I’ll get you a phone.” He went out of the room, got a cordless phone, and brought it back. “Would you like some privacy?”
“I doubt if I will get any,” she said, nodding at the one-way mirror. She dialed a number. “Hello, this is Marie-Thérèse du Bois. I am being held at a police station. . . . One moment.” She covered the receiver with her hand. “Where am I?”
“At the Nineteenth Precinct.”
“At the Nineteenth Precinct, and I require legal representation at once. Please come here right away, ask for a Lieutenant . . .”
“Bacchetti.”
“Lieutenant Bacchetti. Thank you.” She handed the phone back to Dino.
“Now, will you please tell me why I am here?”
“You are here, Miss du Bois, because you are a suspect in four murders in New York City.”
She laughed. “Good God! And when am I supposed to have committed these murders?”
“In the last couple of days.”