“No prints on any of these.”
“What about the ballistics test?”
“Two of the bullets were too deformed to get a match,” one of the detectives said, “but one of them was whole.”
“And?”
“No match. Not even close. This is not the piece that killed the diplomat.”
“Shit!” Dino said.
“But this is a very interesting pistol.”
“How so?”
“It has no manufacturer’s markings anywhere on it. We ran the ballistics against the FBI database, and it came up federal, probably CIA or Defense Intelligence Agency, something like that.”
Dino looked up to see Stone and Carpenter coming into the outer office. “Here’s our Brit spy,” he said. “Now we’ll get somewhere.” Dino introduced the two to the captain.
“Hello, Stone,” George Mellon said, not offering his hand.
“Hi, George.” Stone had once beaten him in court in a very embarrassing way.
“Where is she?” Carpenter asked.
Sol Kaminsky walked into Dino’s office. “You and I can meet with my client now,” he said. “Come on.”
Everybody followed Kaminsky back to the interrogation room, and Dino went inside with him, while the others stood behind the one-way mirror.
Stone elbowed Carpenter. “Well, is that La Biche?”
“God,” Carpenter said, “she looks so different. I’m not sure I could swear to it.”
“Nothing like an eyewitness,” the deputy DA muttered.
“All right, Lieutenant Bacchetti,” Sol Kaminsky said, “my client has identified herself with her valid passport and answered your questions. What evidence do you have to connect her to any crime?”
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Dino placed the pistol, silencer, and ice pick on the table without saying anything. He wanted to see her reaction.
Marie-Thérèse looked at her lawyer uncomprehendingly. “I don’t understand,” she said.
“The lieutenant, my dear, thinks these weapons belong to you,” Kaminsky said.
“I have never seen any of them,” she replied. “I have no need for weapons.”
Kaminsky turned to Dino. “What evidence do you have connecting these weapons to my client?”
“She put them in the toilet tank in the ladies’ room at Elaine’s,” Dino said with a sinking heart.
“How do you know this? Did you find her fingerprints on any of them?”
Dino gulped.
“Have you connected any of these weapons with any of the murders with a ballistic or other scientific test?”
“Not yet,” Dino temporized.