The Closer He Gets

The “ma’am” irritated her, after all that crap about whether she was a Ms. or a Mrs. The use of the word “perceptions” irritated her even more. The event she’d witnessed was straightforward. It had happened too fast for any filters to kick in.

“I’m not married.”

“All right then, Mi-izz Granath.” He dragged it out, his tone laden with condescension. “You live here close by?”

Since he held her driver’s license in his hand, he knew exactly where she lived. She said, “No.”

“May I ask your purpose for being here?”

“I was checking on a friend next door who recently had surgery.”

“And this friend’s name?”

“Lupe Estrada.”

“I’m surprised this friend hasn’t come out. Given all the commotion and all.”

“As I said, she had surgery. Abdominal. She is barely able to get up long enough to go to the bathroom. I stopped by to see if she needed anything because her husband had to work today.”

The detective wanted to know if she and Lupe had been friends for long. Since high school. So that meant Tess might have met some of the neighbors, too. Yes, she had.

“What about the fellow who was involved in this fracas?”

“If by that you mean the man who was just beaten to death? Yes. I knew him to nod at. I wouldn’t call him a friend.”

“But you know his name.”

“Yes. Antonio. Antonio Alvarez, I think.”

“So you saw him as a nice guy.”

“He seemed pleasant. I understand he lived here with his uncle and a couple of cousins. Antonio is a friend of Lupe’s husband, Rey. As I said, I don’t—” the word caught in her throat “—didn’t know him well.”

“All right,” he said. “When did you first see him today?”

“I’d left my sweater and handbag in the living room. On my way out, I was reaching for them when I glanced out the window and was surprised to see a police car parked in front of Antonio’s house. I could just see him and the deputy, speaking.”

“And where were they standing?”

“Antonio had stepped down from the porch. I could see that the conversation was...heated.”

“Could you hear what was being said?”

“Not at that point. Only enough to know they were yelling. The deputy’s face was flushed, as if he was angry.”

“Now that’s quite an assumption, given you don’t know him.” The detective affected a look of surprise. “Or do you?”

“I do not.” And wouldn’t want to, she thought grimly.

“Then you have no basis for comparison.”

“No, I don’t. However—” She lifted her hand when he started to interrupt. “In my experience, a combination of a raised voice and flushed cheeks generally suggests anger in any individual.”

It went on that way. He tried hard to persuade her to admit she hadn’t seen what had preceded the first blow. But she had. By that time she’d been on the Estradas’ front porch with a clear sight line to the two men arguing.

“I was concerned because the police officer was considerably larger than Antonio. His voice and body language were belligerent.”

“But your friend Antonio was angry, too.”

“As I’ve said repeatedly, I wouldn’t describe him as a friend. It was clear they were arguing about a woman. Just before the first blow was struck, Antonio accused the police officer of hurting her. The deputy told him to stay away from her, pulled his nightstick from his belt, lifted it and swung. That first blow knocked Antonio back a step. The deputy pursued.”

Delancy kept circling back to what she’d seen when. “Now, you must have looked away at some point.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think I so much as blinked. I may have missed something as I bounded down the porch steps, but your deputy was well into the beating by then. The second police car had pulled up and I saw that officer racing toward them even as I ran across the yard.” She swallowed. “We were both too late.”

“You approached from the left of the two men engaged in the argument.”