K is for Killer (Kinsey Millhone 11)

"I'm assuming the case was handled as a homicide."

"Well, yes. Even with cause of death undetermined, it was considered suspicious. They investigated as a homicide, but then nothing turned up. Now it seems like they dropped it. You know how they do those things. Something else comes along, and they concentrate on that."

"Sometimes there isn't sufficient information to make a finding in a situation like that. It doesn't mean they haven't worked hard."

"Well, I understand, but I still can't accept it."

I noticed that she had ceased to make eye contact, and I could feel the whisper of intuition crawling up along my spine. I found myself focusing on her face, wondering at her apparent uneasiness.

"Janice, is there something you haven't told me?"

Her cheeks began to tint as if she were being overtaken by a hot flash. "I was just getting to that."

2

She reached into the brown paper bag again and pulled out a videotape in an unmarked box that she placed on the edge of the desk. "About a month ago, someone sent us this tape," she said. "I still don't know who, and I can't think why they'd do it except to cause us distress. Mace wasn't home. I found it in the mailbox in a plain brown wrapper with no return address. I opened the package because it had both our names on it. I went ahead and stuck it in the VCR. I don't know what I thought it was. A tape of some television show or somebody's wedding. I about died when I saw. Tape was pure smut, and there was Lorna, big as life. I just let out this shriek. I turned it off and threw it in the trash as fast as I could. It was like I'd been burned. I felt like I should go wash my hands in the sink. But then I had second thoughts. Because this tape could be evidence. It might tie in to the reason she was killed."

I leaned forward. "Let me clarify one point before you go on. This was the first you'd heard of it? You had no idea she was involved in anything like this?"

"Absolutely not. I was floored. Pornography? There's no way. Of course, once I saw what it was, I began to wonder if somebody put her up to it."

"Like what? I don't understand," I said.

"She might have been blackmailed. She might have been coerced. For all we know, she was working undercover for the police, which they would never admit."

"What makes you say that?" For the first time, she was sounding "off," and I felt myself step back, viewing her with caution.

"Because we'd sue them, that's why. If she got killed in the line of duty? We'd go after them."

I sat and stared at her. "Janice, I worked for the Santa Teresa Police Department myself for two years. They're serious professionals. They don't enlist the services of amateurs. In a vice investigation? I find that hard to believe."

"I didn't say they did. I didn't accuse anyone because that would be slander or libel or one of them. I'm just telling you what's possible."

"Such as?"

She seemed to hesitate, thinking about it. "Well. Maybe she was about to blow the whistle on whoever made the film."

"To what end? It's not against the law to make a pornographic film these days."

"But couldn't it be a cover for something else? Some other kind of crime?"

"Sure, it could, but let's back up a minute and let me play devil's advocate here. You told me the cause of death was undetermined, which means the coroner's office couldn't say with any certainty what she died of, right?"

Reluctantly. "That's right."

"How do you know she didn't have an aneurysm or a stroke or a heart attack? With all the allergies she suffered, she might have died from anaphylactic shock. I'm not saying you're wrong, but you're making a big leap here without a shred of proof."

"I understand. I guess it sounds crazy to you, but I know what I know. She was murdered. I'm absolutely sure of it, but I can't get anyone to listen, and what am I supposed to do? I'll tell you something else. She had quite a lot of money at the time she died."

"I low much?"

"Close to five hundred thousand dollars' worth of stocks and bonds. She had some money in CDs, but the bulk was in securities. She had five or six different savings accounts, too. Now where'd she get that?"

"How do you think she acquired it?"

"Maybe somebody paid her off. To keep quiet about something."

I studied the woman, trying to assess her powers of reasoning. First, she claimed her daughter was being blackmailed or coerced. Now she was suggesting she was guilty of extortion. I set the issue aside temporarily and shifted my focus. "How did the police react to the tape?"