Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #4: Books 13-16 (A Dead Cold Box Set), Blake Banner [story read aloud .txt] 📗

last. “They were already here. I told them Jack would not be coming to the launch and we went. Again, I did tell the police…”

Dehan nodded. “I’m sure the detective at the time asked you all of this, Mrs. Magnusson, but sometimes time and reflection can cast a new light on things. Is there anyone you can think of, however remote or unlikely it may seem, who could have had a grudge against your husband?”

She smiled. It was an odd smile that seemed to suggest that Dehan’s question was somehow absurd. Her gaze drifted and she pointed at my chair. “He used to sit there, smoking a cigar in the evening. He liked cognac, the Rémy Martin Fine Champagne, XO… extra old.” She made a disparaging face and a small laugh. “I think it is a vulgar drink in a vulgar bottle, but he likes it… He liked it.” She took a deep breath and the laughter faded from her face. “Of course, I have asked myself this many times. Who? Who would want to do this? But I cannot answer that question. So many people in his life I did not know. I knew nothing of his work. In his personal life I can tell you that he had no enemies—few friends, but no enemies. At work…” She gave a delicate shrug. “I do not know. You would better ask Seth, and his colleagues.”

Dehan nodded again. “Sure, we will do that.” She hesitated a moment, then said, “Mrs. Magnusson, there is an outside possibility that you, and not your husband, were the focus of this attack. Had that crossed your mind?”

She blinked and her eyebrows rose a fraction. “What on Earth can you mean?”

“My partner and I both agree that the fact that so much care was taken to send…”

She hesitated again and Helena supplied the missing words: “My husband’s head.”

“Yes, the fact that so much trouble was taken to send it to you in that particular way suggests that you were, at least to some extent, a target in this crime.”

“That had never occurred to me. It is obvious now that you say it, and I a crime writer…”

For a fleeting moment her bottom lip curled in and she blinked away tears from her eyes. I said, “You were too close to it.”

“No doubt.”

“But you see that there was an attempt here to communicate something to you.”

“Yes.”

“This would suggest that the murderer knew you both, and considered himself…”

“Or herself.”

“Yes, or herself, to have some kind of relationship with you. Seen from that perspective, does anyone come to mind? Can you think what they might have wanted to communicate?”

She shook her head, not in negation but as though daunted by the enormity of the task. “I shall have to think about it. I have not thought about this for a long time.”

I nodded. “Of course. Mrs. Magnusson, I only have a couple more questions for you and then we’ll leave you in peace. How did you get from the community center to the party on Madison Avenue, in Manhattan?”

She stared at me for a long moment.

I frowned. “I’m assuming you didn’t drive.”

“No, no of course not. A friend from Boston came and picked me up.”

I smiled and my eyebrows told her I was surprised. “From Boston?”

“No, Detective, he was visiting for the book launch. He is an old friend.”

“This would be one of the friends you had lunch with. May we have a name?”

Her face seemed to dry and harden like plaster. “His name is in your original report. Do you need to trouble him again after all these years?”

“In a case like this, where there is no forensic evidence and there are no witnesses, we need to gather evidence from other sources. Often a simple comment can give us a clue that leads us to an answer. I am sure your friend is totally innocent, but he may know the killer without realizing it. We are trying to catch a murderer, Mrs. Magnusson, not cause you problems.”

“Of course.” Again the small sigh through her nose and the downcast gaze. “His name is Alornerk, Alornerk Smith. It is in my original statement.”

Dehan frowned. “That’s a very unusual name, Alornerk.”

“It is an Eskimo name. He is from Alaska. He lives and works in Boston. He is a senior lecturer in mathematics. I believe he has changed address since...”

Dehan wrote down his new address and phone number. When she was done, I said, “One last thing, could you supply us with a list of your students at Underhill?”

She sagged back in the sofa. “Now?”

I shook my head. “No, but if over the next day or two you could give it some thought and write down everything you can remember about them, that would be helpful.”

She gave a nod that was weary. “Yes, very well, Detective Stone, I’ll do what I can.”

I glanced at Dehan. She shook her head that she had no more questions and we stood. Helena rang a bell and we stood in awkward silence for a moment. Then Ebba opened the door and led us back down the stairs in a silent procession to the front door. There she smiled her bright smile and said she hoped we would have a lovely day.

The door closed and we walked without talking back to my old, burgundy Jaguar, where it sat in the mottled, spring shade of the green ash.

TWO

Dehan didn’t get in straight away. She leaned her forearms on the burgundy roof of the car, leaned her chin on her forearms and drummed her fingers. The dappled shade of the leaves lay across her face.

“In her original statement, she said that Alornerk came to visit and brought a couple of friends with him. She couldn’t remember their names, but they