Got Your Number

inside?"
    "No. I didn't get close enough."
    Jaffey sneered. "Are you sure you didn't see your old flame boinking your cousin?"
    She bit down on the inside of her cheek and maintained eye contact. "I'm positive."
    "So where does she come into all this?"
    "Angora?"
    "Yes."
    "We went to school here at the same time."
    "Did she know Dr. Seger?"
    "Everyone knew him."
    "Did she know him in the biblical sense?"
    "No."
    He looked at his notes. "She lives in Baton Rouge?"
    Roxann nodded.
    "Why did she come back to South Bend?"
    "I stopped in Baton Rouge for her wedding, then she decided to come with me. She didn't know about Cape following me."
    "What happened to her groom?"
    "He changed his mind at the altar."
    Jaffey made an amused sound. "A jilted bride might just be mad enough to nail the first guy she meets."
    "I wouldn't know." Although the same thought had crossed her mind last night.
    "When did your cousin return from her evening with Dr. Seger?" Warner asked.
    "I don't know. When I woke up this morning and went outside—"
    "To clean your incriminating shoes," Jaffey cut in. "We saw the roll of paper towels."
    "When I went out on the back porch to clean my running shoes," she continued, "Angora was asleep on the chaise."
    "Did you notice the bruises on her neck?"
    "Immediately."
    "How did she say they got there?"
    She took a drink of the coffee.
    "Ms. Beadleman?"
    "She said that Carl put them there."
    "How?"
    "She said they were getting ready to...have sex and he started choking her."
    "Did she say why?"
    "She said she'd told him something that made him angry, but she wouldn't tell me what."
    "Can you make a guess?"
    "No, I can't."
    "What else?"
    "Angora said she passed out, and when she came to, she was alone in his bed. Then she left."
    "Did she walk back to the house you're staying in?"
    "I assume so—her dress was a mess, and she was barefoot. I didn't see her shoes."
    "We found them on the porch. Muddy, same as yours. And we found a tiara on the dresser in his bedroom. Someone told us you got a crown last night for some kind of award?"
    "Yes, but the tiara is Angora's. Mine is—" She stopped. Where was that thing?
    "In my truck," Capistrano supplied.
    Good grief, she'd misplaced everything last night. Including her good sense. Why else would she have run over to Carl's like some lovestruck stalker? She froze. Years of working with obsessive people had rubbed off. Dear God.
    Jaffey toyed with the pencil. "Here's what I think—I think you jogged over there for a peek and found Dr. Seger choking your cousin for whatever reason. You pulled your scarf out of your pocket and killed him. Maybe you didn't mean to, but it happened."
    "That's absurd," she said, shaking her head. "I didn't kill Carl." She choked on the last word, then recovered. "I couldn't have."
    "Will you take a lie detector test?"
    "Absolutely."
    "So if we believe your story," Warner said, "you didn't kill him, but your cousin certainly could have."
    He had vocalized her own fears—especially considering what Nell had told her about the Tammy Paulen incident—but she tried to keep a poker face. "I have a difficult time believing that Angora could do something like that." But Capistrano was looking at her strangely.
    "Do you know anyone else who could have killed him?" Jaffey asked.
    "No, but I don't know much about Carl's life. Talk to Nell Oney and some of the other professors."
    "We did. By the way, she had access to your scarf, didn't she?"
    Roxann narrowed her eyes. "Since I don't know where I lost it, I couldn't say. But Nell Oney is one of the few truly good people I know. She and Carl were friends. She would never hurt anyone."
    "The woman is ill," Capistrano said. "Barely strong enough to turn a deadbolt, let alone bring down a man the size of Seger."
    "The same for Angora," she added.
    A knock on the door interrupted them, and a female officer stuck her head in. "The Ryder woman's lawyer is here."
    "I'll be right there," Jaffey said. When the door closed, he shook his finger at Roxann. "We'll need your clothes and your fingerprints. And don't leave town." He looked at Capistrano. "Can I trust you to keep an eye on her?"
    "Sure thing."
    The detective looked at her and she had the distinct feeling of a hen being handed over to a chicken hawk.

Chapter Twenty-one

    ANGORA LOOKED UP and dubiously shook hands with the man who introduced himself as her lawyer. Mike Brown was a short chunky man with curly brown hair and glasses that wouldn't