House of Blues

completely wrong. Fine fellow. Charming
fellow. Anyone my dad hated can't be all bad."
    Skip's heart speeded up.
    "But don't get too excited." He shrugged.
"There weren't all that many people he liked."
    "Your dad had enemies?"
    Grady looked startled. "The kind who'd kill him,
you mean?"
    Skip nodded.
    "Well, I never thought of it that way. He was
irascible. You don't kill people for that, do you?"
    "You tell me."
    "Tell you what? Tell you I did it? What is
this?"
    Skip said nothing.
    "Look, some thug broke in here and killed him.
What could be more obvious?"
    "In that case, what happened to Reed and Sally
and Dennis?"
    Grady's face, so facile, so obviously trying to
betray no emotion, went slightly pale again. "I don't know. I
don't want to think about it."
    Neither do I, she thought. The Heberts were a
prominent family. She didn't know how much money they had, but it
might seem reasonable to someone that they'd pay a good-sized ransom
for a kidnapped member. Perhaps Arthur's murder was the result of a
kidnap gone wrong. But then, why take the remaining three when one
would do?
    Because they knew the kidnapper's face.
    Which doesn't bode well for their future.
    Sugar was beginning to come around again, talking
quietly to Nina. Skip addressed the younger woman: "Do you know
if Reed or Dennis had a gun?"
    Sugar said, "I told you—" but Nina
interrupted, smiling, shaking her head. "They wouldn't be caught
dead with a gun. Neither one of them. Dennis—um, lost a relative
once .... " She let her voice trail off, apparently thinking of
something too regrettable to mention.
    " I already told you that," Sugar said; it
sounded a lot like a whine.
    " How about Arthur?""Arthur?"
    Skip nodded.
    " Arthur had a gun."
    "Where did he keep it?"
    "In a safe in his office. Here, I mean. In the
room he called his office."
    " Would you mind telling Mr. Gottschalk? Our
crime lab man."
    "Of course not."
    Skip smiled sweetly at Sugar. "Will you be all
right alone?"
    Sugar looked a little disoriented, as if things were
moving too fast for her. "I guess so. You mean tell him now?"
She put a hand on her chest.
    Skip couldn't tell if she was faking or not, but she
nodded at Grady. "You can go with her if you like—just to the
porch. An officer will meet you there."
    She wanted some time with Nina. "I feel for
them," she said, nodding at Grady and Sugar.
    Nina simply shook her head, as Skip had seen dozens
of friends and relatives do when confronted with death.
    " Have you worked for them long?"
    "A few years."
    "I gather from Grady the old man was difficult."
    She shrugged. "Grady's not so easy himself."
    "And Mrs. Hebert?"
    "Complicated. I feel sorry for her."
    "Why?"
    "Arthur treated her like dirt, for one thing.
For another, she's got some real little emotional knots."
    "What sort?"
    "She doesn't really have a lot of self-esteem."
Phillips thought a moment. "And I guess she thinks she can get
it by pretending."
    Nina had a maddening way of throwing out enticing
generalities that made little sense initially. "Pretending
what?" Skip asked.
    "Whatever. It varies."
    Skip still didn't get it, but she couldn't stay
there. There was too much to cover in a hurry. "Do you know the
family pretty well?"
    To her surprise, Nina snorted. "I'd say so.
Grady and I were an item once, God help me." She paused here.
"Reed and I are best friends. And Dennis is my cousin."
    "Dennis! But I thought—" She stopped, but
Nina made her complete the sentence. "I thought he was white."
    "Oh, he is, I guess. He's from a white branch of
the family, anyway. We didn't grow up together—I didn't even know
about the Fouchers; the white ones. Dennis looked me up when we were
already grown." She snorted again. "He wanted money."
    "Was this before or after you knew the Heberts?"
    " Before. He introduced me years later. What you
have to understand is he was a different person then. He was an
addict."
    " I see."
    " Oh, there never was any harm in him; not a bit.
He's a gentle soul—a very sweet man." She stopped and stared
at the wall.
    "Lord, lord."
    "What is it?"
    "I was just thinking how much he and Grady are
alike. Passive. Sweet, but ineffectual."
    Grady hadn't struck Skip as sweet, but she kept her
mouth shut.
    "No wonder Reed and I hit it off so well. We're
like mirror images, one black, one white. Otherwise, we could be
twins. Well, no, not exactly, I'm more of a rebel than she is.
    "Good lord, Goody Two-Shoes is more of a rebel
than she is.
    "But how we're alike