In Death 26 - Strangers in Death

residence. I was concerned, so I went upstairs without booting up the droids. When I got to the bedroom, I saw the fire in the hearth. Mr. Anders will not allow the fire when he sleeps or when he is out of the room. I was more concerned, so I went into the room. I saw him immediately. I went to the bedside, and I saw that I couldn’t help him. I went downstairs again, very quickly, and called nine-one-one.”
    “Why downstairs?”
    Greta looked puzzled. “I thought, from books and plays and vids, that I was not to touch anything in the room. Is that wrong?”
    “No, it’s exactly right. You did exactly the right thing.”
    “Good.” Greta gave a brisk, self-congratulatory nod. “Then I contacted Mrs. Anders, and waited for the police to come. They came in, perhaps, five or six minutes. I took the two officers upstairs, then one brought me back down to the kitchen, and waited here with me until you stepped in.”
    “I appreciate the details. Can you tell me who has the security codes to the house?”
    “Mr. and Mrs. Anders and myself. The codes are changed every ten days.”
    “No one else has the codes? A good friend, another employee, a relative?”
    Greta shook her head, decisively. “No one else has the codes.”
    “Mrs. Anders is away.”
    “Yes. She left on Friday for a week in St. Lucia with some female friends. This is an annual trip, though they don’t go to the same place necessarily.”
    “You contacted her.”
    “Yes.” Greta shifted slightly. “I realize, after thinking more clearly, I should have waited, and the police would have notified Mrs. Anders. But…they’re my employers.”
    “How did you contact her?”
    “Through the resort. When she goes on holiday, she often shuts off her pocket ’link.”
    “And her reaction?”
    “I told her there had been an accident, that Mr. Anders was dead. I don’t think she believed me, or understood me initially. I had to repeat it twice, and I felt, under the circumstances, I couldn’t tell her when she asked what kind of accident. She said she would come home immediately.”
    “Okay, Greta. You have a good relationship with the Anderses?”
    “They are very good employers. Very fair, very correct.”
    “How about their relationship, with each other? It’s not gossip,” Eve said, reading Greta perfectly. “It’s very fair, and it’s very ‘correct’ for you to tell me any and everything you can that may help me find out what happened to Mr. Anders.”
    “They seemed very content to me, very well suited. It would be my impression that they enjoyed each other, and their life together.”
    Enjoying each other wasn’t what the crime scene transmitted, Eve thought. “Did either, or both of them, have relationships outside the marriage?”
    “You mean sexual. I couldn’t say. I manage the house. I’ve never seen anything in the house that would lead me to believe either, or both, engaged in adulterous affairs.”
    “Can you think of anyone who’d want him dead?”
    “No.” Greta eased back slowly. “I thought—I assumed—that someone had broken in to steal, and that Mr. Anders was killed by the thief.”
    “Have you noticed anything missing or out of place?”
    “No. No. But I haven’t looked.”
    “I’m going to have you do that now. One of the officers will take you around.” She glanced over as Peabody came in. “Peabody, get one of the uniforms. I want Mrs. Horowitz escorted while she looks around the house. You’re free to go afterward,” Eve told Greta. “If you’d give my partner or me the contact information where you’ll be.”
    “I prefer to stay, until Mrs. Anders arrives, if this is allowed. She may need me.”
    “All right then.” Eve rose, signaling the end to the initial interview. “Thanks for your cooperation.”
    As Greta went out, Eve walked to the room off the kitchen. Inside two droids, disengaged, stood. One male, one female, both uniformed and dignified in appearance. The security screens Greta had spoken of ranged over a wall, and as she’d stated, the master bedroom camera showed only the sitting area.
    “Dallas?”
    “Huh?”
    “House security was disengaged at two twenty-eight, reengaged at three twenty-six.”
    Eve turned to frown at Peabody. “Reengaged before TOD?”
    “Yeah. All security discs for the twenty-four-hour period before the security was reset are gone.”
    “Why, I’m shocked. We’ll get EDD in here to see if they can dig something out. So Anders’s