Lust and Lies 04 - Pretty Maids in a Row

Frampton, one of Greenley's neighbors is positive she saw her go out jogging at dawn Sunday."
    "Also, the two women you never met, Samantha Kingsley and Paula Marconi, have been cleared as well. That brings us to the two you felt certain could not be involved, April MacLeash and Cheryl Wallace."
    "And I still feel the same way," Holly said. "April was the one who set down the rules for the women to follow. She felt very strongly about the punishment fitting the crime. And Cheryl hasn't been in any condition to do anything."
    "Why do you say that?" David asked.
    "I didn't mention it before because April didn't want it to get out, but Cheryl... isn't well."
    "Explain," Diane said.
    "Apparently, she had a nervous breakdown after the hearing and April's been taking care of her."
    "Where?" Quick interjected.
    "At her house in Newark, Delaware. I told you I was there Saturday morning."
    "But you didn't mention Cheryl Wallace being with you."
    "Well, that was because she wasn't actually with us. She—I know this sounds odd, but she's been staying in April's attic. According to April, Cheryl's completely withdrawn from everyone. She said Cheryl reacted the same way in college after she was attacked. I know how she feels. You see, I did the same thing for a while."
    "Did you see Wallace while you were there?" Quick asked.
    "No. April checked on her and said she wasn't up to joining us. I got the impression Cheryl doesn't like to leave the attic room at all."
    Quick was on the edge of the sofa. "So, you only took MacLeash's word for it that Wallace was in the attic."
    Holly immediately understood what Quick was getting at. "I have no reason to doubt April, but her husband, Theodore, mentioned Cheryl being there when I met him."
    "Hmmm." Quick got up and paced a bit. "All right. Here's what happened. The agent we sent up to Newark to question April MacLeash said no one answered the door and neither did any of the close neighbors, so he drove on up to Wallace's house in Connecticut."
    "No one was there, either, but the next-door neighbor was very helpful. She was positive Mrs. Wallace hadn't been there since the hearing and Mr. Wallace left the house right after it ended and hadn't returned. He'd told her they were taking a trip to Europe. The neighbor's been collecting their mail for them ever since. Our agent stopped at the MacLeash home again on his way back and an elderly man answered the door."
    "That would be Theodore."
    "Yes. The agent said the man seemed a little disoriented, yet defensive at the same time. Insisted no one by the name of Cheryl Wallace lived there, and his wife was away on business for a few days."
    Holly frowned. "He did seem to have some trouble recalling something when April was speaking to him, so he may have some dementia. But I also remember him mentioning that April goes away from time to time to visit patients who've moved away."
    Quick raised an eyebrow. "How convenient. Let me give you a few more pieces of the puzzle. The possibility that Greenley was protecting someone with her confession looks a lot stronger today. We just found out she'd buried the lab findings on the fingerprints from the Ziegler murder. There was one set of prints not identified. That in itself wouldn't be so astounding, but combined with the deduction that there might have been a witness to the murder—"
    "A witness ?" David exclaimed.
    Quick nodded. "Possibly. We haven't released this information in hopes that the person would come forward without fear of the killer going after him or her. But it hasn't happened. Here's what we know. The killer wore gloves during the murder, and yet someone wiped the doorknobs and took a quick swipe over a few surfaces throughout the suite. The haphazard way this was done suggests it was someone other than the methodical killer.
    "The conclusion is that someone besides the murderer was in the hotel room after Ziegler was killed. That person either witnessed the murder or discovered the body afterward, panicked, wiped some areas she remembered touching, and took off. Note, I said she. That's because the unidentified prints were in the bathroom along with a, uh—" Quick cleared his throat.
    Diane rescued him. "A piece of tissue found in the toilet had a spot of menstrual blood on it. It's logical to assume the woman who put it there was in the bathroom after the maid had cleaned. Thus, we came to the assumption that Ziegler had a woman in his room when he returned there in the early