The Purrfect Murder

you doing with the knife in your hand?”
    “I—I saw her sprawled there and I ran up. All that blood. All that blood. I’ve never seen so much blood, and it was still squirting up, like a fountain, a dying fountain.”
    Cooper waited patiently, saying only, “Go on.”
    “I don’t know, Coop. I saw the knife right by there.” She pointed to Carla’s left hand. “And I picked it up. I don’t know why.”
    “All right. Listen to me. Listen hard now. In a few moments the law-enforcement people here who helped with parking will come up. They are going to take you with them. I can’t stop them. You are the prime suspect.”
    “I didn’t kill her. I loathed her, but I didn’t kill her.”
    “For your sake, Tazio, I truly hope so. You’ll need to compose yourself and go quietly. You’ll have the opportunity to make one phone call to your lawyer.”
    “He’s here. Ned.”
    “All right, then, I’ll fetch him after they take you to jail. Say nothing, Tazio. I mean it. Say nothing until you can talk to Ned. I hope he can extradite you up to our facility, but I doubt it. You’re in for a rough time. You have to be strong.”
    “God.” Tazio swallowed more tears.
    Cooper could see an officer walking toward them. “I wonder if Little Mim alerted them. You know she’s never without her cell. It’s attached to her like an enema bag.”
    “You think I killed her, don’t you?” Tazio gulped.
    “I hope you didn’t, but I can’t let emotion sway the evidence. You were standing over the body with the knife in your right hand. Her wound indicates she was slashed by a right-hander. Of course, that’s about ninety percent of the population. I have to do my job, Tazio.”
    “I understand.” Tazio fought to control her emotions.
    “I’m sorry.”
    “I am, too, but I swear to you by all that’s holy, I did not kill Carla Paulson.”
    A young officer with a buzz cut arrived. Clearly this was the first murder victim he’d seen.
    Cooper had to hold her tongue, because she almost said, “Cadet.” Instead, she introduced herself, said her rank, and gave a brief rundown.
    He quickly called a superior officer.
    Cooper sighed for so many reasons, not the least of which was she had so looked forward to this evening.
    “Who’s he?” The cadet tilted his head in the direction of a man in white tie, standing off to the side out of Cooper’s range of vision.
    She said, “Lorenzo McCracken.”
    He stepped toward them and said, “This beautiful lady is my date. I worried when she didn’t return to the table, so I came looking for her. When I perceived the situation, I thought it best not to disturb her since she was”—he thought a moment—“working.”
    Within minutes a gaggle of officers was there, including the sheriff. He’d had the presence of mind not to drive over the lawn or turn on sirens and lights.
    Again Cooper recounted what she’d witnessed and how long she thought the victim had been dead.
    The sheriff, Eli Grundy, knelt down, felt the side of Carla’s neck. “You’re right, Deputy, it couldn’t have happened more than ten minutes before you found her.” He stood back up, grass stains on his knees. He nodded at his deputy, who began reading the Miranda Act to Tazio. “Take her away.”
    Tazio said nothing but looked at Coop, and Coop smiled slightly.
    “Sheriff, we’d better get back there before people leave,” the novice said.
    “Son, let me handle this,” Sheriff Grundy grunted.
    Cooper spoke up. “Currently, they know nothing and the speeches are about to begin, followed by dancing. If I might make a suggestion, Sheriff, it could save time.”
    Although not a fan of women in law enforcement, Eli Grundy had bowed to the inevitable. And this woman had done everything by the book, so he listened. “What?”
    “If you and your men stayed unobtrusively in the background, that wouldn’t be unusual. After all, you are security. Allow me, if you will, to go to each table and ask them to write on a napkin who was absent from their table during the time of the murder. The organizing committee has all the table names, so we don’t need to waste time with that.” She took a breath. “While it certainly appears that you have apprehended the murderer, it is possible there’s an accomplice or more to it than meets the eye.”
    He pondered this. “And we can keep anyone from leaving.”
    “Right. If we go in now, with your people in uniform, and try to get this information, it