‘What about the garage down the block?’ Hodges asked.

She looked at him as though he were crazy. ‘It costs sixteen dollars to park there overnight. The streetside spaces are free.’

Pete was still holding the key, although he hadn’t yet told Mrs Trelawney they would be taking it with them. ‘You stopped at Birch Hill and ordered takeout for you and your mother at—’ He consulted his notebook. ‘B’hai.’

‘No, I ordered ahead. From my house on Lilac Drive. They are always glad to hear from me. I am an old and valued customer. Last night it was kookoo sabzi for Mother – that’s an herbal omelet with spinach and cilantro – and gheymeh for me. Gheymeh is a lovely stew with peas, potatoes, and mushrooms. Very easy on the stomach.’ She straightened her boatneck. ‘I’ve had terrible acid reflux ever since I was in my teens. One learns to live with it.’

‘I assume your order was—’ Hodges began.

‘And sholeh zard for dessert,’ she added. ‘That’s rice pudding with cinnamon. And saffron.’ She flashed her strangely troubled smile. Like the compulsive straightening of her boatneck tops, the smile was a Trelawneyism with which they would become very familiar. ‘It’s the saffron that makes it special. Even Mother always eats the sholeh zard.’

‘Sounds tasty,’ Hodges said. ‘And your order, was it boxed and ready to go when you got there?’

‘Yes.’

‘One box?’

‘Oh no, three.’

‘In a bag?’

‘No, just the boxes.’

‘Must have been quite a struggle, getting all that out of your car,’ Pete said. ‘Three boxes of takeout, your purse …’

‘And the key,’ Hodges said. ‘Don’t forget that, Pete.’

‘Also, you’d want to get it all upstairs as fast as possible,’ Pete said. ‘Cold food’s no fun.’

‘I see where you’re going with this,’ Mrs Trelawney said, ‘and I assure you …’ A slight pause. ‘… you gentlemen that you are barking up the wrong path. I put my key in my purse as soon as I turned off the engine, it’s the first thing I always do. As for the boxes, they were tied together in a stack …’ She held her hands about eighteen inches apart to demonstrate. ‘… and that made them very easy to handle. I had my purse over my arm. Look.’ She crooked her arm, hung her purse on it, and marched around the big living room, holding a stack of invisible boxes from B’hai. ‘See?’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ Hodges said. He thought he saw something else as well.

‘As for hurrying – no. There was no need, since the dinners need to be heated up, anyway.’ She paused. ‘Not the sholeh zard, of course. No need to heat up rice pudding.’ She uttered a small laugh. Not a giggle, Hodges thought, but a titter. Given that her husband was dead, he supposed you could even call it a widder-titter. His dislike added another layer – almost thin enough to be invisible, but not quite. No, not quite.

‘So let me review your actions once you got here to Lake Avenue,’ Hodges said. ‘Where you arrived at a little past seven.’

‘Yes. Five past, perhaps a little more.’

‘Uh-huh. You parked … what? Three or four doors down?’

‘Four at most. All I need are two empty spaces, so I can pull in without backing. I hate to back. I always turn the wrong way.’

‘Yes, ma’am, my wife has exactly the same problem. You turned off the engine. You removed the key from the ignition and put it in your purse. You put your purse over your arm and picked up the boxes with the food in them—’

‘The stack of boxes. Tied together with good stout string.’

‘The stack, right. Then what?’

She looked at him as though he were, of all the idiots in a generally idiotic world, the greatest. ‘Then I went to my mother’s building. Mrs Harris – the housekeeper, you know – buzzed me in. On Thursdays, she leaves as soon as I arrive. I took the elevator up to the nineteenth floor. Where you are now asking me questions instead of telling me when I can deal with my car. My stolen car.’

Hodges made a mental note to ask the housekeeper if she had noticed Mrs T.’s Mercedes when she left.

Pete asked, ‘At what point did you take your key from your purse again, Mrs Trelawney?’

‘Again? Why would I—’

He held the key up – Exhibit A. ‘To lock your car before you entered the building. You did lock it, didn’t you?’

A brief uncertainty flashed in her eyes. They both saw it. Then it was gone. ‘Of course I did.’

Hodges pinned her gaze. It shifted away, toward the lake view out the big picture window, and he caught it again. ‘Think carefully, Mrs Trelawney. People are dead, and this is important. Do you specifically remember juggling those boxes of food so you could get your key out of your purse and push the LOCK button? And seeing the headlights flash an acknowledgement? They do that, you know.’

‘Of course I know.’ She bit at her lower lip, realized she was doing it, stopped.

‘Do you remember that specifically?’

For a moment all expression left her face. Then that superior smile burst forth in all its irritating glory. ‘Wait. Now I remember. I put the key in my purse after I gathered up my boxes and got out. And after I pushed the button that locks the car.’

‘You’re sure,’ Pete said.

‘Yes.’ She was, and would remain so. They both knew that. The way a solid citizen who hit and ran would say, when he was finally tracked down, that of course it was a dog he’d hit.

Pete flipped his notebook closed and stood up. Hodges did likewise. Mrs Trelawney looked more than eager to escort them to the door.

‘One more question,’ Hodges said as they reached it.

She raised carefully plucked eyebrows. ‘Yes?’

‘Where’s your spare key? We ought to take that one, too.’

There was no blank look this time, no cutting away of the eyes, no hesitation. She said, ‘I have no spare key, and no need of one. I’m very careful of my things, Officer. I’ve owned my Gray Lady – that’s what I call it – for five years, and the only key I’ve ever used is now in your partner’s pocket.’

18

The table where he and Pete ate their lunch has been cleared of everything but his half-finished glass of water, yet Hodges goes on sitting there, staring out the window at the parking lot and the overpass that marks the unofficial border of Lowtown, where Sugar Heights residents like the late Olivia Trelawney never venture. Why would they? To buy drugs? Hodges is sure there are druggies in the Heights, plenty of them, but when you live there, the dealers make housecalls.

Mrs T. was lying. She had to lie. It was that or face the fact that a single moment of forgetfulness had led to horrific consequences.

Suppose, though – just for the sake of argument – that she was telling the truth.

Okay, let’s suppose. But if we were wrong about her leaving her Mercedes unlocked with the key in the ignition, how were we wrong? And what did happen?

He sits looking out the window, remembering, unaware that some of the waiters have begun to look at him uneasily – the overweight retiree sitting slumped in his seat like a robot with dead batteries.

19

The deathcar had been transported to Police Impound on a carrier, still locked. Hodges and Huntley received this update when they got back to their own car. The head mechanic from Ross Mercedes had just arrived, and was pretty sure he could unlock the damn thing. Eventually.

‘Tell him not to bother,’ Hodges said. ‘We’ve got her key.’

There was a pause at the other end, and then Lieutenant Morrissey said, ‘You do? You’re not saying she—’

‘No, no, nothing like that. Is the mechanic standing by, Lieutenant?’

‘He’s in the yard, looking at the damage to the car. Damn near tears, is what I heard.’

‘He might want to save a drop or two for the dead people,’ Pete said. He was driving. The windshield wipers beat back and forth. The rain was coming harder. ‘Just sayin.’