Eenie, Meenie, Miney...

Detective Harry Bridgewater and Detective Tess Mosely

The rookie patrolman had gotten a little queasy when he first saw Rachel Madison's body, but by the time the lab team arrived he had pretty well recovered. He heard a car pull up across the street and saw a man and a woman emerge. To the patrolman it sounded like they were arguing.

The patrolman turned to his sergeant, who waved at the approaching pair. "Who are they?" he asked curiously.

The sergeant laughed. "That's Detective Bridgewater and Detective Mosely, but we just call them the odd couple."

"Why the 'odd couple'?"

"Because they're always going at each other like an old married couple," the sergeant chuckled. "What's so funny is that they're not married - they just fight like they are. But they still make a good team and they've solved a lot of cases over the last few of years."

Just then Harry and Tess stepped up on the porch. "It's awful early, Sarge," Harry said. "What have you got for us?"

The sergeant pulled out his notebook. "According to the driver's license we found inside, the stiff is a 36-year-old woman named Mrs. Rachel Madison. The lab boys say she was killed sometime around 2:00 a.m. this morning. Cause of death was a bullet through her brain, but just to make sure the perp shot her three more times, twice in the chest and once in the pelvis area."

The detectives exchanged glances. "A crime of passion," Tess murmured.

"The lab guys couldn't find any prints or other obvious forensic evidence, but they want to have another go just to make sure."

"Anything missing inside - money or valuables?" Harry asked.

"If it's a crime of passion, there wouldn't be," Tess spoke up, and Harry shot her a dirty look. "Maybe, but you always gotta ask," he said, rolling his eyes for the sergeant's benefit.

The man managed to keep a straight face. "Nope. The contents of her purse were dumped out on the couch, but nothing appears to be missing. We found a couple of hundred dollars in her billfold."

"Anybody hear or see anything?" Harry went on.

"The neighbor who called it in said he heard some noise but thought it was kids shooting fireworks."

"Where was Mr. Madison?" Tess asked.

Harry turned to her in irritation. "I was just getting to that."

She ignored her partner and raised her eyebrows in question at the sergeant.

"Nowhere to be found. From the looks of the place he hasn't been there for several days. Maybe he's traveling out of town or something."

"Check her cellphone," Harry said. "She's probably got his number in it."

"Will do, just as soon as we get through running it for any other evidence," the sergeant said.

Now Tess rolled her eyes. "You can't do anything these days until the lab types have finished," she said disgustedly.

After the two of them had done a walk-through of the crime scene, they came back out and walked to the car. "No use going home," Harry said, "it's dawn already. Let's go by the IHOP and get something to eat."

Tess gave him an irritated look. "You eat too much junk food, Harry. It's not good for your heart. Let's go someplace where we can get something healthy."

He heaved a sigh. "Yes, Mother," he said sarcastically, "whatever you say."

Tess snickered.

They wound up at a mom-and-pop diner, and over black coffee and whole grain cereal they talked about the case. "The husband done it," Harry declared decisively.

"How can you say that?" Tess asked incredulously.

"Dead wife plus missing husband plus crime of passion equals guilty husband: Q I D."

Tess shook her head. "In the first place, you haven't talked to a single witness or suspect so you can't possibly make that call. In the second place, it's Q E D - quod erat demonstrandum. It's Latin, you dummy."

"It's all Greek to me," Harry quipped, pleased with his little joke. "But however you say it, I'll bet you dinner that I'm right."

"You may well be," Tess said, "but it's worth it to take that bet just on the chance to prove you're wrong."

The two were finishing their second cup of coffee when Harry got a phone call. After he hung up, Tess looked at him quizzically. "They found Vince Madison. He's staying at a Super 8 motel near the highway. Let's go."

There was a patrolman standing outside the door of one of the rooms on the ground floor when Harry and Tess arrived. "I guess they didn't want the guilty party to try to take a powder," Harry said snidely.

Tess ignored him and went to the door and knocked. When a man opened it, she introduced the two of them and indicated they needed to ask Madison about his wife. Once inside, the two detectives settled into their regular routine: Harry asked the questions while Tess observed. Over the years they'd found that she was much better at reading suspects than Harry.

"Mr. Madison, where were you from midnight until this morning?"

"I was right here," Vince said somewhat defensively. "I went out to dinner and then checked in here sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. The desk clerk could tell you exactly. Anyway, I watched a little TV and then went to bed. I've been asleep until your officer woke me up."

Harry made an entry in his notebook. "Did anyone see you after you checked into the motel? Is there anyone who can verify that you were here the whole time?"

The man shook his head in exasperation. "If you're asking if I was with somebody, the answer is no. I was alone the whole night."

"And you didn't get up to go out for a while after you checked in?"

"I just said I didn't, Detective."

"Uh-huh. So why exactly were you spending the night in a motel instead of at your own home with your wife."

It was obvious to Tess how uneasy Madison was.

"Well, the fact is that Rachel and I had a little spat, and I thought it would be best if I left and let things cool down a little. I was going to go home today and try to work things out. Of course now . . ."

"What were the two of you fighting about?"

"We weren't really fighting, we just had a disagreement."

"About what?"

"I had to go to the state educational convention this week in the capital. Rachel wanted me to come home early, and when I couldn't, I guess she got a little upset."

"Did you hit her?"

"What! No, of course not!"

"Did she hit you?"

Tess thought he hesitated just a micro-second. "No. It was an argument, not a knock-down, drag-out fight."

"So let me get this straight: you came back from the convention yesterday and when you got home you and your wife had an argument."

Now Madison was really uncomfortable. "Uh, no, not exactly. One of the teachers at our school, Mrs. Maddux, also attended the convention, and I followed her home just to make sure she arrived safely. Tom and Cece Maddux are friends of ours, so I went in to speak with them for a minute."

"So you visited briefly with the Madduxes before you went home, where you had an argument with your wife, right?"

"No, actually Rachel came over to Tom and Cece's house, and the argument took place there. It was pretty embarrassing."

"So from your friends' home you went out to dinner and then checked into the motel here - is that it?"

"Exactly," Vince said, and his relief was obvious.

"Okay, only two more questions for now. How would you characterize your marriage with Mrs. Madison?

Vince shifted in his chair. "Obviously we had our ups and downs, but I'd say all in all it was a pretty normal marriage.

Harry nodded sagely. "Do you own a gun, Mr. Madison?"

"No!" Vince said sharply.

"Okay," Harry said, "that does it for now. But don't leave town without letting us know, in case we have more questions for you." He and Tess rose and started to leave. "Oh, and sorry about your loss, Mr. Madison."

Vince nodded.

Harry started the engine and pulled out of the motel parking lot. "He was lying like a rug," he said smugly.

"I don't think he was lying so much as he wasn't telling us everything he knew," Tess said. "He's definitely trying to keep us from finding out something."

"Yeah, like the fact he shot his wife," Harry snorted. "I can taste that dinner already."

Tess ignored him. "So where are we headed now?"

"Let's grab some more coffee and then go see if Mr. and Mrs. Maddux are home," he replied.

Vince

As soon as the police had left, Vince grabbed his cellphone and called Cece. When she heard his voice she immediately exclaimed, "Oh, Vince, I just heard the news about Rachel."

She was about to go on but he interrupted her. "Listen, I can't talk about that now. The police were just here asking a bunch of questions. They know that Rachel went to your house yesterday, and I told them that we had an argument, but that was all. Now they're probably on their way over to talk to you and Tom. If you don't want to see everything about us spread all over the newspapers, you'd better get him home as quick as possible and convince him to cooperate."

He could hear the panic in Cece's voice. "How am I ever going to do that? Tom hates me - he won't care if I lose my job."

"I know, Cece, but the last thing he wants is for everybody to start laughing at him and calling him a cuckold," Vince said. "He has as much to lose as we do. You can work on that."

He heard her take a deep breath. "I'll try, Vince, but I can't promise anything."

"Just do your best," he said urgently.

"Vince," Cece asked in a hesitant voice, "did you kill Rachel?"

"No!" Vince exploded, "of course not. I could never do such a thing!"

"I didn't think so, but she was so hateful to you that I just wondered."

"Get that thought out of your mind and focus on convincing Tom to play along. Remember, he has as much to lose as we do."

Harry and Tess

When Harry and Tess knocked on the Maddux's front door, Tom and Cece were there to meet them. After introductions were exchanged, Harry flipped open his notebook.

"I understand the two of you were friends with the Madisons. What was their relationship with each other like?"

Tom and Cece exchanged glances, and Tom spoke up. "Pretty normal, I'd say. They had their disagreements like most married couples, but nothing out of the ordinary."

"I heard that the two of them had a pretty heated argument at your house yesterday afternoon. Did you two witness the fight?"

To Tess, Tom looked and sounded extremely nervous. "Uh-huh," he said simply.

"What was their quarrel about?"

Seeing Tom hesitate, Cece quickly jumped in. "It was nothing really. The education convention had been going on all week, and I think Rachel missed Vince. Anyway, they began arguing and it got a little heated."

Harry checked his notes and then looked at Cece. "Was Mrs. Madison here when you and Mr. Madison returned from the convention?"

"No," Tom spoke up, "she arrived a little later."

"Why would she come over to your house? How would she know Mrs. Maddux and Mr. Madison were here? Did you call her?"

"No," Tom said, obviously uncomfortable, "I guess . . ."

Cece quickly interrupted, "I think she must have come over here to see if Vince and I had arrived. Like I said, she was impatient for him to come home."

Harry nodded and referred again to his notebook as the couple waited tensely. He looked up and asked, "So after their quarrel, did Mr. and Mrs. Madison leave together?"

Tom could handle that one. "No, they each left in their own cars."

Harry nodded. "Of course, of course. So after they left, the two of you were here together the whole night?"

Tom and Cece shot each other quick glances; it was Cece who spoke. "Actually, no. I'm afraid Tom and I got into a bit of an argument ourselves after they left, and Tom wound up staying at a motel last night."

Harry's eyebrows shot up. "So the fact is that neither one of you can vouch for the whereabouts of the other at the time of the murder, is that right?"

Tom and Cece stared at each other again in surprise, and Tess wasn't sure what passed between them. Finally, Tom said, "No, but I don't see why that matters. Neither one of us had anything to do with what happened to poor Rachel."

To Tess's surprise, Harry stood up and put away his notebook. "Okay, I think that's all we need for now. If we need any further information, we'll get back in touch with you." With that he headed for the door, with Tess following reluctantly.

Once they were back on the road, Tess turned to her partner and exclaimed, "Have you lost your mind, Harry? They were both as nervous as a condemned man in the electric chair. There were lots more questions you should have asked them."

Harry glanced over at her with a smug expression. "You think I don't know that, Ms. Smartypants? It was plain as your face that they had coordinated their stories before we came. I want them to feel like they put one over on us, then call them in for questioning separately. I think we'll hear a whole different story when one can't cover for the other."

Tess looked at him doubtfully. "Maybe, but I think we could have done as well if we'd pressed them a little harder just now."

"Just wait and see," Harry said confidently.

Tom

Tom was pacing back and forth in their living room. "This is never going to work," he complained. "They're going to see right through that lame story and we're going to wind up in a lot of trouble."

"No they're not," Cece shot back. "They bought it today - we just have to stick with it."

"I don't see why you're trying so hard to protect Vince when it's obvious that he's the one who shot Rachel."

"No he didn't!" Cece said sharply, even as a finger of doubt tickled her thoughts. "Vince would never do anything like that."

"Well if he didn't kill her, maybe you did," Tom lashed out, stung to see how strongly Cece was defending her lover.

Cece was shocked. "I can't believe you'd say something like that, Tom!" Then a terrible thought arose so powerfully that she voiced it without thinking. "In fact, maybe you're the one who shot her! I know how protective you are of your precious reputation."

To her surprise, Tom responded by flopping down in his chair. "How are we ever going to avoid disaster if we're already fighting among ourselves like this?" He put his face in his hands for a minute, then looked up at her. "There's something you'd better think about, Cece. After what we just told those cops, we're going to have to continue living together until this thing is over." His face took on a grim expression. "But I can promise you we'll be sleeping in separate bedrooms, and my door is going to be locked at night."

Harry and Tess

Harry hung up the phone and turned to Tess with a grin on his face. "He'll be down here in half an hour. And I could tell he wasn't happy - he sounded like a man going to the gallows."

Tess looked at her partner thoughtfully. "Let's try something different: let me interview the husband and you interview the wife."

"Why do you want to change things up? It's always worked well for us the old way."

"Call it a hunch, but I think Mr. Maddux may give up more in response to a softer touch."

Harry rolled his eyes. "You and your crazy hunches. Alright, we'll try it and see what happens."

When Tom arrived at the precinct, Tess led him back to one of the interrogation rooms. "Thank you for coming down, Mr. Maddux," she said with a sympathetic smile. "I know how stressful this must be for you."

He nodded at her gratefully and took the seat she indicated. She knew that Harry would have a good view through the one-way glass.

"I want to start by asking you about Vincent Madison. What's your opinion of him, Mr. Maddux?"

"Well, he seems alright, but I don't really know him well enough to say."

She nodded understandingly. "Based on your limited exposure to him, would you say he's the kind of man that can be relied on? Solid? Dependable?"

He squirmed uncomfortably. "Well, again, I don't know him all that well . . ."

She interrupted. "Do you trust him, Mr. Maddux?"

"I . . . I . . . I don't know."

"You don't know if he's trustworthy, yet you were willing to let your wife go off with him to the convention for a week? That seems odd."

He looked like a man fighting an internal battle. Tess decided to change directions.

"You mentioned before that you and your wife had a fight after the Madisons left your house. What were you fighting about?" she asked softly.

"Well, it was several things, and . . ."

"No," she said insistently, "what were you really fighting about? Was it about the convention? Was it about Vince?"

To Harry's astonishment, tears began to roll down Tom's cheeks. Tess was also surprised but she suppressed her reaction. Softly she asked, "Were Cece and Vince having an affair, Tom?"

The distraught man laid his head down in his arms and began to cry. Tess scooted closer and put her arm around his shoulders in a comforting manner. When he finally regained control of himself, she handed him a box of tissues. "It's alright to cry, Tom. I know how much it hurts to be cheated on. Why don't you tell me about it. You'll feel a lot better if you get it off your chest."

He looked at her with bloodshot eyes. "Can we keep this confidential, Detective?" he asked anxiously. "It would kill me if people who knew me found out."

She nodded sympathetically. "We'll do our best to avoid any unnecessary disclosure."

And with that, Tom proceeded tearfully to tell the entire story of his discovery of Cece's affair, the private detective's report, the disturbing meeting with Rachel and then the climactic showdown in the Maddux's living room. When he finished, he appeared to be exhausted, but he still looked at Tess with concern. "You've got to keep this quiet. If the people who know me - the people I work with - find out, they'll make my life a living hell. My reputation will be destroyed, I'll have to leave town."

His excessive concern about his reputation seemed odd to Tess, so she tried to draw him out. "I know what you mean, Tom. People can be so cruel."

"You don't know the half of it," he said bitterly. "Some of the guys I work with are like wild beasts. The minute they smell blood they're on you until there's nothing left. It's horrible!"

"It's almost as if his good name is more important to him than his wife's infidelity," she mused.

After Tom had left, Harry came into the interrogation room with a strange look on his face. "How the hell did you know the guy's wife was having an affair?" he demanded. "I was floored when you came out with that one, and I nearly shit myself when he folded like a bad poker hand."

She smiled smugly. "See, my hunch was right. A little sympathy and a little inspiration - that's all it took."

He looked at her. You think you're pretty clever, but you're overlooking one thing. You may have uncovered what really was going on, but all you've really done is given us another suspect!"

"Wait a minute," Tess protested, "surely you don't . . ."

"Think about it," he said. "This guy would do almost anything to save his reputation. And he just told you how the Madison woman threatened to ruin it. Sounds like a pretty strong motive to me," he chuckled.

"Son of a bitch!" Tess swore.

Cece

When Tom got back home, Cece took one look at him and anger filled her face. "You told them everything, didn't you?" she accused.

He wouldn't look at her. "They already knew - it didn't matter what I said. The only good news is that the woman detective promised me they'd keep it all quiet as much as possible."

Cece shook her head. "You idiot! 'As much as possible' means they can do anything they want." With that she ran back to the bedroom and locked the door behind her. Picking up her cellphone she quickly called Vince. When he answered, she hastily told him, "The police know everything. They got Tom down at the precinct and he blabbed his head off. If the school board finds out, you and I are in so much trouble."