Eenie, Meenie, Miney...

Before Vince could reply, Cece saw that another call was incoming. "Damn, now I've got a call from the police. I better take this. I've got to go, Vince."

Harry and Tess

Tess took the observation seat this time as Harry escorted Cece Maddux into the interrogation room. She noted the stern expression on Harry's face.

"Mrs. Maddux, your husband's account of what went on this past week is very different from what you told us in your home."

Cece looked at him with beseeching eyes. "Detective Bridgewater, my marriage is in a very delicate state right now. Surely you can understand why I would be reluctant to air our dirty laundry to strangers."

Harry ignored her plea for sympathy. "I know how your husband feels about the week you spent with Mr. Madison," he said, "but I'd like to hear more about Mrs. Madison's reaction. It sounds to me like more than just a normal marital spat went on in your living room."

Cece shuddered. "God, it was horrible! I've never seen Rachel like that - I've never seen anyone like that. She was wild, raving, almost incoherent."

"What kind of things did she say to you?" Harry asked.

"She called me some really ugly names - that I probably deserve," Cece said with shame.

"Did she give you that bruise you're trying to hide with your make-up?" Harry asked, pointing at Cece's cheek.

Cece's eyes flashed in anger. "She assaulted me! She attacked me without warning and knocked me down. I was so angry I wanted to kill her. . ." Then she gasped and stopped short as she realized what she had said.

"She threatened you, didn't she?" Harry prompted.

"Yes," Cece admitted reluctantly, "she told me she'd ruin both Vince and me, that we'd never work in education again."

"What did you make of her threats?" he asked. "Was she serious?"

"You should have seen her, Detective. She would have destroyed all three of us on the spot if she could have."

In a quiet voice, Harry asked, "Do you own a pistol, Mrs. Maddux?"

"Yes, I do," she admitted unhappily. Then she looked at him imploringly. "But it was just for protection. My father gave it to me years ago."

Even more quietly, Harry pressed on. "Did you kill Rachel Madison, Cece?"

The woman's facial façade crumbled and she began to cry. "No, no, I didn't kill her. I could never do such a thing."

"Do you still have the pistol, Mrs. Maddux?" he asked.

"Of course," she said. "I keep it in my nightstand for protection like I told you."

"We'd like to follow you back to your house and get it to see if it's been fired lately, just to be sure."

"Alright," she said resignedly.

Tess quickly joined Harry in the car. As they followed Cece, Tess nodded at him with a little smile on her face. "Well, Harry, you certainly got through her armor. Of course, you also managed to give us a third suspect."

Harry rolled his eyes.

Tom

Tom was startled when he heard the key in the front door. When he went to the entrance hall he saw Cece come in, followed closely by the two detectives. "What now?" he thought apprehensively.

But Cece ignored him, and she and the detectives walked back to their bedroom, with Tom following. At their bedside Cece pointed to her nightstand and said, "It's in there." The male detective quickly said, "Don't touch it; let me do it." He snapped on a latex glove and delicately pulled open the nightstand drawer. Then he turned around with an accusatory look on his face. "It's not there."

Cece almost shoved him aside as she hurried to look. Then she whirled around to stare at Tom. "Did you take my pistol?" she demanded.

"No! What are you talking about? I never mess with your things."

Cece turned back to the detectives. "I know I had it right there," she said. "It's been stolen!"

The detectives proceeded to ask Cece a number of questions about the kind of pistol she had, the last time it had been fired, and the last time she'd seen it. As they did so, Tom wandered off to the den. "They think Cece killed Rachel!" he said to himself in amazement.

Harry and Tess

Tess was putting her dishes in the dishwasher when her doorbell rang. She went to the other room to let Harry in.

"You're late," she said.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I was catching up on my paperwork. I ate a sandwich at my desk."

She went into the kitchen and returned with two bottles of beer, one of which she handed to Harry, the other she began to sip as she sat down on the couch. "So what do you make of this crazy case?" she asked.

Harry took a healthy swig and shook his head. "I still think it was the husband who did it, but I'm not as certain as I was earlier." He rubbed his eyes. "That woman - Rachel - must have really been something."

Tess nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. You can't blame her for getting upset about her husband and Cece, but the way she acted when they came home was way over the top. That was a woman who definitely had issues."

"Okay, let's try to figure this out. We've got three suspects now, so let's take 'em one at a time." Harry held up his index finger. "Her husband's motive is obvious. Rachel would probably have cleaned him out in the divorce. And if she'd raised a stink with the school board, Vince would have been fired in a heartbeat. Obviously, he had a strong incentive to prevent that from happening."

He added a second finger. "Likewise, Cece Maddux was in the same boat. Her career is just as vulnerable as Vince's."

"And she might have had another motive," Tess added. "Unless I miss my guess, she's in love with Madison. If I'm right, she might have felt a desire to protect not only herself but also her lover."

"And she had a pistol and knew how to use it," Harry added. "Isn't it odd that it's conveniently gone missing?" he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"But the thing is, whoever killed Rachel had more on their mind than just self-preservation. Rachel was shot multiple times, including once in the pelvis. In my book that indicates a crime of passion," Tess pointed out.

"Yeah, but both Vince and Cece had reason to hate Rachel with a passion. After she punched Cece and kicked Vince, both of them probably felt pretty vengeful."

He held up his third finger. "Anyway, that leaves us with Tom Maddux, the hapless husband. In a weird sort of way, I think he might have had a stronger motive than the other two. I don't think I've ever seen anyone so worried about what other people think of him. And Rachel made it clear that she planned to humiliate him as widely as possible."

"Yeah," Tess agreed, "listening to him in interrogation, it sounded like he would do almost anything to save face."

Harry finished his beer, then looked shrewdly at Tess. "You know what the most dangerous animal in the world is?" he asked her.

She looked at him questioningly.

"It's the one that gets backed into a corner. You never know what they're going to do."

Tess nodded. "The problem is, it looks to me like Rachel backed all three of them into the corner at the same time. We still don't know which one of 'em lashed out at her."

They sat there in silence for a few minutes. Then Tess kicked off her shoes and stretched out on the couch. "Be a good guy and come rub my feet, Harry."

He heaved a theatrical sigh and came over to take her feet in his hands. As he began to massage them, Tess purred, "That feels so good, Harry. You have no idea."

After a few minutes he paused. "Is that enough?"

She looked up at him balefully. "Your hands haven't fallen off yet."

He snorted and resumed his massage. After a while his hands left her feet and slid up her legs, rubbing her shins and calves. "That feels good too, Harry."

He worked higher, massaging her thighs. She pulled her skirt higher to give him access. "That's even better," she sighed.

When his fingers reached her panties, she moaned a little. Then she protested, "Don't stop now, Harry," but he was only slipping her panties off her hips and down her legs. In seconds his fingers were back and she began making little gasps.

Finally she looked at him with hooded eyes and said, "Do I have to tell you everything? Hurry up and get your clothes off."

He only snickered and quickly undressed himself. When he had finished, he lay down beside her, his body partly on the couch and partly on her. "Have you been putting on weight?" she asked him sharply, then quickly continued, "No, never mind. Just keep doing what you're doing with your hand."

After another couple of minutes she reached down and began to stroke his cock. "Come on, baby, give it to me now. I really need it, Harry, please."

A smile of triumph flitted over his lips, but he concentrated on what he was doing. She spread her legs wide and he lined himself up with her, then slid all the way in. "Oh, yes," she gasped, "just like that, nice and slow."

He began a nice, easy rhythm, and Tess began to purr and hum. "It feels so nice," she crooned. "You do me so good, Harry."

He knew how to read her, and after another few minutes he increased his pace. "Oh yes, oh fuck!" she cried out. "That's perfect, Harry. Don't stop, just keep going. Don't ever stop."

After another few minutes she abruptly cocked her hips up and grabbed for him. "Now, Harry, do me hard baby. Faster, faster, I'm almost there - oh, oh, oh, ohhhh!" And with a long drawn-out sigh she collapsed, her hips still twitching now and then as aftershocks rolled through her. Harry continued thrusting into her until he too exploded with a grunt.

"That was so good, Harry," she murmured into his ear after a few minutes.

They lay that way together for a long time until Tess gave him a little shove. "Alright, get off before you squash me, you big ape. I do think you're putting on weight." Then she scrambled off the couch and made a dash for the bathroom, clutching her pussy to keep from dripping on the carpet.

When she returned wearing a dressing gown, Harry was still lolling on the couch. "Come on, Harry, time to get up."

"Can't I stay here tonight, Tess, just this once?"

"You know better than that. If somebody from the precinct drove by and saw both our cars here, we'd never hear the end of it. And for damn sure they wouldn't let us work together anymore."

"Alright, alright, quit your nagging. I'll go - but it's a royal pain."

She got a sly smile on her face. "You don't have to come back if it's too much trouble, Harry."

"As if you could do without me for long, you horny wench," he said as he pulled on his clothes.

When the two of them arrived at the precinct the next morning, the desk sergeant had a surprise for them. "We may have found the murder weapon last night. A waste management company truck was making a pick-up at a construction site. When they tilted the dumpster to pull it up on the truck, the load shifted and a pistol that had been tossed inside somehow went off. Apparently the bullet ricocheted around a little inside, scaring the driver half to death.

"Anyway, when they got the dumpster back to the lot, somebody crawled inside and found a Glock. Ballistics is testing it now. And here's the interesting thing: the dumpster was only two blocks away from the Madison home."

As the two detectives stood talking to each other, a man in a white lab coat came hurrying up waving a sheet of paper. "Hey, you two, we got a match. We'll need to do another test to confirm the results, but I'll bet dollars to doughnuts this is the pistol that killed that woman in your case."

"Any fingerprints on it?" Harry asked quickly.

"No luck," the technician said. "Between all the dust and crap in the dumpster and the prints from the guy who fished it out, we couldn't get anything."

The two detectives made their way to their desks and sat down to discuss this latest development. "So how do you feel about your bet now, Harry?" Tess asked. "This points a finger right in Cece Maddux's direction."

"Not necessarily," Harry shot back. "It's just as possible that her husband could have taken the gun. That would give him both the means to commit the crime plus a nice alibi as well."

Tess got pensive look on her face. "Come to think of it, since we don't know how long the gun was missing, anyone who visited their house - like Vince Madison - could have taken it. They all knew Cece had a pistol. The fact is, this doesn't really get us any closer to the killer at all."

Harry got a sour look on his face. "We've got three suspects, and all of 'em had strong reasons for wanting Rachel Madison silenced. Now we've got the murder weapon, but any one of them could have gotten access to it. This case is like bobbing for apples: every time you get close to one it bobs away from you."

Tess laughed at him. "When was the last time you went bobbing for apples, old man?"

"You know," he said, "like back when we were kids at Halloween. It was . . ." He saw her still laughing and he stopped. "Numbskull," he muttered in disgust.

The two of them were filling out the seemingly unending paperwork each case required when the precinct captain marched up, a scowl on his face. "How are you two coming on the Madison murder?" he demanded. "I'm getting a lot of pressure to make an arrest."

Tess and Harry exchanged quick glances and Tess stood up. She always seemed to be better at dealing with the brass than Harry.

"We think we're pretty close, Captain. We've got three good suspects; now we've just got to narrow them down to one," she told him.

Her response didn't make him happy. "Detective Mosely, we have a state employee living in a quiet neighborhood shot to death on her own doorstep in the middle of the night. A lot of people are upset and they want answers. I can't very well go to the media and tell them we have three suspects, now can I? There's got to be something more out there, and I expect you two to find it - pronto!"

With that he stalked off, and Harry turned to his partner in frustration. "What the hell does he want us to do: beat those three until one of 'em confesses?"

Tess was equally at a loss. "What aren't we seeing? What have we overlooked?"

Harry threw his pen down and stood up. "Well, I know one thing: filling out a bunch of forms isn't going to get us any closer to the truth." He looked at Tess. "Come on, let's go out to the prison and see if we can find out anything about Rachel Madison."

"How's that going to help narrow down the suspects, Harry? It sounds like waste of time to me," Tess complained.

"Maybe so," Harry said, "but you got any better ideas?"

As they made the drive out to Western Correctional Center, Tess looked at Harry with a skeptical expression. "I still think this is a waste of time. Sure, Rachel was the head nurse out there, but what does that have to do with this case?"

"Beats me," Harry said, "but it's the only avenue I can think of that we haven't looked into. What can it hurt?"

She kept silent the rest of the drive, but she didn't look happy.

As they walked up to the administration building at the prison, a number of inmates were exercising out in the yard. When they saw Tess, some of them began to hoot and holler at her, but she ignored them. One of the men stared at Harry. "Hey, I know you," he said. "You're the copper who put me in here."

"Hey, Jimmy, nice to see you in there while I'm out here," Harry said affably.

"Fuck you," the inmate said, giving the detective the finger. Harry just grinned.

Inside things were much more orderly, and the two detectives were conducted to the warden's office. When Harry asked him about Rachel, the warden shook his head in sadness. "What a tragedy! She was a good employee and a fine nurse. We're all still in shock about her death.

"You know, when she first came here I thought we might have problems because of her looks." He turned to Tess. "You saw how young male offenders react around a good-looking woman. But Nurse Madison wouldn't take anything off of them, and most of them treated her with respect. I don't know how she did it but she always seemed able to make them toe the line."

"Is there anyone who worked with Nurse Madison regularly, anyone she might have confided in?" Harry asked.

At this new request, Tess rolled her eyes, but Harry ignored her as the warden directed them to one of the guards, Ray Hudson. "Ray worked with her frequently; he was her unofficial assistant," the warden told them.

As they walked to the guard station, Tess grabbed Harry by the arm. "This isn't helping, Harry. Let's go back to the precinct." But Harry walked stubbornly on, and, heaving an audible sigh, Tess followed.

Ray Hudson was only slightly older than the prisoners he guarded. The young man had nothing but good things to say about the nurse, and it was obvious that her death had affected him deeply. "He's actually got tears in his eyes," Tess thought. "I'll bet he had a crush on her."

Hudson repeated what the warden had told them: most of the inmates seemed to like and respect the prison nurse. "They ought to," he said, "she took good care of those punks, better than they deserved."

"You said that most of the prisoners were respectful. Were there any who weren't?" Harry asked.

"Well," the guard said, "there were a few of them who weren't so polite. In fact, some of them really seemed to have it in for her. They'd never do or say anything to her, but I'd see 'em every day and I could tell. There was this one fellow, a Latino. I don't know why, but he just seemed to hate her. Every time he saw her he'd glare at her. It always worried me, but Nurse Madison wasn't the least bit concerned."

"I don't suppose he or any of those other guys who didn't like her have escaped recently," Harry said lightly.

"Naw," the guard said, "but the Latino was released just a couple of days ago."

Harry shot a quick glance at Tess and then quickly asked, "Do you remember the prisoner's name?"

"I sure do," Hudson said. "His name was Hector Hernandez."

While Harry started the car, Tess called the Parole Authority to find out which officer had been assigned to Hector Hernandez. Her call was transferred and she actually managed to reach the officer involved. After a few minutes Tess hung up and looked over at Harry. "Very interesting: Hector never checked in with his parole officer after his release. Technically, he's in violation right now."

"Great," Harry said in frustration. "So how are we going to find him?"

"Well, for starters I've got his mother's address. Let's head over there."

When they knocked on the door of the address they'd been given, a woman answered. The years had not been kind to her, so much so that Tess wasn't sure whether she was Hector's mother or grandmother.

"Mrs. Hernandez, we're from the Police Department. We'd like to talk to Hector."

To their surprise, the woman broke into tears. "I knew he was in trouble again. He's been hiding in the basement and won't come out for anything. He just lies around moaning that he's going to die."

Harry and Tess exchanged looks. Tess asked, "Can we come in, Mrs. Hernandez? We just want to talk with him."

She looked at the two detectives hopelessly, then shrugged and motioned for them to enter. "You can try; I can't do anything with him. Just don't hurt him," she begged. "He's my youngest, my nino."

She showed them to a door behind which were steps leading down to the basement. Harry looked at Tess and pointedly put his hand on his pistol. Tess nodded and did the same. Together they quietly made their way down to the basement, which smelled of mold, dirt and other things Tess didn't want to think about.

There was a little light coming through the dirty basement windows, and in the dimness they could make out a figure huddled on a cot. "Hector," Harry called out. "Hector Hernandez. It's the police, Hector. We just want to talk to you."