Colleen McCullough - Too Many Murders

“We found your cache inside a concealed cupboard in the Dean’s apartment kitchen, Dr. Denbigh.”

The yellow eyes went wide. “Cache? Cupboard? I know nothing of either.”

“Your fingerprints say differently, ma’am. They’re all over every printable item in the bag, as well as on the pipe and the door. We have you, Dr. Denbigh,” Carmine said.

She didn’t cease to fight; rather, she changed her tactics. “After they hear my story, Captain, I don’t think there’s a jury alive would condemn my actions.”

“You want a jury trial? That means pleading not guilty, but you’ve virtually confessed. Confession means no jury trial.”

“I haven’t confessed to murder! I acted in self-defense.”

Carmine leaned forward. “Dr. Denbigh, this was a premeditated crime! Carefully planned and executed. Premeditation negates self-defense.”

“Nonsense!” she said with a snort of contempt for his density. “Fear for one’s life, sir, engenders different reactions in people because all people are different. Were I some battered housewife, I would have used a hammer or a hatchet. But I am an associate professor at Chubb University, and my husband, the source of my terror, was a dean of that same institution. Naturally I hoped that my participation in his death would not be discovered, but the mere fact that it was does not make me a cold-blooded murderer. I lived in fear for my life through every day of it because I was the only person who knew of John’s sexual activities. If I was plotting to save my life, Captain, he was plotting to end it! The story I told you just after John’s death was true, but it merely touched the peaks of mountains of sordid details and six-yes, six!-attempts my husband had made to kill me. A car crash, a skiing accident, three attacks of food poisoning, and a shotgun accident while we were in Maine. John liked to shoot hapless deer, then actually eat them!”

Carmine stared at her, rapt, and thanked God that not many murderers were this smart, or this good-looking. At thirty-two years of age, she was in her prime. “I hope you can produce proof of these attempts on your life,” he said.

“Witnesses, certainly,” she said coolly.

“What made you decide on saving your life with a dose of cyanide in a tea bag?” he asked.

“The cyanide, actually. I found it sitting on a shelf in the freshman common room. I’d gone hunting for one of my books I knew a freshman had borrowed-most irregular! He didn’t ask my permission, of course, but I suspected him because few in their first year are interested in Rilke. I removed the cyanide, of course-so dangerous! Then it occurred to me that I had found the ideal way to get John out of my life forever, provided I could find a way of administering it that did not imperil any other person. And that led to the jasmine tea at his idiotic Monday fortnight sessions. After that”-she shrugged-“it was easy. The shop was in Manhattan, but the place where the tea bags were made was in Queens.”

“You haven’t made a satisfactory case against the Dean, Dr. Denbigh,” Carmine said.

“Here? Now? Why should I even bother? I will plead my case in court. Mr. Anthony Bera will conduct my defense,” said the lioness, licking her chops. “And that is all I have to say before Mr. Bera arrives. I think it is very fair of me to-er-show my hand, so to speak. You know how I will plead, and what my defense will be.”

Carmine stopped the tape recorder. “I thank you for your frankness, Dr. Denbigh, but I warn you, the prosecution will prove murder, and ask for the maximum penalty.”

“Any bets she slips the net?” he asked Silvestri a few minutes later. “That’s one helluva smart woman, sir.”

“Depends how well Bera picks his jury,” Silvestri said, his cigar rolling from one side of his mouth to the other. “He’ll ask that the case be heard in a different jurisdiction, and that’s in the lap of the gods. But it’s always been hard to get a conviction when the defendant is a looker. You’d think the women jurors would take against them, but they don’t, and the men are putty. So yeah, Carmine, you could be right.” His sleek cat face bore an expression of content despite the uncertain outcome of Pauline Denbigh’s trial. “Ask me, do I care? Not much. The important thing is that Dean Denbigh’s murder is one hundred percent solved.”

“I don’t think the other ten are going to be that easy.”

“Do you still go for the idea of one killer?”

“More than ever. There’s no one else outside the pattern, chief,” Carmine said. He frowned. “And damn that woman! She threw me off with this self-defense nonsense so badly that I didn’t ask her the one question I intended to.”

“Then go back and ask.”

“With Bera present? He’ll direct her not to answer.”

“Bail hearing is in an hour, Captain, so Dr. Denbigh can’t give you much time,” Bera said the next morning.

“I am aware of that, Mr. Bera.” Carmine sat down and turned on the tape recorder. “Dr. Denbigh, how are you?”

“Well, thank you,” she said, unaware that Judge Thwaites, who would be on the bench, thought her capable of anything.

“There is one question I would like you to answer, ma’am. It doesn’t directly pertain to your own case or its defense, but it’s very important to the investigation of ten other murders.”

“My client did not do murder,” said Bera.

“Ten murders,” Carmine amended, swallowing his ire.

“Ask your question, Captain Delmonico,” said Bera.

“Was there any reason that you decided to preserve your life by terminating your husband’s life on Monday, April third?”

His head to one side, Bera considered the implications, while Pauline Denbigh sat side-on, staring into his face.

“Dr. Denbigh had a reason,” Bera said.

Exasperated, Carmine shook his head. “That’s not the kind of answer I want,” he said. “I need specifics.”

“You’re not going to get them, Captain.”

“Let me try again. Whatever your reason might have been, Dr. Denbigh, was it in any way connected to-say, a rumor you’d heard that other deaths might occur?”

“Claptrap,” Bera said disdainfully.

“Was it to do with a pact, or an agreement, that other people should die? Or was it sheer coincidence that your decision to act on Monday, April third, happened to be the same day eleven murders happened in Holloman?”

“Ohhh!” she exclaimed, ignoring Bera’s fierce grimaces. “I see what you mean! My reason for choosing that day will come out in court, Captain, but it had nothing to do with ten-or eleven-murders. It was sheer coincidence.”

Carmine’s sigh of relief was audible. “Thank you, ma’am! I can’t do anything to help you, but you’ve just helped me.” He decided to press his luck. “Who knew you were afraid of your husband? That you feared for your life?”

“If you answer that, Dr. Denbigh, I can’t help you,” Bera said ominously.

She lifted her shoulders and smiled at Carmine ruefully. “I am in Mr. Bera’s hands, Captain. To answer you would damage my defense, I can see that for myself.”

Which was, Carmine reflected as he left, a brilliant way of saying that yes, she had confided in at least one other woman. Now he had to find her best friend.

Erica Davenport? Philomena Skeps? Or some unknown, unmet proponent of women’s liberation?

He lurked outside until Anthony Bera left the interview room and detained him. “You shouldn’t have any trouble getting her acquitted,” he said affably.

“So I believe.”

“How can she afford your fees, Mr. Bera? Chubb isn’t famous for overpaying women faculty.”

“I’m acting pro bono,” Bera said shortly.