Diane Davidson - Prime Cut

Tom pressed the radio button. “It’s too soon,” he replied calmly. “Let me talk to him first, see what his side of the story is.”

“This is no time for your shilly-shallying, Schulz!” Andy Fuller’s shriek was laced with static. “Burr faked the museum robbery so he could kill Eliot. Get your fat ass down here and arrest this guy!”

Tom’s shoulders tensed. He said, “Fuller, wait. Think. Why would Burr bring Eliot back here, to his own home, if he’d gone to the trouble to fake the robbery? Don’t you even want to ask him? Before you have to Mirandize him, risk he gets a lawyer?”

“He was going to get rid of the body later. Didn’t you hear me the first time? Get down here and arrest this, guy!”

With my good hand, I pressed Tom’s handkerchief onto my throbbing palm.

“Take Burr in for questioning, Fuller,” Tom argued. “Or you’ll do something you’ll regret.”

“What’s your wife doing here, Schulz? Burr says the victim worked for your wife, too. Did the two of them do him together? You want to arrest her, too? Or maybe you could get her down here to do your job for you, how about that?”

I pressed my lips together. I hated Andy Fuller.

Tom dropped the receiver to his side and muttered, “One thing I won’t regret is when that dummy finally runs for Colorado Attorney General and quits this new tactic of his, trying to turn every case into a TV show.” Too late, I saw his finger was still pressing the radio button. I grabbed Tom’s wrist with my bloodied palm. He cursed silently and shook his head.

Down at the guest house, the other deputy read my old friend Cameron Burr his rights. Cameron’s face was wan under the tan, his wide shoulders slumped. His eyes roved frantically, like a startled wild animal’s, as he was cuffed. Then he was led to the first police cruiser. Andy Fuller, his back to us, talked to the uniformed cops. One cop was holding a plastic evidence bag. Inside the bag was … a book? Something from the Homestead Museum robbery? I shuddered to think how Hanna Klapper would frown over the cops’ handling of the museum’s precious historic items, even if it wasn’t her job to do that frowning anymore.

At the van, Dr. Sheila O’Connor joined us. In a low, crisp voice, she asked Tom, “Can you talk?” Tom glanced at me, then nodded. Both moved away from the van door.

Left: alone, I frowned at the cop with the bag. Plastic bags mean the evidence is dry. Paper bags are used when evidence is wet. So Cameron Burr, a historian, masked his murder by stealing a valuable book from the museum and then putting it into his garbage? But he was careful enough not to get it soiled or wet? If you stole something to cover up a murder, why wouldn’t you throw the evidence out onto the road? Nothing about what was going on here felt right to me.

One of the uniformed officers approached me. Andy Fuller turned to watch.

“Mrs. Schulz? I’m Sergeant Chambers.” The officer was very young, with orange hair, a pie-shaped face, and a complexion like dough. His pale, nail-bitten fingers clutched a notebook and department-issue ballpoint. “I need to question you—” His voice cracked. Questioning the wife of the county’s champion investigator was apparently somewhat daunting. Chambers cleared his throat, clicked his pen, and eyed my bloody hand, still wrapped in Tom’s handkerchief. “Briefly. If you’re up to it.”

“May I run some cold water over my hand, while we talk?”

“This won’t take long.” Chambers’ tone was apologetic. “We can’t go into the house because it’s a crime scene. Just tell me why you’re here, when you arrived, and what you saw.” He clicked his pen again.

I told him the purpose of my visit and politely added that he could look at the basket of food on the kitchenette counter if he didn’t believe me. I told him Burr was asleep in his clothes when I arrived at two o’clock.

“How did he act?”

“Exhausted. As if I’d just awakened him from a very deep sleep. When he went to take a shower, I offered to fix him coffee. He said his percolator was out in his unfinished sun room.” I pointed with my unwrapped hand. “When I got there, Gerald Eliot’s body was … hanging between the studs. But I didn’t see it there right away. If I didn’t see Gerald Eliot’s body, how could a hiker have seen him?”

Andy Fuller sidled up beside Chambers. “Just answer the questions, Mrs. Schulz. All right?” His expression was arrogant, defensive.

I said, “If Cameron had murdered Gerald Eliot, he would hardly have sent me straight out to where he’d hung up the body, would he? What kind of sense does that make?”

Fuller raised an eyebrow at Chambers, as in Don’t let this pushy woman take over the interview . Then, without responding to my questions, he turned on his heel and headed back to the patrol car in which Cameron now sat, cuffed and accused of murder.

Chambers held up a soft, plump hand. “Please, Mrs. Schulz. Did Burr mention anything about Eliot when you got here today?” I shook my head. “What do you know about their relationship?”

I exhaled in exasperation. “Gerald Eliot had promised to finish the Burrs’ sun room four months ago. He pulled out the wall between the addition and the house, did a subfloor and some framing, and put in three windows. Then he took off for parts unknown.” Chambers glanced over at Andy Fuller, whose expression as he stood next to the first cruiser was stone-faced. I hurried along: “At night, it’s cold up here at eighty-five hundred feet. Even in the summer. Barbara Burr got pneumonia from the chilly air in the house. She’s on a ventilator down at Lutheran.” Impatience crawled under my skin. “This is common knowledge, Sergeant.”

Chambers nodded in a way that told me if it was common knowledge, it wasn’t common to him. “Just tell me what else you saw, Mrs. Schultz.”

This I did, up to the time of the arrival of law enforcement. Meanwhile, Sheila O’Connor talked on to Tom. Finally he turned his handsome face and nodded at me. I felt a wash of relief followed by the deep urge to leave, to get my hand cleaned and bandaged, to find a way to help Cameron. Get me out of here , I pleaded silently to my husband. Unfortunately, not only did my telepathic message not connect, but Andy Fuller chose that moment to sashay up to the van.

He pointedly eyed my wrapped hand. “Did you do anything to try to help Burr? I mean, in his smear campaign against Gerald Eliot, general contractor? Just curious.”

Tom lumbered up to Fuller’s side. He said, “Leave her alone. She’s a witness. She needs a victim advocate.”

Andy Fuller whirled to face him. “Oh, really? Why can’t you follow my orders, you slob? What’s going on here, Schulz?”

Tom’s face froze in a bitten, narrow-eyed look that made my heart sink. Fuller shifted his weight, took an angry breath, then leaned in close to Tom.

“Schulz! What did you think I was going to do that I was going to regret? You don’t think I can hear you when your radio’s on? Are you trying to threaten me?”

“What?” Fuller’s fury seemed to baffle Tom.

“How dare you threaten me in front of fellow officers!” stormed Fuller.

“I’m not sure I did,” replied Tom evenly. “Goldy, get in the car.” My skin iced; I couldn’t move., Tom didn’t seem to notice. His deep voice rumbled softly, “What are you saying, Fuller?”

“I’m saying you compromised this case!” Fuller shrieked.

“What?” snarled Tom.

Fuller took one look at Tom’s face, then stepped back. I glanced around helplessly: The uniforms were in the first car; Dr. O’Connor was walking back to the sun room, presumably to Eliot’s corpse.