Page 136 - Labelle Gramercy, On the Case
P. 136
Soaked to the Bone
“Not a heart attack?”
“No evidence of one, and the lungs were filled with water from
the tub.”
“I see.”
Tim fell into a puzzled silence, brows knitted. What in that cut-
and-dried account could give him cause for wonder? Having heard
that description for the first time, I realized it all made perfect sense:
drinking heavily after a stressful afternoon, then falling asleep in the
warm water, Fish somehow slid off the molded plastic bench in the
tub and swallowed too much water to recover. A freak accident, to be
sure, but certainly not the first of its kind. Then I knew what was in
Tim’s muddled mind.
“Lieutenant,” I quietly asked, “what was his blood alcohol level?”
“Point nine percent. Legally intoxicated.”
Not abnormal for Fish that time of day, I thought. Maybe the
confrontations, if such they were, with Nick and Tim had not really
driven him to imbibe an even greater quantity than usual of Jack
Daniels. That made the accidental explanation weaker, in my inexpert
opinion.
“Mr. Lane: can you tell me where you were late yesterday
afternoon?”
Labelle Gramercy was being polite and tactful—for her. To me
the question was unnecessarily blunt and abrupt after the
unsympathetically-delivered post mortem. Tim’s hands began to
twitch. Could he have imagined that he would be above suspicion?
“I was at home until three-thirty or so. Maybe the telephone
records will show my last call before going out: it was to my father. I
arranged to see him privately as soon as I could get up here. So I
arrived around four o’clock, spoke with him for a few minutes, and
left.”
“Wasn’t that rather a short visit?” Labelle was locked into his eyes.
I wouldn’t have had the courage; if he were dangerous, wouldn’t that
be provocative? Don’t animals interpret a direct gaze as threatening?
Then how can predators hypnotize their prey? I bet the lieutenant
could answer that without having studied herpetology.
“It was business. I needed to ask him something. I did, he
answered, and I left.”
135