Page 129 - Labelle Gramercy, Detective
P. 129

Airtight

        worth holding here—or had convinced Labelle Gramercy that he was
        worth far too much to be held.
            “Listen,”  he  told  the  crew,  “I’ve  got  to  go  meet  with  some
        investors,  but  I  just  wanted  to  tell  you  how  proud  I  am  of  your
        achievement, and how sorry I am about Dr. Reath.” Then he let the
        cat out of the bag. Human nature, I guess. “Now, that policewoman
        is  suspicious  by  nature,  so  she  may  give  you  the  idea  somebody
        purposely  put  that  insecticide  in  Laurel’s  Ovaltine.  But  the  whole
        thing could just be a ghastly error of some sort, so don’t let yourself
        get rattled when you go in there.”
           That little speech, of course, had the effect of rattling everybody. I
        wished he had been sent out of the building directly. Waldo, ever the
        cynic,  said,  “Well,  what  about  you,  Ben?  Why  did  she  want  to
        question you?”
            Our  president  was  taken  aback,  momentarily  speechless.  He
        recovered  clumsily.  “Me?  Why,  I’m  in  charge  here,  that’s  why.
        Anyway,  I  can’t  reveal  what  was  said  in  there.  Kelly  here  will  stay
        with you and get you anything you need, won’t you, Kelly? Fine. See
        you all tomorrow morning. We have a lot to do.”
            And he was gone, just like that rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, late for
        his important date. The residue of ill will he left behind was almost
        palpable. I suddenly realized how much solidarity had built up among
        the team members over the course of their voluntary incarceration,
        and I felt strongly that I was an outsider.
            Ray bit his nails as he talked. “So now it’s a murder investigation.
        That so-called policewoman is really a homicide detective. Do they
        really think we would kill one of our own people? What on earth for?
        To ruin a year’s worth of work?”
            “I hope they’re not looking for a scapegoat.” Blanche was doing a
        bit better, anger pulling her out of whatever distress she had been in
        earlier.  “It’s  easy  for  Ben  to  go  waltzing  out  of  here;  he’s  got  an
        airtight alibi.”
            I  held  my  tongue;  no point  in  telling  them about  life  insurance,
        uncertain capitalization or that Labelle and I had seen Ben coming
        out  of  the  Ecodome  after  the  team  had  been  sequestered  for  the
        ‘debriefing.’
            “Well,  one  of  us  has  something  to  explain,  anyway,”  said  Ray,
        waving  a  self-manicured  index  finger  in  Toro’s  direction.  “We

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