A Clean Kill by Leslie Glass Page B

all the officers you see here are a team. Sergeant Minnow is in charge, so why don't you tell him what you just told me."

Nine
    A pril found Mike sitting on a stone bench at the back of the garden still wearing his Tyvek suit. As captain of the precinct, he should have been gone a long time ago. He was on his cell phone and gestured for her to come over. Then he abruptly ended the call.
    "What do you have?" he asked.
    "You first," she said.
    "Fish's boys found knives in the babysitter's knapsack. They were wrapped in today's newspaper."
    "Oh, gee. Which one?" April asked to lighten the mood.
"The Times, does it matter?" He lifted an eyebrow. "What do you think of her?"
    April cocked her head to one side. As she considered her answer, she caught sight of a large gas grill in an outdoor kitchen. It was quite a patio out there, a nice leafy bower surrounded by ten-foot brick walls topped with a cap of iron spikes. She wondered who else had the code to the garage door, if anyone could have come over the walls. Who had brought the iris into the gym? She had a lot of questions.
    "Where was the knapsack?" she asked first.
    "On her bed."
    On her bed, right where anybody could find it. Humph. This was how people jumped to conclusions and convicted the wrong suspect. "Well, she goes to cooking school. They use their own knives," April told him.
    Mike's eyes narrowed. "Did you see her picture?" '
    She knew whom he meant. "Mrs. Wilson? Yeah, she was a beauty." And she happened to have a husband who cheated on her. Maybe with the nanny to whom he'd promised a job he hadn't delivered.
    "What does the presence of the knives mean to you?" Mike was still on the knives.
    "Oh, please. Don't jump to conclusions. For a cook, they're tools, like drills and hammers are for carpenters. She paused, then continued. "It's a guy kind of crime. All that violence and lack of control—male."
    He made a face at the gender putdown. "She had opportunity, and it took organization to clean up. That's a girl thing."
    "Well, sure. But I'm thinking it was a man," April insisted. "The knife only proves it was spur-of-the-moment. The killer grabbed whatever came to hand—"
    "How could a knife come to hand in the gym?" Mike interrupted.
    "I don't know. Maybe it was scissors. Did you see the flower? Maybe Maddy brought the knife or the scissors in herself to cut flowers."
"Could be." Mike looked doubtful, though. "The killer was definitely in the shower with her. Maybe she turned on the water to wash herself off, not the victim."
    "I don't see the killer as a woman," April insisted, knowing what that meant for Remy.
    "It had to be someone with access to the knives, to the gym, someone who was angry enough to keep stabbing after she was dead—"
    "Like a lover, or a husband," April said softly.
    "Or a jealous babysitter. Someone who knew how to clean. She's the maid."
    "Oh, I see. You've been talking to Fish. Okay, my turn. Remy told me Wayne promised her a job at Soleil, and she was only supposed to work here until it opened. She still seems to think he'll give it to her eventually. We know she didn't get the job, but 1 wouldn't call that a motive." April spoke passionately. She didn't want a lynching.
    "Maddy had a trainer, name of Derek Meke, who was with her after Remy and Wayne took the kids to play school. After they dropped the kids off, Remy went to Wayne's restaurant to look at an oven, then walked home from there. We'll have to get confirmation on that. She said that after she got back, Derek did not come into the house, that he never came into the house."
    "You know where to find him?"
    "I can find him. One more thing." April had kept the best for last. "Wayne told me he fooled around."
    "Ay caramba." Mike sighed. "That's too bad. 1 liked him. Do you have a name?"
    April shook her head. "Apparently it was more than one woman. He didn't want to name names."
    "Well, if it was the babysitter, there's your motive." Mike stood up. "I have to get going."
    "Me,