Among the Shadows by Bruce Robert Coffin

anything.”
    â€œWe’ve printed everyone who was known to have been inside O’Halloran’s house, Frankie. We’re trying to rule ­people out.”
    â€œI gotta tell ya, I’m not real comfortable with this. You said we were only gonna talk.”
    Pelligrosso spoke up. “Mr. Mathers, I lifted fingerprints from everything in O’Halloran’s room. These are elimination prints so we can rule you out.”
    Mathers’s eyes narrowed with suspicion as he looked back and forth at both cops. “How do I know you’re not trying to set me up?”
    Byron tried a softer approach. “Frankie, you were caring for O’Halloran as part of your job. You were supposed to be there. We’re looking for anyone who wasn’t. You’ve got nothing to worry about if you didn’t do anything wrong.”
    â€œYeah, but you already know I did.”
    â€œTrust me, this isn’t television. We’re not trying to set you up.”
    Mathers glanced over at Pelligrosso. “What about the thing we talked about?”
    â€œWe’re trying to solve a murder, Frankie,” Byron said. “You really think I give a damn about a marijuana charge?”
    Byron waited as Mathers thought it over; his distrust of the police was obvious. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”
    Pelligrosso obtained a full set of fingerprints from Mathers, handed him a short stack of paper towels to wipe the ink off his hands, then left the room.
    â€œTake me through it again, Frankie,” Byron said. “From the beginning.”
    After he had finished, Byron reapproached the subject of the polygraph.
    â€œI told you it’s not gonna happen.”
    â€œIf you didn’t kill him, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
    â€œI got plenty to worry about. I’m no killer, but I’m no angel either.”
    â€œWill you at least think about it?”
    Mathers continued scrubbing at the black ink stuck to his fingers. “Could I see the questions beforehand?”
    â€œI’ll have to check with the expert, but I think it can probably be arranged.”
    Byron escorted Mathers out of the building, then headed straight up to the lab. “Any luck with Mathers’s prints.”
    â€œFound him in AFIS on a minor possession charge. Guess they don’t screen nurses like they used to.”
    â€œThere’s a shocker. What about the partial? Tell me it’s his?”
    â€œNo can do. Doesn’t match. That print may be the glass slipper, Sarge.”
    â€œOkay, Gabe. I’ll see if I can find you a Cinderella.”
    â€œ W HERE ARE WE AT?” LeRoyer asked, looking rather frazzled seated behind his desk. “Chief Stanton’s breathing down my neck.”
    Byron deposited himself in one of the chairs across from the lieutenant. “In a word? Nowhere. The neighborhood canvass yielded dick. At the moment, both nurses seem in the clear. O’Halloran may have had a ­couple of male visitors who may have been white, but nobody can identify them or remember what they looked like. Pelligrosso lifted a partial print from the scene, that doesn’t match anyone. It’s not in the system and probably wouldn’t hold up in court even if we could find a match. If this were New York City instead of Portland, Maine, you’d be calling this a misdemeanor homicide by now and telling me to move on.”
    â€œWhat about the nurse who gave O’Halloran the weed, Matthews?”
    â€œIt’s Mathers, and he’s a dumb-­ass, more concerned about a furnishing charge and losing his job than anything else. He seems much too “love all, be all” to even think about a mercy killing. Frankly, he’s not bright enough to have pulled this off anyway.”
    â€œYou still think it’s a mercy killing?”
    â€œI don’t know what to think. What I do know is we seem to have hit a dead