Carolyn G. Hart_Henrie O_02 by Scandal in Fair Haven Page A

with your nephew was satisfactory.” His voice was smooth and deep.
    “Very. I’m confident Craig is innocent, Captain.”
    “Yes, ma’am.” His tone remained polite, his strong-boned face impassive.
    I could imagine Walsh’s dilemma. He was accustomedto treating the well-to-do inhabitants of Fair Haven with deference. He certainly didn’t want to be discourteous to a relative of a rich resident—just in case Matthews did turn out to be innocent. Obviously, the captain had agreed to permit my meeting with Craig in order to remain on good terms with Desmond Marino.
    Perhaps I could take advantage of his ambivalence and also of his probable inexperience with murder. I doubted that Fair Haven was a hotbed of violence, either street or domestic.
    I smiled up at him. “May I visit with you for a few minutes, Captain?”
    His expression didn’t change. “Of course, Mrs. Collins.” He stepped aside for me to enter his office.
    This office, too, was light-years distant from big-city realities. Instead of desks jammed corner to corner or a dingy cubicle that smelled like old cigarette butts, takeout hamburgers, and sweat, Walsh’s office was bright and airy. There were framed diplomas on one wall, a large-scale map of Fair Haven on another. The thick scent of cherry pipe tobacco provided a fusty but distinctively masculine aroma. Walsh waited until I was seated in an unexpectedly comfortable chair, then he took his place behind a shiny gray metal desk.
    “Captain, I would be very grateful if you would describe the course of your investigation. Beginning with the call that brought your officers to the Matthews home.”
    He fingered a bright orange manila folder. “The goal of the Fair Haven police is to serve our community, Mrs. Collins. I am happy to make available to you the final report provided to the news media.”
    With that he (lipped open the folder, picked up a computer printout, and leaned across the desk to hand it to me.
    I read it swiftly.
    There were several interesting items:
    A call reporting a homicide at 1903 King’s Row Road was received at 5:06 P.M . Saturday by Dispatcher Harriet Keys. The caller spoke in a deep whisper and hung up when asked to repeat the information. Dispatcher Keys contacted car three on patrol in that area. Car three arrived at the Matthews residence at 5:09 P.M . Patrolman Wesley Adkins found the front door open. No one responded to Adkins’s repeated calls. He searched the premises and at 5:12 P.M . discovered the body of a middle-aged white female (later identified as Mrs. Patty Kay Prentiss Pierce Matthews) in a structure behind the main house. Patrolman Adkins immediately notified …
    The timing fit in with my theory that the murderer had watched the house then alerted the police as soon as Craig arrived.
    The second interesting item concerned the murder weapon. Not the fragment of Craig’s fingerprint found on the trigger rim, but the snag of beige cotton adhering to the gun barrel.
    I skipped down the report and continued reading:
    With a search warrant, Captain Walsh examined the 1994 Porsche belonging to Craig Matthews. Included in the materials found in the car was a plaid cotton shirt. Bloodstains on it later were identified as matching Mrs. Matthews’s blood type. The shirt, which belonged to Mr. Matthews, was stained on the left sleeve from the wrist to the elbow. Fibers of the same composition as the snag of cotton found on the revolver were discovered beneath the driver’s seat. Captain Walsh concluded that the suspect wrapped the weapon in a beige cotton article before fleeing the crime scene.
    I scanned the rest of it. Not much I didn’t know. Cause of death was a gunshot wound in the chest, rupturing theaorta. Wounds in the cheek and shoulder would not have been fatal but contributed to the massive blood loss. The bullets were from a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver identified as belonging to the suspect.
    I folded the sheets, put them in my purse. “Chief,