“Appointment?”
“Oh, I am sorry. I haven’t explained any of this.” He gave Mira one of his absent smiles. “I tried to reach him earlier today, to see if the two of us could just . . . sit down and discuss our differences about the house. I got an assistant who seemed a little harried at the time. Otherwise she might not have mentioned he had an appointment here with a Realtor to assess the house for sale. It . . . Well, it set me right off. He shouldn’t have done that behind my back.”
Eve nodded, opened her kit to take out a can of Seal-It. “Pissed you off.”
“Eve,” Mira began, but Dennis patted her hand.
“Truth is best, Charlie. I was very upset. He wouldn’t answer his personal ’link, so when I finished my last class, I came here. Terrible traffic conditions. Something should be done.”
“Yeah, I think that all the time. When did you get here, Mr. Mira?”
“Oh, I’m not at all sure. Let me see. I finished my last class . . . it must have been about four-thirty. My TA and a couple of students had questions, so that took a bit of time. Then I had to get my papers together, and it may have been five or so before I left. Then getting here.” He added that sweet, vague smile, but his eyes, that dreamy green, held worry. “I couldn’t really say exactly.”
“Good enough,” Eve told him, as clearly trying to determine the timing distressed him. “There’s security on the house. Was it active?”
“It was. I have the passcode, and a swipe. My palm print is authorized.”
“There’s a cam.”
“Yes!” The idea obviously delighted him. “Of course there is! It would show my arrival—and Edward. I never thought of it.”
“Why don’t we take a look at that first? Do you know where the security station is?”
“Yes, of course. I’ll show you. Never thought of it,” he said again, shaking his head as he rose. “If I’d just looked for myself, I’d have seen Edward coming and going. You relieve my mind, Eve.”
“Mr. Mira, you were attacked.”
He stopped, blinked. “I suppose I was. That’s very upsetting. Who would have done that?”
“Let’s see if we can find out.”
He led her back, made a turn, then showed her a large, modern kitchen with some old-fashioned touches that suited the house.
It all looked . . . comfortable, and reminded her in some ways of the Miras’ house uptown.
“There are viewing stations in several rooms,” Dennis explained as he opened a door off the kitchen. “So my grandparents or the staff could see who was at the door. But this is the main hub.”
He looked at it, gave everything a vague glance. “I’m afraid I’m not very good with complex electronics.”
“Me, either.” But she walked over to where she was damn sure a component should be. “But I can tell you somebody took the whole damn deal—the drive or whatever the hell it is, the discs.”
“Oh dear.”
“Yeah. Who else has access to the house?”
“Besides Edward and myself? The housekeeper—her mother worked for my grandparents for decades, and she’s helped us out for several years. She would never—”
“Understood, but I’m going to want her name so I can talk to her.”
“Is it all right if I make tea?” Dr. Mira asked.
“Sure, go ahead. Mr. Mira, I want you to walk me through exactly what happened. The cab dropped you off?”
“Yes. Right out front. I left my briefcase—so careless—but the driver called me back for it. I was angry and upset. I let myself in. It’s a push-pull coming here. The memories are strong and good, but it’s hard to know it’s not the same, and can’t be. I set my briefcase down, and I heard voices.”
“More than one?” Eve prompted.
“Well . . . I think so. I expected to find Edward and the Realtor he’d engaged. I assumed they were talking. I called out to him. I didn’t want to startle them. I started back, and when I got to the study, I saw him sitting in Granddad’s desk chair. Black eye, the blood. He was frightened. I saw the fear, and I started forward to help him. I must have been struck from behind. It’s never happened to me before, but I believe that’s what happened.”
“It knocked you out.”
“The injuries are consistent with a strike from a heavy object, back of the skull.” Mira brought Dennis a mug, wrapped his hands around it. “And with his right temple hitting the floor when he fell.”
“I’m not questioning that, Dr. Mira.”
“I know you’re not.” She sighed, then leaned into Dennis to gently kiss his bruised temple. “I know you’re not.”
“What did you do, Mr. Mira, when you came to?”
“I was disoriented, very confused initially. Edward wasn’t there, and though we haven’t been on the best of terms in a long time, he would never have left me on the floor that way. I called for him—I think—and I looked. I’m afraid I wandered around the house for a while, still a little confused, until it came to me something terrible had happened to Edward. I contacted Charlotte so she wouldn’t worry, and asked her if you could come and look into it all.”
He gave Eve a look with those soft, dreamy eyes that made her want to kiss his temple as Mira had. It mortified her.
“I realize now I should have simply contacted nine-one-one rather than bothering you.”
“This isn’t a bother. Are you up to taking a look at the study? Seeing if anything’s missing or out of place?”
“Anything I can do.”
When they walked back, she sealed her hands, her feet. “It’s better if you don’t touch anything. You’ve already been in there, and through the house, so sealing up’s beside the point. But let’s keep it to a minimum.”
She paused at the doorway. “So your cousin was in the desk chair. Behind the desk.”
“Yes, he was—oh, not behind it. The chair was in front of the desk.” He frowned a moment. “Why would that be? But, yes, he was sitting in the chair, in front of the desk. On the rug.”
“Okay.” That jibed with her observations. “Hold it a minute.”
She took what she needed from her kit, crouched down to take a swab of the blood from the floorboards, sealed it. Then meticulously swabbed an area of the rug.
She added drops of something from a small bottle to the swab, nodded. “Blood here. Somebody cleaned it up, but you don’t get it all with a quick run of household cleaner.”
She bent down, sniffed. “You can still smell it.” She put on microgoggles, peered close. “And if you’re looking, you can see it, and the faint pattern where the chair rolled out and back, sat here with weight in it.”
“Edward’s weight.”
“Looks that way. Another minute.” She moved behind the desk, started an inch-by-inch exam of the chair.
“They missed some. Just a drop here.” She swabbed again, carefully, leaving enough for the sweepers to take their own sample. “Was he restrained, Mr. Mira?”
“I . . .” He closed his eyes. “I don’t think so. I don’t think he was. I’m sorry. I’m not at all sure. I was so shocked.”
“Okay. Black eye, bloody mouth. So someone assaulted him, put him in the chair, but out here, more in the center of the room. Scared him enough to keep him there. A stunner maybe, a knife, a weapon anyway, or the threat of more physical violence.”
She circled the room again. “Voices. So they were talking. Wanted something from him, most likely. But before they can get it, or finish, you come in. You call out, so that gives them time to threaten him to keep it shut, to move out of sight. They don’t stun you, if they have a stunner. You stun somebody, it takes a few seconds, and maybe you see them before you go down. Bash from behind. But they don’t finish you off, or take you with them. You’re not important in this. You’re just an inconvenience. But they go to the trouble of cleaning up, putting the chair back behind the desk.