“Did most of it myself. I’m a contractor.” Gary grinned. “Cherry cabs and Corian tops, did all that myself. It’s got the Viking range, the big one, and the biggest goddamn refrigerator I could find.” Tony was impressed. It was good work. To his right an archway revealed a slice of an elegantly appointed formal dining room.
“That was the old kitchen space. I moved a wall or two. The whole first floor has been re-done.”
Karen poured coffee for everyone and they settled around an antique oak table in the breakfast area.
Ray regained charge of the conversation and said, “I just have a few questions for right now.”
“Oh, we know all about it. We’ve talked to the others, to Scott and Ken.” Ray had been talking to Karen. Gary answered for her.
“The questions I have are for Mrs. Hewes,” Ray said evenly, his half-smile on now.
“You go right on ahead and ask away,” Gary said. Green as he was Tony could see it coming. Ray turned back toward the woman.
“We need to know where you were Sunday night and Monday morning.”
“She was here at home. We had supper about seven and watched some TV,” Gary said.
Ray looked toward Gary, still smiling. “Mr. Hewes, I need to talk to your wife. I’ll have some questions for you later.” Gary nodded as if he understood what Ray was saying.
“Now, Mrs. Hewes…”
“Oh, you can call her Karen. That’s her name.” Gary hadn’t gotten it. Ray’s smile faded.
“Mr. Hewes, I’m going to ask you to leave the room. I need to talk to your wife right now. We’ll talk to you later.”
“What the hell are you talking about? I don’t have to leave the room. This is my house.”
Ray sighed and looked over at Tony. “Then I guess we’ll have to do this interview at my house, Mr. Hewes. That would be at headquarters, over on Seventh Street.”
“What are you saying?” The good humor and politeness gone from Hewes’ voice made Tony tense slightly. Gary Hewes was big and solid. Tony didn’t doubt he could handle him but it wouldn’t be fun.
“I’m saying that if you give us some privacy here and let me interview your wife we can save a trip downtown. This is much more pleasant and the coffee is really outstanding, isn’t it Tony?” De Luca nodded, keeping his eyes on Gary, who was smoldering now. “Go upstairs or outside or wherever you want. I have some questions for your wife. I can ask them here or at headquarters.”
Gary wouldn’t let go. “What if she wants a lawyer?”
“That’s her right. It’s your right, too, when it’s your turn. It’s not your turn now, Mr. Hewes.”
“She wants a lawyer.”
“Fine.” Ray turned to Tony. “Detective de Luca, will you please go to the car and call for a black and white…”
“Stop it!” Karen was glaring at her husband but talking to Ray. “I don’t want a lawyer. I don’t want to go to the police station.”
“But honey…”
“Gary, it’s okay. Go downstairs. Let us talk.”
“But…”
Tony caught the pleading tone in Karen’s voice when she told her husband to leave, to let her do what she had to without his imprint. He suspected that this was not the norm in the Hewes’ household.
“Please?”
Tony knew the hateful look Gary Hewes gave them when he left the room was his way of saving face; of hiding his misplaced embarrassment over having his wife tell him what to do. He felt sorry for him. Not because he was being banished to the basement like a misbehaving child, but because he sensed the man didn’t realize that he was wrong and probably wouldn’t learn better anytime soon, if ever.
“I’m sorry about that,” Karen said. Her cheeks were bright red.
“We’ll be as brief as possible. Are you sure you don’t want a lawyer, Mrs. Hewes?”
“Please, call me Karen. No. What on earth would I need a lawyer for?” The tension was slowly draining from the room. Karen refilled their cups and leaned forward, elbows on the table.
“Monday morning?”
“Monday. Gary was up and out early. He had a 6:30 meeting so I know I was up at 5:30 to get his breakfast for him and get him out the door.”
“What did you do then, Karen?” To Tony it was like watching a levee break. First a small rivulet breaches it, just a trickle. Then as more of the dam washes away the trickle becomes a stream and the stream becomes a river and finally the river becomes a torrent.
“I called Dee.” She held her head up, trying to be strong. Her eyes filled with tears. “I knew she had something at the hospital that morning but it was so early I thought we could have coffee or get something.” The first small sobs began. “She didn’t answer.” Her quivering shoulders joined the sobs. She hugged herself to stop them.
Ray had a solemn look on his face. He gave her time to collect herself by flipping through his notebook. Tony noticed he was looking in the front of it.
“You didn’t leave a message.” Ray found what he was looking for. There were only two messages on the machine, one from the son and one from the husband.
“No. I guessed she was in the shower.”
“I see.”
“I was already dressed so I decided to just go over there.” Ray and Tony shared a concerned look.
“What time was this?”
“7:30? Maybe closer to 8:00.”
“Did you talk to her? Was she there?” Tony was glad Ray was doing the talking. He could keep the excitement out of his voice, temper the anxiety. Tony wasn’t sure he’d be able to. The woman had been there during the window of time they’d determined that Deanna had been murdered.
“No. She didn’t answer the door. I assumed I’d missed her.” She looked from Tony to Ray and back. Ray’s face was blank, impassionate. Tony’s expression must have been amazement or excitement. Karen’s expression changed from curiosity to fear, and finally to despair. “Oh my God,” she whispered.
“How did you know she was gone?”
“She was lying in there dead, wasn’t she?” Karen’ shoulders shook again.
Ray asked the question again. “How did you know she was gone?”
“I didn’t. I guessed. She was in there wasn’t she?” Karen’s voice was rising with each answer. Tony looked at the basement door with concern.
“Was her car gone?”
“I don’t…I don’t know. She kept it in the garage.”
“Did you look in there?”
“No. I just assumed she was gone already.”
“Where did you park?”
“What? Why?”
“Did you park in the driveway?”
“She was already dead, wasn’t she?”
“Please, Mrs. Hewes. Karen. Did you park in the driveway?”
“No. On the street.” Karen was leaving them, Tony noticed. She was focusing on something out of the window in the tiny backyard. Her voice and mannerisms changed. He wondered if she was going into shock.
“What did you do then?” Tears ran down her cheeks while Karen stared out the window. Tony guessed she didn’t even hear the question.
“What did you do then?”
“She was dead. Dee was dead.” Tony saw the moist stains on her sweater and on her jeans where tears flowed unchecked from the burst levee. She didn’t wipe them. She didn’t even know they were there.
“She was dead.”
Chapter 18
“Gary was kind of pissed you made his wife cry,” Tony joked from the passenger seat as they drove toward Minneapolis and the U campus. He’d had to do some arm twisting when Karen’s husband came up from the basement. Tony hoped Ray would find the humor in it.
“That interview could have gone better.”
As big as Gary Hewes was he hadn’t had a chance against de Luca’s training and years of experience on the streets. Tony had him down and ready for the cuffs in about three seconds.
Ray frowned at the windshield as they rolled down the interstate. “As interesting as it is that the woman says she was at the house the morning of the murder, we didn’t get very far with anything else, did we?”