“Yes.”
CHAPTER 61
THE COUNTRY CLUB was quiet and though the evening wasn’t chilly a fire crackled in the large stone-faced fireplace in the main restaurant. Sean and Michelle sat on one side of the table while Bobby and June Battle, a wisp of a woman in her early eighties, with snowy hair cut severely short, sat on the other side of them.
They had just ordered their food.
Michelle fired the first shot. “I’m glad you talked to Nancy Drummond. Because we really need your help.”
Instead of answering, June methodically swallowed a number of pills she had placed on the table, using a big glass of water to wash them down.
Perhaps sensing Michelle’s growing impatience, Sean slipped a hand under the table and squeezed her thigh and slightly shook his head.
June finished off the last pill and looked up at them. “I hate medicine, but it’s apparently the only thing keeping me alive, so there you go.”
“So you were walking your dog down the street where the Maxwells live on the night Sally Maxwell was killed?” said Sean encouragingly.
“Didn’t know she was killed then,” said June matter-of-factly. “Just walking Cedric. He’s my dog. Pekinese. Little dog. Used to have a big dog, but can’t handle big anymore. But he’s a good dog. Cedric was my older brother. Dead now. I liked him better than my other siblings so I named my dog after him.”
Michelle loudly cleared her throat and Sean’s grip on her leg increased in pressure.
Bobby said, “So I told my sister here that you’d talk to her only.”
“Don’t like police.” She patted Bobby’s hand. “Don’t get me wrong. I know we need police and all. But what I meant was that when the police are around, something bad happened.”
“Like my mother being murdered?” said Michelle, looking dead at June.
The little woman finally settled her gaze on her. “I’m sorry about your loss, child. I’ve lost two of my children and one grandchild, but to illness, not crime.”
“You saw something that night?” said Sean.
“A man.”
Sean and Michelle both hunched forward at the same time, as though connected by rope.
“Can you describe him?” asked Michelle.
“It was dark, and my eyes aren?
?t as good as they used to be, but I can tell you he was tall and he wasn’t fat or anything. He didn’t have a coat on, just pants and a sweater.”
“Old, young?”
“Older. I think he had gray hair but I couldn’t be sure. I remember it was a warm night and I was surprised he even had a sweater on.”
“And in fact a pool party was going on next door,” said Sean.
“Don’t know about that but there were lots of cars parked up and down the road.”
“What time was this?”
“Always start my walk at eight o’clock. Always get to that point at about eight-twenty unless Cedric poops and I have to pick it up, but he didn’t. Poop I mean.”
“So eight-twenty,” said Sean.
He, Michelle, and Bobby exchanged glances.
“The ME puts time of death at between eight and nine,” Bobby reminded them.