Philip didn’t look bad, exactly. First off, there wasn’t much expression on his face, for which I was grateful. There was what looked like a bruise on his forehead, and his coloring was funny, I guess from being out in the cold. Or maybe just from being dead. Like Salvatore said, there was some snow encrusted on his hair and eyelashes. He didn’t look bad, but somehow he looked very sad.
“Did Mr. Dennis have that mark on his forehead when you saw him?” Salvatore asked.
“No, sir.”
“Had he been drinking?”
“I don’t think so. I know I didn’t smell it.” It was hard for me to remember that he had been in my apartment less than twenty-four hours before, annoying but very alive.
Thaddeous put his arm around me. “I think she’s seen enough.”
Salvatore nodded and zipped Philip back up again. Then he called over to one of the other police officers. “We’ve got our ID.” A young officer came over immediately with a pad and pen. “Mrs. Fleming, would you know who Mr. Dennis’s next of kin would be?”
“His wife, I guess. Colleen Dennis.”
“Address and phone number?”
I shook my head. “I know they have a house in Cambridge, but I’m not sure where.”
Salvatore nodded at the uniformed officer, and he scurried away. “I know this must be upsetting for you, but I’m going to have to ask some more questions.”
“I understand.”
“Could we go back inside?” Thaddeous asked.
“That would be fine.”
The three of us made our way back up the alley, Thaddeous keeping his arm around me and staying right next to me, even though there really wasn’t enough room for us to walk two abreast. There was a small crowd gathered out front, murmuring rumors, and they looked at us curiously. We went back up to the apartment without speaking, and when Thaddeous and I took off our coats, Salvatore did the same, and we all sat down.
“I’d like to get a little background information, if I may,” Salvatore said, and pulled out a notepad and pen.
I dutifully answered questions about my age and occupation, and the same about Richard. He even took down information about Thaddeous.
“You say you two are cousins?”
“Yes, sir,” Thaddeous said. “First cousins. Our mamas were sisters, but Laura’s mama passed away a good while back.”
“Do you live around here, Mr. Crawford?”
“No, sir. I live in Byerly, North Carolina. We were both raised there.”
“Now, I can hear Mr. Crawford’s accent, but Mrs. Fleming, you don’t seem to have much of one.”
“It comes and goes,” I admitted. “I’ve been up here a while. I went to school in Cambridge.”
“Harvard or MIT?”
“MIT. That’s where I met Philip.”
“Did you two keep in touch?”
“No, we didn’t. I hadn’t seen Philip in years.”
“And how many years would that have been?”
“Three, I think. A friend of ours had a party, and we ran into one another then.” I hadn’t much enjoyed the party, mostly because of Philip. Despite the rest of us trying to change the subject, he had made snide remarks about Shakespeare’s “real” identity the whole time, trying to annoy Richard.
“But he had your address.”
“He said Jessie gave it to him. Jessie Boyd. She’s a mutual friend who works at the same company as Philip.”
“And what is that company?”
“Statistical Software, Inc., in Cambridge.”
“Were you and Mr. Dennis close friends?”
“We used to be. I dated Philip for a couple of years when we were in college.”
“I take it that you and he parted on good terms?”
I shook my head. “Not at all. I broke up with him and started dating Richard a little while after.”
“Richard would be your husband?”
“Right. Philip didn’t think I was serious about breaking up. When I finally got the message across that I meant it, he was pretty mad.”
“Yet he still asked you for a place to stay?”
“His wife had thrown him out and most of the other people he was close to were at SSI, and he said they were ganging up on him. Besides which, Philip was a master at deciding what things should be like, and then believing they really were like that. There was no reason for him to think I’d let him stay, but he thought it anyway.” I paused. “I sound awful, don’t I? Here he is dead, and I’m making fun of him.”
“You’re answering the detective’s questions like you’re supposed to,” Thaddeous said firmly.
“Your cousin is right, ma’am. I just want to get a full picture of the man.”
“How did he die?” I asked. “My neighbor said he froze to death.”
“The autopsy won’t be completed for a while, but the results of the preliminary exam are consistent with that.”
“Then he didn’t kill himself?”
“It doesn’t look that way. Did he say something that implied he was considering suicide?”
“No, I was just afraid that … that I had driven him to it. If I had just let him stay …”
“Mrs. Fleming,” Salvatore said, “I’ve investigated many deaths, and each time, somebody has an ‘if-only,’ but nobody has ever found a way to change what’s already happened.”
“He didn’t have no business staying here anyway, what with Richard gone,” Thaddeous said.
Salvatore nodded, which I appreciated, but I wasn’t convinced.
“Now, when did your husband leave?” Salvatore asked. “Thursday evening,” I said. “A six o’clock flight.”
“The airline?”
“Virgin Atlantic.”
“And Mr. Crawford didn’t get here until today?”
“I got in at around two,” Thaddeous said. “I was on USAir, if you need to check.”
Only when Thaddeous added that last part did I realize what Salvatore was up to. Presumably, they’d be able to figure out when Philip had died and he wanted to know where we were when that happened. Of course, Richard had already been gone by then, and Thaddeous hadn’t arrived yet, so both of them were in the clear, but I was without an alibi. So I wasn’t altogether surprised at Salvatore’s next question.
“Now, when did you say Mr. Dennis left here?”
“Somewhere between six and six-thirty.”
“And that’s when you went to the grocery store?”
“Not right away. My cousin Vasti called, and after I got off the phone with her, I called Aunt Nora.”
“My mama,” Thaddeous explained.
“Vasti told me that Thaddeous was coming, and after I checked with Aunt Nora, I looked in the cabinets to see what I needed from the store.”
He dutifully wrote all this down. “How long did these calls and looking in the cabinet take?”
“Maybe half an hour. I wasn’t paying close attention, but I know I was hurrying to get out and back before the snow started.”
“Then what?”
“I went to the store and came back.”
“How long did that take?”
“Probably an hour and a half. The store was packed with people getting stuff before the storm.”
“That put you back here at …?”
I was tempted to tell him to add it up himself, but I reminded myself that he was just doing his job. “Somewhere between eight and eight-thirty.”
“What did you do for the rest of the evening?”
“Cleaned up, mostly. Getting ready for Thaddeous.”
“There wasn’t no need for that, Laurie Anne,” Thaddeous said. “I’m not company, I’m family.”
“I had to clean up anyway,” I said, which was true enough. I just hadn’t planned to do it then.
Salvatore asked, “Did you have any other visitors?”
“Not a one.”
“Phone calls?”
I shook my head.
“You don’t think Laurie Anne hurt that boy, do you? Because you’re crazy if you think that.”
Salvatore said, “Laurie Anne?”
“That’s what my family calls me.” Given a choice, I go by Laura, but I didn’t want to say so in front of Thaddeous and hurt his feelings.
“Mr. Crawford, I don’t think anything right now. It looks like Mr. Dennis was drinking, passed out, and froze to death.”
“What about that bruise on his forehead?” I asked. “Could he have been mugged?”
“Doubtful,” Salvatore said. “He still had his wallet and was wearing his gold class ring from MIT. If a mugger had been interrupted, he might have left those things, but then the person who interrupted him would probably have called us. Chances are he hit his head when he passed out. Probably never even felt any pain.”
“That’s good,” I said.
He asked us a few more questions, nothing big, then closed his pad and stood.
“Are you going to need us to go down to the station to sign a statement?” I asked.
“You sound like you’ve done this before,” he said.
“The police chief back home is a good friend of mine,” was all I said. If Salvatore even remotely suspected me, the last thing I wanted to do was tell him I had been involved in other murders, even in solving them.
“Well, I don’t think it’ll be necessary. If I need to talk to you again, I’ll be in touch. Here’s my card, in case you think of anything else I should know. Mr. Crawford, I hope the rest of your visit will be more pleasant. I’m sure Mrs. Fleming will tell you that this is not an everyday occurrence. Not in this neighborhood, anyway.”
“If it was, you can bet I’d pack her up and take her home with me,” Thaddeous said.
Since he was family, I waited until Detective Salvatore left before turning on him and saying, “Pack me up and take me home? You and what army?”
He looked right ashamed of himself. “I knew as soon as I said it that it was a mistake. I didn’t mean anything by it, Laurie Anne. Mama was the one who was worried about you being by yourself, not me. I told her you’d be all right, but I didn’t argue with her too hard because I was just as glad for the chance to get out of town for a few days.”
“Is anything wrong at work?”
He shook his head.
“Woman problems?”
He nodded.
“Oh dear, I’m sorry,” I said. Thaddeous had the worst luck with women of any man I’d ever met. I don’t understand why, exactly. He was nice-looking and so good-natured that he’d give you the shirt right off his back if he thought you needed it. He just couldn’t find the right woman. To change the subject, I said, “I know I promised you an early dinner, but can you hold out for a few more minutes? I want to call somebody to tell her about Philip.”
“Not a problem,” he said.
I offered him a snack, but when he turned it down, I got out my address book, to look up Jessie’s phone number. Jessie had been a good friend in college, and we had kept in touch fairly regularly since then. She was among the crew that Philip had recruited to form SSI.
“Jessie? This is Laura.”
“Hi, Laura. I guess you made it through the storm.”
“Jessie, I’ve got some bad news. It’s about Philip.”
“Damn it, Laura, did he come over there? I’m sorry about that. He asked if I knew your address, and when I gave it to him, I mentioned that Richard was going out of the country. I should have known better.”
“Don’t worry about it. He did come over, but I didn’t let him stay. That’s not why I’m calling.”
“Oh?”
“Jessie, the police were just here. They found Philip in an alley with my name and address in his pocket.”
“He slept in an alley? I had no idea he was that bad off.” She sighed. “Tell me where they’ve taken him, and I’ll go bail him out. I guess I can take the money out of petty cash.”
“He’s dead, Jessie. He froze to death out there.” There was no response. I couldn’t even hear her breathing. “Jessie? Are you there?”
“Jesus, Laura. Are they sure it’s him?”
“I saw him.”
“Jesus.”
“I gave the police Colleen’s name, but I didn’t know the address. I did give them the number at SSI, so they’ll probably be calling over there.”
“I’ll check the machine for messages,” she said, suddenly businesslike. “Who was it you talked to?”
I gave her Salvatore’s name, and the phone number from his card. “Philip said that he and Colleen had broken up and that Vinnie and Inez were trying to chase him out of SSI. What’s going on?”
She sighed. “It’s a long story, Laura. Things have been pretty bad at the office: Vinnie and Inez fighting, Murray and Dee and Dom complaining, and Philip …”
“Being Philip,” I finished for her.
“Exactly. But I don’t want to talk about that now. You said Philip was in an alley?”
“Behind my apartment, as a matter of fact.”
“He died behind your apartment?”
“Yes.” Knowing that was an awful feeling, too.
“You sent him away in the snow?”
“It wasn’t snowing when he left here,” I said defensively. “There was plenty of time for him to find a hotel before it started.” She didn’t say anything, and I added, “What was I supposed to do? Keep him?”
“No, of course not. Don’t mind me. I’m just trying to take this all in. I know this must be awful for you. Did he look terrible?”
“Not too bad,” I said.
“And you’re all by yourself now?”
“Actually, my cousin Thaddeous is visiting.”
“So you wouldn’t have had space for Philip anyway,” she said, as if to soothe me.
Since I hadn’t known that Thaddeous was coming when I’d turned Philip down, it wasn’t all that soothing, but it was nice of her to say. “If Colleen and he have split up, who’s going to be taking care of the arrangements?”
“His family, I guess. I’m going to have to talk to some people. Listen, thanks for calling. I’ll be in touch as soon as I know more.”
“You know my number if there’s anything I can do.” I hung up, put on the best fake smile I could manage, and said, ‘Well, let’s go get something to eat.”
Thaddeous didn’t move. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“This fellow Philip meant a lot to you, didn’t he?”
“He used to. My first love.”
“I thought that freckle-faced boy in Byerly was your first love.”
“Steven Jones? Thaddeous, I was in the second grade—that doesn’t count. No, Philip was my first serious boyfriend. At one point I thought I wanted to spend my life with him.”
“How come I never heard anything about him?”
“I guess I didn’t talk about him much.” In fact, I had told Paw all about Philip right after we’d started dating, but Paw hadn’t been one to gossip. Besides, even though Paw never actually said anything against Philip, I could tell he didn’t think Philip was the right one for me. Since Philip never called or wrote me during Christmas and summer vacations, it had been easy to keep him separate from my life in Byerly.
“So what happened? Did Richard steal you away from him?”
I grinned at the idea of Richard and Philip fighting over me, but that wasn’t how it had happened. “I think I knew it wasn’t going to work with Philip long before I met Richard—I just didn’t want to admit it. You know when you fall in love with somebody, and you daydream what your life together would be like?”
“I’ve done that a time or two.”
“Well, I just couldn’t picture me being with Philip other than right there and then, in college. I couldn’t imagine taking him home to meet Paw, or what kind of house we’d have, or raising children with him, or anything. Once I realized that, I started to realize that he really didn’t treat me very well. He put me down a lot, and made fun of my being from the South.”
“Doesn’t sound like he deserved you.”
“He didn’t.” I hesitated, then added, “He slept around on me, too.”
“Son of a bitch!”
I nodded. It was a long time since I had thought about Philip’s betrayal and how upset I had been when I’d found out, and I was almost smug that it didn’t hurt much anymore. Still, I was sorry he was dead, and I said so.
“Of course you are. Anybody would be. You remember how I was when Melanie died, and we didn’t even date, not really.”
Thaddeous had carried a torch for Melanie Wilson for years, and he’d been devastated when she was murdered. In fact, he looked downright glum thinking about her now.
“Enough of that,” I said briskly, as I reached for my coat. “We’re going out so I can show you what I like about this city.”