Page 124 of Festive in Death

“Before, of course, then when they struggled or fought—about God knows what—she struck Tash. Tash must have fallen, maybe the women slipped and fell. How do I know?”

“What time did you get home from your golf outing?”

“I’m not sure, not exactly. About six, more or less.”

“And then?”

“What do you mean?”

“What did you do upon arriving home?”

“I went upstairs, spoke briefly to my wife. We talked about going out later for drinks, for dinner. I had a quick shower, changed, if you want specifics, stretched out, turned on the screen. I was just relaxing, as many do on a Sunday evening, when I heard Tash scream from downstairs.”

“Did you and your wife argue?”

“What? Of course not.”

“Did you argue with Catiana Dubois?”

“No! I barely know the woman. She’s one of my sister-in-law’s staff. I want to see my wife. I want to know what’s happening with Tash.”

“She’s in serious condition. She has some swelling of the brain, and is in surgery.”

He went sheet white as Eve spoke. “The doctors are confident she’ll recover.”

“Lieutenant, your partner’s on her way back.”

“Thank you, Officer. Ask the detective with her to secure the house droid and question same.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Question the droid?” Copley shouted. “Question me, question a fucking machine! My wife’s having emergency brain surgery. You can’t keep me here.”

“She can.” Roarke moved to block his exit. “Yes, she can.”

“Just stay out of my way,” Copley warned, but backed up as he did so. “I have rights! You can’t keep me in this room. I’m not under arrest. I’m free to come and go as I damn well please.”

“We can fix that,” Eve decided, glanced over at an out-of-breath Peabody. “Peabody, read Mr. Copley his rights.”

“What are you talking about? You’ve all lost your minds. I’m leaving.”

He tried a charge across the room. Eve pivoted, but Roarke was faster, and merely shot out his foot. It sent Copley on a face-first dive.

“Oops,” Roarke said.

“Peabody, restrain the suspect, and read him his rights. John Jake Copley, you’re under arrest for suspicion of murder, for attempted murder, for assault, for assault on an officer.”

“You have the right to remain silent,” Peabody began, then her voice was drowned out by Copley’s raging.

“Give him to the female officer—Shelby. Have her and the other two officers transport him to Central. To a box. I’ll be down to deal with him when we’re done here.”

“Let me give you a hand with that, Peabody.” Roarke hauled Copley to his feet, and with Peabody taking the other side perp-walked him out, raging still.

“Whew.” McNab stepped in. “And I thought the SkyMall was crazytown. The house droid’s been shut down since sixteen-thirty, LT.”

“Shut down?”

“Yeah. Turned off. There’s a secondary droid, but that one’s been turned off since about noon. The main house droid reports Ms. Quigley ordered her to shut down, as she routinely does on Sundays when they aren’t expecting company or entertaining. She reports no one coming or going after you and Roarke earlier today. No help from that quarter.”

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