Page 79 of State of Alert

Frank’s mouth fell open in shock as he shook his head. “I loved her. I could never hurt her. She’s been the center of my life for more than twenty years.”

“Can you think of anyone else who might’ve wanted to kill her?”

“I was awake all night trying to figure out who could’ve done something like this, and I drew a blank. It’s possible someone broke in and took her by surprise…”

Sure, Sam thought, that was possible, but with no signs of forced entry, her gut was telling her this act hadn’t been random. Not with the level of anger these people had been living with for years. That sort of thing tended to metastasizeand boil over at some point. If she had to guess, that’s what’d happened in this case. She just needed to prove it.

“What can you tell me about her coworkers?”

“They adored her. She worked countless hours writing and editing position pieces and white papers for them.”

“What organization was it?”

“CVX. They’ve done work for most of the major oil companies, which was another bone of contention with Zoe, who’s a card-carrying environmentalist and was appalled at her mother’s involvement in a business that she claims is harming our climate and our planet.”

This family had been tearing one another apart with endless conflict, Sam thought, wondering how they’d withstood the nonstop arguing.

“I’m going to release you and your daughters to return to your sister’s home. We’ll arrange a ride for you.” She glanced at Freddie, and he nodded as he got up to take care of it. “I’d like the three of you to stay local, as we might have additional questions for you.”

“We don’t have anywhere else to go, and we have a funeral to plan.”

“If you know what funeral home you’d like to use, I’ll ask Dr. McNamara to call them for you after she completes her work.”

“I guess Green’s over on Arkansas Ave would be fine.”

“I’ll pass that on and be in touch.”

“Tell me the truth, Lieutenant. Are you looking at one of my daughters for this?”

“Our investigation hasn’t yet identified a suspect.” It was interesting to her that he included both daughters in his question when only one of them had had obvious animosity with Elaine.

“But are they in the mix?”

“Everyone is until they aren’t.”

“They’re children who just lost their mother. You can’t believe for a second that they’d have anything to do with this.”

“We just don’t have enough information yet to rule out anyone.”

Freddie poked his head back in. “Haggerty wants prints for the family.”

“Have someone come over here to do that,” Sam said, not wanting to subject them to Central Booking.

“They have to be fingerprinted?” Frank asked, incredulous.

“Yes, so the Crime Scene detectives can tell which prints belong to the family and which ones don’t.”

“Oh, I see. I think.”

“It helps us to eliminate prints that belong there from those that don’t. Unless you have other questions, we’ll get that done and then get you back to your sister’s.”

“How long will our home be a crime scene?”

“Probably a few more days.”

“I don’t understand how any of this is happening. Elaine is such a wonderful wife and mother. She’s never harmed anyone.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss. We’ll do everything we can to get you some answers.”

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