D.C. Dead Read Online Free PDF

all, who would want to kill my mother? No sweeter human being ever existed. She had no enemies, not even in politics. And my father was just not the type to kill either my mother or himself. He’s the type who would have been all over the cops until they caught the killer. He met with the FBI and Secret Service people and answered every question, broken up as he was.”
    “Being broken up is enough to cause some people to take their own lives,” Stone pointed out. “And being a suspect in the murder of a loved one could push a lot of people over the edge.”
    “I guess all that is right, in theory,” Tom replied. “But it doesn’t jibe with who they were.”
    “Well,” Dino said, “that’s enough of a reason for us to be here. Tell me, what happened to all the things that have obviously been removed?”
    “My wife and I removed them and took them to our apartment,” Tom replied. “I’m a last-year resident at Washington Metro Hospital, and my wife works in a government office, so we couldn’t afford to keep this house. I doubt we could pay the taxes. We took the things we could use, or that were of sentimental value to us, and put the house on the market.”
    “How long ago?” Stone asked.
    “Ten months,” Tom replied. “The market is moribund for all the usual reasons, and it probably won’t come back until the change in administrations. That always causes a huge upswing in Georgetown house sales, what with people leaving Washington and others moving in.”
    “May I ask what the value of the house is?” Stone asked.
    “We were told it would bring four and a half, five million in better times, and maybe three and a half, four million if we can hang on until the change of administrations, which is another year and a half. Or we could take a lowball offer now. We’ve had a couple of those.”
    “What’s upstairs?” Stone asked.
    “Four bedrooms and baths, a smaller study for my mother, and a kitchenette.”
    Stone nodded. “I’m not all that familiar with the market here,” Stone said, “but it sounds like you got good advice from your realtor. What was the estate worth in toto?”
    “Six and a half million,” Tom said. “More than half of that is this house, which they owned for more than thirty years. There was no estate tax last year, some legislative quirk.”
    “I’m familiar with that,” Stone said. “Did you consider moving into the house until it sold? At least you wouldn’t be paying rent.”
    “I pointed that out to Kath, but she’s spooked by the fact that my father hanged hims Kr h/font>
    Stone nodded. “By the way, how did he get a rope tied to that beam?”
    “He used an eight-foot stepladder. It’s in the garden shed.”
    Stone nodded.
    Dino spoke again. “Was there anything going on in the life of either of your parents that might have been a factor in what happened?”
    Tom looked puzzled. “What sort of thing are you talking about?”
    “Anything unusual, out of the ordinary. Could either of them have been having an affair?”
    Tom emitted a short laugh. “They had been married for nearly forty years,” he said. “Since college. Doesn’t seem likely at this stage of the game, does it?”
    “I guess not,” Dino said.
    “What really gets me about this,” Tom said, “is that they both died within a day of each other, both violently. I just can’t come up with a scenario that would account for that. It will haunt me for the rest of my life.” He got to his feet. “I have to go to work.” He handed Dino a card. “My cell number is there,” he said. “Please call me if there’s anything else I can tell you, and please, please call me if you start to make any sense of this.”
    Stone and Dino shook his hand and walked him to the front door.
    “Well,” Dino said when he had gone, “forty years of marriage doesn’t mean a lot if one partner gets the love bug up his ass, does it?”

    You’re right,” Stone said, “but I don’t think we should