The Lady Who Cried Murder (A Mac Faraday Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page A

suspicious expression in Mac’s eyes, David stepped around him and pointed to the blood on the floor. “This blood leads to the kitchen. We found a butcher knife in the dishwasher—cleaned and sterilized. If that’s the murder weapon, we have no hope for fingerprints or DNA.”
    “He’s a smart killer.”
    “Yep.” David moved over to the wall to pass the two crime scene officers marking and photographing the blood spots.
    “I hate smart killers.” Gazing over the bannister to the floor down below, Mac noted the messy condition of the home. “This house was clean enough to eat off the floors three years ago. What happened? What was Khloe doing here, anyway? I thought Florence disowned her after that stunt she pulled.”
    “That’s right,” David said. “You had already left for your trip when Florence Everest died.”
    “Mur—”
    “Accident,” David said. “A drunk driver plowed into her company van when she was on her way out to Georgetown to remodel a brownstone. That was three weeks ago. As soon as she got word, Khloe came swooping in, expecting to collect it all. After all, she had no siblings or relatives.”
    “Florence had made it very clear that Khloe was disowned,” Mac said. “She made a public announcement about it during the height of the publicity following—”
    David was nodding his head. “Florence ordered in her will that her estate was to be liquidated and her attorney—”
    “Ed Willingham, who happens to be my lawyer.”
    “—was to set up a foundation to provide legal and medical aid to female victims of violent crimes.”
    “Ain’t it ironic?” Mac said, “Khloe lost it all to help victims of violent crimes because she pretended to be one. That doesn’t explain how she ended up in this house and murdered.”
    “Unfortunately, no one changed the locks on the door before Khloe swooped in. She refused to leave. She’s been squatting here illegally, and Willingham has been working through the courts to have her evicted so that he could put the place up for sale.”
    “Meanwhile, she trashed her mother’s house,” Mac said.
    With a frown, David shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not sure this is all Khloe.”
    “Was someone shacking up here with her?”
    “Khloe, or someone, was looking for something, I think,” David said. “There are papers all over the place in the study. The safe door is hanging open and someone has gone through all of Florence’s legal papers.”
    “Like maybe Khloe was searching for another will?”
    “My thought exactly,” David said. “But she’s been here for three weeks. Why leave it like this?”
    “Because Khloe was a slug in a bra,” Mac said. “She was too lazy to clean it up.”
    David took him into the bedroom. The television had finally been turned off.
    The medical examiner, Dr. Dora Washington, was poking around at the body inside the garbage bag while Deputy Chief Arthur Bogart peered over her shoulder. The expressions on their faces revealed that this was not your average murder.
    As always, Mac was struck by Dr. Washington’s flawless figure and blue-black hair that she always wore in a silky ponytail that spilled down to the middle of her back. In her black slacks and form- fitting white shirt, she looked more like she belonged on the cover of a fashion magazine than cutting up dead people in the morgue.
    When he had first met the medical examiner, Mac was struck by how brilliantly smart she was—but only after he had gotten over her physical beauty. Dr. Washington had nailed Mac and David’s sibling relationship by their second meeting based purely on their eye color, cheekbones, and jaw-line. During a consultation in her office, she had bluntly asked David for confirmation of her assessment. She had the class to keep that information to herself. While David and Mac’s familial relationship was not a state secret, they preferred to keep it under wraps for the sake of their late father’s reputation.
    “This is one