The Night Before Read Online Free PDF Page B

open.
    “What is it?”
    “A wrongful death suit,” Moses said, frowning as she scanned the legalese. “Looks like Bandeaux was going to sue his wife for the death of their kid.”
    “Lovely.” Morrisette rolled her eyes. “Now, that sounds more like Bandeaux.”
    “How’d the kid die?” Reed asked.
    Diane lifted a shoulder, “Beats me.”
    Reed looked at Sylvie.
    “Don’t know,” she admitted, her eyebrows drawing together as she tried to recall the incident.
    “We’d better find out. Anything else?” Reed asked the cop.
    “No forced entry—if we’re lookin’ at murder. The front and back door are locked, the windows shut, except for a couple upstairs, but the side doors, there”—he motioned at the open French doors in the office—“they lead to a veranda.”
    “Dust ’em,” Reed said automatically.
    “We will, Detective.” Diane Moses was still bristly. “Along with everything else. I know how to do my job.”
    “Oops,” Sylvie whispered as Diane walked around the desk. “Touchy, touchy. I believe some professional toes have been stepped on.”
    “I heard that, Morrisette,” Moses muttered, but was too busy with the photographer to get into it.
    “What else do you know?” Reed asked the officer.
    “Just that the radio was playing, tuned to some classical station. We talked to the cleaning lady, Estelle Pontiac—yeah, I know, like the car—she called nine-one-one this morning after coming into the house and discovering the body. Was really freaked out. He was cold by the time the EMTs arrived, been dead since sometime last night. Officer Spencer talked to one neighbor”—he checked his notes—“Stanley Hubert, lives next door to the north. Hubert says he saw a white compact roll in around eleven and then take off half an hour or so later. Hubert didn’t get the license plate, but he thinks he’s seen the car here before. He claims it looks like the one Mrs. Bandeaux drives.”
    “The estranged wife?” Reed clarified.
    “That’s what he said. We’ve roped off the area and we’ll check the vic’s vehicles along with those of his acquaintances.”
    “And the wife?”
    “Number one on the list.”
    Reed took a second look at Bandeaux’s arms as the M.E. carefully rolled up the victim’s sleeves. One of the buttons on the cuff of his dress shirt was missing, which seemed odd as hardly a hair on the man’s head was out of place, few wrinkles showed on his clothes and his shoes were polished to a gloss. So why the missing button?
    Reed studied Bandeaux’s arms. The gashes on his wrists were at odd angles . . . Shit, maybe Morrisette was right about the crime. Maybe someone got a little sloppy in making it look like Josh offed himself. If that was the case, there was a chance that they’d get lucky if the killer was careless and left evidence.
    “Also, there were two wineglasses in the dishwasher. The maid had unloaded it before she left last night, so either Josh had company or he decided to dirty two goblets himself. We’re already checking for prints. Looks like one has a lipstick smudge. We’ll do a sample on it. See if the lab can figure out the manufacturer and product.”
    Reed stepped out of the room as the M.E. finished and the crime scene team was let loose to vacuum, dust for prints, measure blood splatter and generally sweep the room and the rest of the house for evidence. “Anything on the answering machine?”
    “He’s got voice mail. We’re looking into it.”
    “What about e-mail?”
    “As soon as the computer’s dusted, we’ll go into his computer files and desk files.”
    “Where does he work?”
    “Self-employed,” Morrisette said. “Investments. Consulting. Kind of a financial Jack of all trades. Been in trouble with the SEC. I think he’s got an office on Abercorn, just off of Reynolds Square.”
    “You’ve been there?”
    “Why would I have been there?” she asked.
    “During your ‘investigation.’ ”
    “ ‘Unofficial’