Hudak got about halfway up the stairs, took one look at Brett sprawled against the wall and Ellie dripping all over the floor, and snorted.
“He’s fine,” she laughed, heading back down the stairs. “But we’re going to need you down at the detachment, Miss Palmer, so you might want to get dressed.”
Chapter 16
“It has everything to do with anything and just answer the question please, ma’am.”
—Detective David Starsky, Starsky and Hutch
Brett barely said two words to her on the drive back to the detachment, so all Ellie knew was that Kurt was in custody and it had something to do with Dickie. Once they arrived, he took her straight to one of the interview rooms and left her there with a cup of tea and some line about how he had to go but Constable Hudak would be in to talk to her shortly.
Shortly turned out to be almost half an hour.
When Tory finally showed up, she seemed a little surprised to find Ellie alone.
“I thought Hale was in here with you.”
“He had other things to do,” Ellie quipped, her confusion having long since turned to frustration. “He did bring me a cup of tea, though, so that was nice.”
Shaking her head, Tory snorted. “Figures. Okay, Miss Palmer, here’s what’s going to happen.”
After Tory explained the charges they had against Kurt, plus the other charges they were still working on, she had to run through a whole list of questions about the events that had taken place that afternoon, few of which Ellie could answer.
“Brett…Constable Hale…dropped me at home about ten minutes after you called him, so that would have been, what, two o’clock–ish? He did a search of the house and then left, so I unpacked, made some tea, and then checked my email like you told me to.”
“How long did that take?”
“I don’t know,” Ellie sighed. “I forwarded the one message I had from him, so there should be some kind of time on that, right? Right after I sent it to you, I double-checked the doors and the alarm and then went upstairs to shower.”
“Do you always shower in the afternoon?”
“What difference does that make?”
“Just trying to gather as much information as I can, Miss Palmer. If it’s part of a pattern with you, or—”
“No, I don’t normally shower in the afternoon, but I needed to relax, so…”
“So you were upset about something? Can you tell me about that?”
“I’d rather not; it’s personal. I would really appreciate it, though, if you would tell me how all this happened.”
Tory didn’t look happy about that, but after a second, she bobbed her head in a short nod. “The information we have is that Mr. Garner was out on his porch smoking when Constable Hale dropped you off.”
“Yes, I think he was.”
“After Hale left, Mr. Garner went inside but happened to look out as Mr. Neill walked past. According to the file, Mr. Garner had witnessed the same individual walking past your place the night it was broken into. At the time, when he saw Mr. Neill, he had no idea you’d been broken into, or who Mr. Neill was, so he had no reason to suspect anything, but once he realized something had happened, he mentioned the fellow to Corporal Monk and was able to provide a fairly good description.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Tory didn’t appear interested if Ellie had known it or not.
“The way Mr. Garner explains it, he wasn’t going to let Mr. Neill anywhere near you or your house again, so when he saw Mr. Neill today, he dialed 911 but didn’t wait to speak to a dispatcher. Apparently he’s seen enough police dramas on television to know we would track the open phone line and dispatch a member immediately, which is exactly what happened.”
Tory took a second to look down at her notebook, but she wasn’t reading it, just staring at it. When she looked back up at Ellie, she was actually smiling.
“Normally we wouldn’t condone Mr. Garner’s behavior, because it’s impossible to know what a suspect is going to do. In any event, Mr. Garner somehow managed to trap Mr. Neill on your back step and then carried him back over to his house.”
“He carried him?”
“We’re not exactly sure how that worked.” This time Tory did consult her notes. “Mr. Garner’s exact words were ‘I grabbed him up like the sack of shit he is and hauled his ass back to my place.’ Mr. Neill is looking