Manson parked his new black Mercedes-Benz SL in front of the house where the elderly woman sat reading in a cane rocker on the porch. Eric nodded a good afternoon to her and pointed the car key back over his shoulder as he walked to Nina’s. The car made a chirping sound as it locked.
“Liddell. Jack. Sergeant Walker,” Eric said as he stepped onto Nina’s porch.
“Did you bring the key?” Jack asked.
“Key?” Eric asked. “I don’t have a key. When I was here earlier, the door was unlocked.”
With a gloved hand, a tech twisted the doorknob and pushed. It wouldn’t budge. “Well, it’s locked now.”
“I didn’t have a key, and I didn’t lock it when I left,” Eric protested.
Edging the tech aside, Liddell put his shoulder into the door and it gave way.
“Must’ve been stuck,” the tech suggested.
Liddell struck a body-builder pose. “You ever seen such muscles on a mere mortal? Who does this remind you of?”
“Congressman Anthony Weiner during the Twitter scandal,” the tech said.
“The blonde on Charlie’s Angels?” Eric offered, and even Jack laughed.
“Why don’t you start the walk-through with Walker, Bigfoot? I need to talk to Eric,” Jack said.
A tech entered the doorway first, taking digital photos of everything as they made their way inside. Liddell was last through the door, saying “I’ll be back” in his best Arnold Schwarzenegger impression.
“Your partner’s a funny guy, Jack.”
“Yeah,” he said, instantly dismissing the distraction. “Tell me again why you were here at Nina’s this morning, Eric.”
There was very little shade on the porch, so Eric held up his hand to block the sun. “I’ve already explained this to you—and your chief. Is this your idea of a grilling, Jack?” he asked half-jokingly.
“Answer the question.”
Eric sighed and moved into a pocket of shade before answering. “Trent got a call from Cindy McCoy this morning.” Anticipating Jack’s next question, Eric added, “You’ll have to ask Cindy how she came about the neighbor’s number.”
The elderly woman was no longer on her porch, but Jack noticed the curtains twitch in the window. “Go on.”
“Anyway,” Eric continued, “the neighbor told Cindy she hadn’t seen Nina since yesterday morning, and then reported a loud argument at Nina’s late last night. Cindy decided to call Trent at home to see if he could get someone else to come in and help because she couldn’t reach me. I was at the party. Remember? I had my phone turned off until I saw you head out in a hurry.”
Jack had picked up on the most important detail. “This is the first I’m hearing of this argument. Why didn’t you tell us about that earlier, at the morgue?”
“Hey!” Eric said, holding his hands up. “Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m telling you everything I know.”
“You are now.”
“I guess I forgot,” Eric said, his voice tinged with anger.
Walker stuck his head out the door. “I’m ready for you, Eric.”
“Do I get gloves?” Eric asked.
“Just don’t touch anything,” Walker said, and led him inside.
Jack waited on the porch. He knew that if any obvious clues had been left inside, Walker would already have told him. Awhile later Eric came back out. “I think I should have worn those paper shoe covers,” he complained. “Booties or whatever you call them. There’s no telling what I dragged in there on my feet.”
“Did you step off the paper runner onto the floor?” Jack asked him.
“No. But there’s less contamination issues if I’d had the same thing as your guys.”
Jack knew Eric was used to being in charge, and he decided to shake his tree a little. “Eric, why were you really here?”
Eric acted offended. “I already told you.”
Jack made a point of looking at the old woman’s porch. She was gone now, but Eric saw where Jack was looking.
Jack pressed, “Why would you lie to me? Are you hiding something, Eric?”
Eric’s gaze involuntarily landed on the porch lamp by the door.
Jack fought a smile as he realized he hadn’t looked there for a spare house key. He stretched up and felt a small box of some sort. He pulled out a magnetic case for hiding spare keys. He slid the top back—no key.
Jack extended his palm. Eric’s shoulders slumped. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a brass-colored key, and dropped it in Jack’s hand.
“Why don’t we start again?”
Eric admitted that the door had been locked when he arrived at the house. He claimed he had found the key and used it to enter the house to check on Nina. He swore everything else he