"Apparently you can if the windows are open," Heggie said.
"When is this alleged conversation supposed to have taken place?" Tony interrupted.
Another glance at the notes. "Toward the end of November."
"Are you seriously suggesting that my client had her windows open at the end of November in Glasgow?" he said scornfully. "Is that all you've got? Gossip and tittle-tattle from nosy and overimaginative neighbors?"
Heggie stared at him for a long moment before he spoke. "Your client has a history of violence."
"No, she doesn't. She has one conviction for assaulting a police officer while she was reporting an anti杙oll tax demonstration where one of your colleagues enthusiastically mistook her for one of the demonstrators. That's hardly a history of violence."
"She punched a policeman in the face."
"After he'd dragged her along the ground by the hair. If it had been that violent an assault on a police officer, do you not think the sheriff would have given her more than six months probation? If you've nothing more than this, I don't see you have any reason to hold my client."
Heggie glared at them both. "You were with Mrs. Kerr on the night her husband died?"
"That's right," Jackie said cautiously. This was where the thin ice started. "It was our usual night for seeing each other. She arrived about half-past six. We ate a fish supper I went out for, we drank some wine and we went to bed. She left around eleven. Exactly as usual."
"Can anyone verify that?"
Jackie raised her eyebrows. "I don't know about you, Inspector, but when I make love with someone, I don't invite the neighbors round. The phone rang a couple of times, but I didn't answer it."
"We have a witness who claims to have seen you walking to your car at approximately nine P.M. that evening," Heggie said triumphantly.
"They must have got the wrong night," Jackie said. "I was with He'd all evening. Is this another one of my homophobic neighbors you've been coaching in incriminating testimony?"
Tony shifted in his chair. "You've heard my client's answer. If you've got nothing new to bring to the table, I really do suggest we end this now."
Heggie breathed heavily. "If you'll bear with me, Mr. Donatello, I'd like to introduce a witness statement we took yesterday."
"Can I see that?" Tony asked.
"All in good time. Denise?"
The other detective opened a folder she'd held on her lap and placed a sheet of paper in front of him. Heggie licked his lips and spoke. "We arrested a small-time drug dealer yesterday. He was eager to offer up anything that might lead us to view his case in a more favorable light. Ms. Donaldson, do you know Gary Hardie?"
Jackie's heart jolted in her chest. What did this have to do with anything? It hadn't been Gary Hardie she'd met that night, nor any of his buddies. "I know who he is," she stalled. Hardly an admission; anyone who read a newspaper or watched TV in Scotland would have recognized the name. A few weeks previously, Gary Hardie had sensationally walked free from the High Court in Glasgow after one of the highest-profile murder cases the city had seen for some years. In the course of the trial, he'd been variously called a drug lord, a man with no regard for human life, and an utterly ruthless criminal mastermind. Among the allegations the jury had heard was the claim that he had paid a hitman to have a business rival eliminated.
"Have you ever met Gary Hardie?"
Jackie felt sweat in the small of her back. "In a purely professional context, yes."
"Would that be your profession or his?" Heggie demanded, shifting his chair closer to the table.
Jackie rolled her eyes in derision. "Oh, please, Inspector. I am a journalist. It's my job to talk to people in the news."
"How many times have you met Gary Hardie?" Heggie pressed her.
Jackie breathed out through her nose. "Three times. I interviewed him a year ago for a feature I wrote for a magazine about contemporary Glasgow gangland. I interviewed him while he was awaiting trial for an article I planned to write after the trial was over. And I had a drink with him a couple of weeks ago. It's important to me to maintain contacts. That's how I get stories that nobody else gets."
Heggie looked skeptical. He glanced down at the statement. "Where did that meeting take place?"
"In Ramblas. It's a caf?bar in?
"I know where Ramblas is," Heggie interrupted. He glanced again at the