Gabriel's gaze switched to the silver haired man. "How much contact?"
Blaine's expression was polite, almost disinterested, and yet there was something in the man's gray eyes that had Gabriel's hackles rising. He was facing an enemy, even if they'd only just met.
"Not socially, if that's what you're implying. We were merely business acquaintances."
"Have you talked to her in the past few days?"
"Yes."
"And did she appear distracted? Concerned by anything?"
"Not that I was aware of."
"Not even by the break-in?"
Blaine smiled. "Aside from that, no."
Gabriel switched his gaze back to Lloyd. Of the two, he seemed the more approachable—which in itself had alarms ringing simply because the general had been of very little help in the past. Except, of course, when it suited him.
"Why are you here, General? This murder hasn't even hit the headlines yet, so how did you hear about it?"
"All of those scientists and team heads involved with military projects at the Foundation have emergency-call buttons installed in their homes. As the director of the company, Douglass also had one. It was pressed at two-forty."
Ten minutes after she'd arrived home. Thirty minutes before the neighbor heard the screams and called the police.
Forty minutes before her death. Given what Marsden had said about the state of the bed, did that mean Douglass pressed the buzzer and then seduced her attacker? Or was the seducer and the attacker two entirely different people?
"If Douglass pressed the emergency call button at two forty-five, why are you only responding now?"
"Hopeworth is a long way from St. Kilda."
"Not by helicopter." And there were military offices in the city itself. Why couldn't they have dispatched military police from one of them to investigate?
"Helicopters are not allowed to land around here, and given the sensitivity of the foundation's links with Hopeworth, we prefer to send out our own personnel." Lloyd studied him for a moment, blue eyes assessing. "Why do you suspect us of wrongdoing?"
"I'm an SIU agent and predisposed to be suspicious of everything and everyone. Especially those who have a vested interest in keeping their secrets."
Lloyd's smile was cold. "The military did not silence Kathryn Douglass, I can assure you."
Oddly enough, Gabriel believed him. "Where is the call button in this apartment?"
"In the bedroom, beside the right bedside table."
"The police found her dead in her bedroom at three twenty- one."
"Meaning the murderer savored his time with her?" Blaine asked.
Gabriel glanced at him. There was an odd hint of amusement in the general's voice that rankled. "Given Douglass's body was torn apart, I doubt the murderer savored her death too much."
Blaine raised an eyebrow. "There are some in this world who get off on such things."
And the general was one of them. Why he was so sure, Gabriel couldn't say. Perhaps it was just the hint of hunger in the general's otherwise flat gaze.
"The police believe Douglass and her murderer had intercourse before she was murdered. They're testing for DNA."
"So it could be nothing more than rough lovemaking gone extremely wrong?" Blaine asked.
"I seriously doubt it."