Sisters - By Patricia MacDonald Page 0,63

waiting room. He told us that your half-sister was staying with you. And, of course, your half-sister is Dory Colson.’

Alex nodded slowly. ‘She was staying with me. But, as you know, she went back to her parents yesterday.’

‘Is there any reason you can think of for why she might want to hurt you?’

Alex thought about Dory dragging her suitcases out last night, berating her for her relationship with Seth. She thought of it, but she hesitated to say it. It would take almost nothing for the police to turn their suspicions on Dory.

‘Ms Woods?’

‘I . . . don’t think so.’

‘All right. Tell us what happened. Tell us about the attack.’

Alex drew in a deep breath. ‘I was in bed, asleep. I heard Remus barking. He barks a lot so I didn’t go down right away. But he kept it up. So I went downstairs. I found him in the kitchen. He seemed to be barking at the pantry door. I thought maybe he heard a mouse in there.’

‘And then what?’ asked Detective Spagnola.

‘Then I . . .’ Alex tried to remember. Suddenly it came back to her. ‘I saw something on the floor. I thought it might be what Remus was barking at. You know, a mouse or a rat or something. I tried poking at it, but then I realized it wasn’t a living thing. So, I . . . picked it up.’

‘What was it?’ the detective asked.

‘It was a piece of liver, as far as I could figure out,’ said Alex.

‘When the ambulance came to get you, they found you lying on top of a piece of raw liver.’

‘It was gross,’ said Alex, grimacing.

‘It was poisoned,’ said the detective.

Alex started. ‘What? Poisoned? With what?’

Spagnola shook his head. ‘We’re waiting for the test results. It had a coating of some kind of granulated powder on one side of it. We think it was meant for the dog, to silence him. But for some reason, the dog didn’t eat it. When you were stabbed and landed on top of it, your attacker was forced to leave it there and flee.’

‘What a sick thing to do,’ said Alex.

‘We suspect that the dog chased your assailant out of the house. He may even have bitten the assailant in the course of this struggle. We found some navy-blue fibres snagged on the dog’s collar that may have got there when he was struggling with the intruder.’

‘Wow,’ said Alex. ‘He did prove to be a guard dog.’

‘Excuse me?’ Spagnola asked.

‘It’s just that when my sister got him, she said he would protect us. Sure enough, he did.’

Spagnola nodded. ‘So, as far as we can tell, nothing of value was taken. Of course, the intruder planned to get the dog out of the way with that poisoned liver, but the dog did not cooperate. They left without taking anything, possibly because they had no other choice. They may have intended to come in and to work quickly and quietly and get out. And you might have slept through it all.’

Alex nodded. ‘I see.’

Spagnola frowned. ‘Now, do you keep anything valuable in the house which might have been targeted by the intruder?’

Alex shook her head slowly. ‘Since my parents died the house has sat empty for months. My uncle and I were careful not to leave anything of value there after the funeral because I was heading back out west to school.’

‘Strange that they would target the house while you were in it. After it had been sitting empty for months,’ mused Spagnola.

‘Yes, it is,’ said Alex.

‘Unfortunately the nature of the attack makes us wonder if perhaps you yourself were the intended victim.’ Spagnola smoothed down his mustache and looked over his notes. ‘So is there anyone you know of who might have wanted to hurt you? Were you and Dory Colson having any problems . . .’

Alex shook her head. ‘It wasn’t my sister,’ she said.

‘You seem very sure of that.’

‘I am,’ said Alex. ‘Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that she’s so fond of me. But she is an animal lover. I can tell you right now that she would never poison a dog.’

‘There’s always a first time,’ said Spagnola.

Alex shook her head and pains shot through her. ‘No. Never. That’s just not possible.’

‘All right,’ said Spagnola. ‘Moving on. Anybody else you can think of?’

‘I hardly know anybody else around here,’ said Alex. ‘I’ve been away at college and grad school. I’ve lost touch with the people I used to know. Well, except for