Sisters - By Patricia MacDonald Page 0,74

have gone away. Well, the night was over, Alex thought. Thank God for that. Suddenly she heard a minor commotion in front of the house. Several cars pulled up, and she heard car doors slamming. Alex jumped off the bed, ran to the window and looked out. A dark sedan was parked in front of the house with a black and white cruiser just behind it. Two men in suits and overcoats were coming up the walk, followed by a pair of uniformed officers. Jiggling the chair out from under the doorknob, Alex left her room and clattered down the steps. She had opened the front door before they even rang the bell.

‘Ms Woods,’ said Detective Spagnola. ‘You look tired.’

‘I haven’t slept,’ said Alex. ‘I’m glad to see you.’

‘We need to talk to your sister. Is she here?’

‘Yes, she’s upstairs. I’ll call her.’ Alex went to the foot of the staircase. ‘Dory,’ she called out. There was no answer.

Spagnola directed the two young uniformed officers to mount the stairs. They did as they were told, thundering up the steps.

‘Last door on the left,’ said Alex.

There was silence for a moment, and then one of them shouted down the stairwell, ‘No one here.’

At that same moment, Alex realized that there was no sign of Remus. ‘Oh, wait. She must have taken the dog out for a walk.’

‘Where does she take him?’

‘Probably down by the park at the end of the street.’

The detective summoned the uniformed officers to come back downstairs and then directed them to go down to the park at the end of the block to look for Dory and the dog.

Once they were out the door, Alex turned to the detectives. ‘Why are you here? What do you want to talk to Dory about?’

‘We’ve just come from the Colsons’ home,’ said Detective Langford. ‘As I told you on the phone, after we found out about the dog we obtained a search warrant and executed it early this morning. There was a knife with traces of blood on it hidden under the mattress in Dory’s room. We are testing it against samples of your DNA from the crime scene to confirm whether it is the weapon that was used to stab you.’

Alex felt suddenly light-headed. She sagged against the wall. ‘Oh my God.’

At that moment the back door opened and Dory came in with Remus tethered to her on a leash. Her cheeks were pink, and she was wearing a knitted blue cap with ear flaps and long tassels in a Nordic design. She looked as if she had skated in on the Zuider Zee. She bent down to let Remus off the leash and he rushed down the hallway. Dory straightened up and looked at her sister and the two detectives at the end of the hall.

Detective Spagnola turned his back on Dory and began to murmur into a two-way radio which he raised to his mouth.

Dory looked from the police to Alex. ‘Why are they here?’ she asked.

Alex looked at her coldly. ‘They want to talk to you.’

The look on Dory’s face shifted from curiosity to anxiety. ‘What for?’ she asked.

‘They want to question you,’ said Alex.

Detective Langford raised a hand as if to silence her. ‘We’ll handle this, Ms Woods,’ he said.

‘Question me about what?’ Dory demanded. She glared at Alex. ‘Did you call them?’

‘No,’ Alex said.

‘Based on results of some tests conducted here after the attack on your sister,’ said Spagnola, ‘we obtained a search warrant and went to your parents’ apartment this morning. We found a knife in your room. We believe it is the knife which was used to stab Alex Woods in the attack which occurred in this house the other night.’

‘No,’ said Dory. ‘That’s not mine.’

‘Come along then, and you can tell us your version of what happened.’

‘Come along where?’

‘To the police station. We are taking you in for questioning.’

Alex looked on anxiously as Dory pointed an index finger at the detective’s face. ‘No. I’m not coming. You can’t blame this one on me,’ she said.

‘If you don’t come willingly, we’ll have to place you under arrest.’ With that Detective Langford walked up to her and put a hand under her elbow.

Dory twisted away from him. ‘Let go of me.’ She turned furiously on Alex. ‘Tell them. Tell them I didn’t do this. You know I didn’t do it.’

Alex felt her face flaming.

‘You leave us no choice,’ said Spagnola. ‘Dorothy Colson, we are placing you under arrest for the attempted murder of