Page 6 (1/1)

"There was a murder--well, several actually--but that’s all over and done with If you want to know more about it, I’ll fill you in later"

Murders at Stanislaus last year? Did Delsey’s being struck down have anything to do with that old trouble? Had she so person? He wouldn’t doubt it The Trouble Magnet could sniff out a bad apple in a sealed barrel

"Tell me, Ruth, that the murders last year were neatly solved and the killer sent to prison"

"Well, all of them were resolved except the last one; well, there are still some questions in my husband Dix’s mind and the primary suspect is in the wind, but far away fro to do with this"

Griffin realized he was probably being paranoid and tried to turn it off But a cop is a cop, and he wanted to hear all about last year’s murders But noasn’t the time He pulled up a chair and sat beside his sister She was sleeping, her breathing slow and regular He pulled her hand froers, els wept, and when she sang you wept along with thean to rub the back of her hand "My mother told me when a person is down and out Miss Aladonna had told her it helps if you can hold their hands, that they sorandmother when she was very sick I haven’t any idea if it’s true"

Ruth pulled up the only other chair and sat on the other side of the bed, picked up Delsey’s left hand and began rubbing it She looked over at Special Agent Griffin Hained that when he walked down the street wo at him He’d rolled up the sleeves of his blue shirt to his elbows, and his jeans were old and fitted hiht, very fine He was as pretty as his sister, with all his thick blond hair, his eyes as green as wet grass, a small hollow in the h to slice a le too pretty by a nose obviously broken a couple of tier, and which now sat a bit off-kilter He and Delsey looked nearly the sa to her driver’s license, Delsey had turned twenty-five the previous week

She said quietly, "You know, Griffin, Dillon described you as the real deal I’lad you’re here, for Delsey’s sake"

Griffin arched a perfect eyebrow at Ruth and continued rubbing his sister’s hand He said, "Delsey toldin the known universe about how to put together a multi-instruo to Juilliard, said New York was too big, too noisy, too claustrophobic

"I haven’t seen Delsey since she raduate school I didn’t make it home for the holidays because there were three bank robberies right before Christ at us, and so I volunteered to head it all up, since, unlike ents, I’"

"Did you catch the bank robbers?"

Griffin nodded "Two brothers, both two-tiht We cuffed the off a drunk in a Napa Valleyscore in a bar"

He gave her a grin that would s like that The bartender called us"

A tech appeared in the doorway "Dr Chesney said to bring this to you right away, Agent Noble"

Griffin said, "The results from the blood in Delsey’s bathtub?"

"Looks like" Ruth took a piece of paper frohed, handed Griffin the lab report "All the results tell us so far is that ere right about the blood in the bathtub not being Delsey’s The blood on the floor, Delsey’s blood, was AB positive, and the blood in the bathtub is the ever-popular Type O They’ve started the DNA typing, so we can still hope for soet a match in the DNA Index Systeh, as you know"

Griffin said, "If she walked in on a burglary thata body in her bathtub, he would have killed her, not just hit her on the head"

"Maybe he thought the blow did kill her Maybe that’s what he intended Or ? He tasted ashes in his mouth What they needed was for Delsey to tell theht