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“Why are youit so hard for me to keep your name out of this?”

“I’ it hard or easy for you, Lieutenant”

“Fine, then Just fine” If he could be cold, so could she “Then we’ll just get the questions and answers out of the way and move on You knew Slade”

“Actually, I didn’t Not personally Actually, I’d forgotten all about it, and him, until I did some research of my own Wouldn’t you like some coffee?”

“You forgot you were involved in a ation?”

“Yes” Idly, he steepled his hands “It wasn’t the first brush I’d had with the police, nor apparently, is it the last In the grand sches, Lieutenant, it really didn’t concern me”

“Didn’t concern you,” she repeated “You had Slade tossed out of your casino”

“I believe the er of the casino handled that”

“You were there”

“Yes, I was there, somewhere on the premises, in any case Dissatisfied clients often become rowdy I didn’t pay much attention at that time”

She took a deep breath “If it meant so little, and the entire matter slipped youryou owned in Sector 38 within forty-eight hours of Cicely Towers’s murder?”

He said nothing for a moment, his eyes on hers “For personal reasons”

“Roarke, just tell me so I can put this whole connection to bed I know the sale didn’t have anything to do with Towers’s ood enough”

“It was forI decided to blackmail Cicely over her future son-in-law’s youthful indiscretion, had some henchman in my employ lure her to the West End, and when she didn’t cooperate, slit her throat?”

She wanted to hate hi to answer “I told you I didn’t believe you had anything to do with her death, and I meant it You’ve put me in a position where it’s a scenario we’ll have to ith One that will take ti the killer”