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“Tell therammed thiskeys from the recessed bar

He nodded, brought Roarke his glass, then knocked back the contents of his own “Cicely called ht she was murdered”

Eve’s head jerked up like a hound scenting blood “There was no record of that on her ’link No record of an outgoing call”

“She called froht, your tiry”

“Mr Slade, you told me in our official interview that you had not had contact with Prosecutor Towers on that night”

“I lied I was afraid”

“You now choose to recant your earlier statement”

“I wish to revise it Without benefit of counsel, Lieutenant, and fully aware of the penalty for giving a false state you now that she contacted ives me an alibi, if you like It would have been very close to impossible for me to have traveled cross-country and killed her in the amount of time I had You can, of course, check my transmission records”

“Be sure that I will What did she want?”

“She asked me if it was true Just that, at first I was distracted, working It took me a moment to realize how upset she was, and then when she wasto Sector 38 I panicked, made some

excuses But you couldn’t lie to Cicely She pinned ued”

He paused, his eyes going to Mirina He watched her, Eve thought, as if he waited for her to shatter like glass

“You argued, Mr Slade?” Eve prompted

“Yes About what had happened, why I wanted to kno she had found out about it, but she cutto deal with it for her daughter’s sake Then she would deal with me She ended transmission abruptly, and I settled down to brood and to drink”

He walked back to Mirina, laid a hand on her shoulder, stroked “It was early in the , just before dahen I heard the news report and knew she was dead”