A Striking Death Read Online Free Page A

Garmand, Mr. Billinger’s wallet lists a Louisa Billinger as next of kin. Do you know who she is?”
    “That would be his sister. He has her listed as next of kin?” Garmand looked surprised.
    “Yes. Why? Is there something strange about that?”
    “Well, no, I guess not. She is his sister. But she’s in a nursing home in California. She has dementia, I think. He didn’t talk about her much, only mentioned her a couple of times to me. But I know he told me she didn’t know who he was anymore. So I don’t think there would be much point contacting her.”
    Drumm asked, “Is there any other family?”
    “His parents were dead, I know that. And he was never married, not that I was aware of. Art rarely mentioned family to me.” Garmand suddenly looked uneasy. “Are you going to ask me to identify his body?”
    Drumm looked at Singh quickly, then back to Garmand. “That won’t be necessary, thank you.” He paused. “We’ll want to talk to you again, Mr. Garmand, but that’ll do for now. I’m sure you’re pretty shaken up. We’ll be in touch.” Drumm gave Garmand his card. “If you think of any other family members, please get in touch with me.” 
    “I’m pretty sure that’s it,” said Garmand. The two detectives watched him get in his vehicle and drive away.

 
    six
     
    “You can’t meet me for lunch? Again?” Emily’s voice was chilly.
    Drumm decided that the safest course was to ignore her tone. “No, I’m sorry, Em. Something has come up. A murder, actually.”
    “Well, but can’t you sneak away for half an hour? You have to eat, don’t you?”
    “I could probably do half an hour, yes, but it would be more than that. You know it would, with the driving and so forth.” Drumm was sitting in his car outside Billinger’s home. He was watching the activity around the house, tapping the fingers of his right hand on the steering wheel, impatient to get back to the job at hand.
    “Fine.” Emily was huffy now.
    “Maybe we can do lunch tomorrow, Em. Things will have settled down a lot by then.”
    “I’ve heard that before, Nicky.”
    “I know, Emily, I know. I’m sorry this has happened.” Then he had an inspiration. “I was looking forward to hearing all about what’s new with your agency. And it’s time you gave me a tour.”
    It worked. Emily was mollified. “You really want a tour? I can arrange that. When?”
    “Em, let’s try for tomorrow. We’ll talk about it tonight. See you later.” And Drumm disconnected, wondering if he’d managed to fix things again for now.
    He and Emily had an interesting relationship. Interesting was one way of putting it, he thought. They had lived together for almost a year and at times, it had been wonderful. He loved Emily’s passion, her sense of humor and her quick mind. The sex was great. But they argued, a lot, and the arguments became worse. She wanted him to give up being a detective, something he just couldn’t do. Eventually she left him and he’d had a hard time dealing with it. Just when he’d learned how to cope with her absence, she convinced him to get back together. She had changed, she said, received counselling, and she knew herself better. She accepted Drumm for what he was and she needed him.
    So Drumm, despite his reservations and unable to help himself, allowed Emily back into his life. In the spring she moved back in with him, although as he’d told Mark Chappell, they hadn’t been seeing much of each other lately. But things between them were better than they had been before, although Emily still had the distressing habit of getting upset whenever his police work interfered with his personal life. Which it often did.
    As happened frequently, Drumm wondered what to do about Emily. He had patched things up for now, again, but what was the likelihood of long-term success for their relationship? He didn’t know, and he didn’t have time to think about it now.

 
    seven
     
    Much later in the afternoon, a weary and