Keegan 00 Soft Case Read Online Free Page B

end. Looked like I’d have to bluff my way with a busted straight.
    “Let’s go,” I said, “No sense in keeping a soon-to-be mourning mother up any later than she has to be.”
    “Yeah, let’s go,” Rick said.
    We said our goodbyes to Siebling and the socially challenged Allison, who barely nodded when we did so. I tried to think that maybe there was a real woman trapped underneath that white coat somewhere, but I came up empty. That’s the way such things go, I suspect.
    The drive to Valley Stream, where Mrs. Mullins lived, took 35 minutes. Rick actually leaned on his new car a bit, doing about 65 the whole way there, which is a lot for him. I sat in the passenger seat, watching the white lines go by, and thinking about the fact that I hadn’t had a cigarette in over an hour. Whether Mrs. Mullins liked it or not, I was smoking in her house. Unless she wanted to deal with a pissed off cop, she would comply.
    Valley Stream was a pretty big town, for Long Island. I couldn’t stand the Island, or most of the people who lived there. The place was too quiet, and the people talked too much, probably to compensate. I grew up in Queens, which geographically wasn’t much different, but we city people feel real strong about the subtle differences between suburbanites and us.
    Mrs. Mullins’ house was just off Merrick Road, pretty much the main drag through the town. Her house was a big colonial, painted a baby blue, with a screened-in porch and a huge front yard. Rick stopped the car in front of the house, and we sat there for a moment.
    “No lights on,” he said.
    “She’s probably not home.”
    “We’ll see.”
    We walked up to the porch, took our badges out, and I was about to ring the bell, when someone called to us. It was the neighbor to the left. Well, the left if you were facing the house. He was taking out his garbage.
    “You the police?” he asked.
    “Yep,” I replied, flashing him the badge, though from where he was, he might have not been able to see it.
    “She’s not home. Doing a dig in the Andes, if I remember correctly. You’re here about her son, right? Shame.”
    “We just need to speak with her,” Rick said.
    “Real shame. Car accident, huh? Young man.” He shook his head. “You guys doing the investigation?”
    “She leave any way to get into contact with her?”
    “In the Andes? Not that I know of. You might want to ask her housekeeper. She comes here every morning around eleven. Keeps track of the place.”
    “Got a name?”
    “Roseanne, I think. Nice looking woman too. Like I said, she usually gets here around eleven.”
    “You see her son around here recently?”
    “Ron? No, he didn’t come around much. What, with his mother always running off to all parts of the world. She’s an archaeologist, you know. Jackie Minkoff. Ever hear of her?”
    “No,” I replied.
    “She’s real famous. Always on A&E.”
    “What about her husband?”
    “Died over ten years ago.” The neighbor started moving toward his house. “You sure you guys are cops?”
    “As sure as we can be,” I said. I reached into my pocket and grabbed a cigarette.
    “Oh, I just thought you would have known about that.”
    “We don’t know much, yet.”
    Rick whispered in my ear, “You want to officially question him?”
    “For what?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Then there’s no reason to. We have more important things to do.” I looked back at the neighbor. “Thank you sir.” We walked back toward the car.
    “Well, it looks like we’ll have to get a warrant for the house, get a hold of that tape. This way, we can get all the information we need tomorrow when we speak to the housekeeper.”
    “Right. So you can take me home and we’ll get started on this first thing in the morning.”
    “Don’t you want to go see Coltrain?”
    “Not especially. Anything he gets isn’t going to change by the morning. I’m a lot easier to deal with when I get a good night’s sleep.”
    “If that’s