Read Ed McBain_Matthew Hope 12 for Free Online Page B

hot. A pink baby-doll nightgown trimmed with lace at the hem was lying
     on the floor near the sofa, well, now he knew what she slept in. He picked it up, held it in his big brown hands, studying
     it. Put it down on the sofa, thought No, she’ll remember, and tossed it on the floor again, where he’d found it. Searched
     the floor, saw nothing that told him anything. Checked the cabinet on the right-hand wall as you came in the room, opening
     doors and drawers, found nothing. Checked a standing combination bookcase/bar/entertainment center—actually a series of black
     wooden shelves resting on a black iron frame—CD and tape player on one of the shelves, but no TV set, another bad sign, he
     kept hoping against hope he was wrong. Another round table, wooden, larger than the one in the kitchen, with two chairs that
     matched those in the kitchen, was tucked into the corner just to the left of the entrance door as you came in. A phone was
     on the table, its cord leading to a jack near the floor. An open address book was resting beside the phone. He pulled out
     a chair and sat.

    What it all got down to in the closing arguments was a simple case of She Said/He Said.
    On Lainie’s behalf, I argued that Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear was her wholly original work, that she had designed the stuffed
     animal early in April, had consulted an optometrist shortly thereafter, and had copyrighted bear and accessories in May, at
     which time she had also trademarked the name of the bear. I argued that the crossed eyes and the correcting eyeglasses were
     part and parcel of the bear’s distinctive trade dress. I further argued that the notion for the bear had come to her through
     memories of her own affliction—and here I asked her to look directly into Judge Santos’s face so that he could see for himself
     the similarity of the bear’s eyes to hers—and a hymn she had learned when she was a little girl in Winfield, Alabama.
    Brackett argued that Brett Toland—himself originally a Southerner from Tennessee—had been inspired by the same hymn and had
     suggested the idea for a cross-eyed bear to Lainie while she was still working for Toyland under an employment agreement that
     specified any fruits of her labor would become the sole and exclusive property of the company. Brackett contended that it
     was Toland himself who’d requested Lainie to sketch a cross-eyed bear for him, and she had delivered those sketches in September
     of last year, three months before she’d given the company notice. The bear he planned to test-market this Christmas was called
Gladys
the Cross-Eyed Bear because he hoped to capture a market not exclusively limited to Christians familiar with the hymn. The
     glasses on
his
bear made use of neither corrective lenses nor mirrors but were instead clear plastic lenses behind which uncrossed eyes
     had been painted. It was Brackett’s argument that Lainie had also designed these glasses for Toland, and that the more sophisticated
     design she’d later purchased from Nettleton was merely an improvement on Toland’s original idea.
    He Stole It.
    She Stole It.
    That’s what it got down to.
    Warren knew the names of most people in Newtown she would have to contact, but he didn’t see any of them in her address book.
     Maybe she was going someplace other than Newtown, maybe she figured she’d be too conspicuous down there, pretty white blond
     woman in the black section of Calusa. Maybe she knew someplace else to go for what she needed, if she needed it, but maybe
     he was wrong. He kept leafing through the book leisurely, didn’t want to miss any familiar name, but there was nobody there
     he could identify, so far she looked clean as a newborn babe. He closed the book. Looked around the room again.
    She wasn’t expecting anybody to come in here and toss the place, so she’d have had no need to go stashing anything in ridiculous
     places like the inside of a lampshade or the underside of a toilet