Read Limits of Justice, The for Free Online

had her notebook open, her pen poised.
    “What did you see?”
    “Just these two people. As I said, it was almost dark. I had my reading glasses on. At my age…”
    He raised his small hands apologetically.
    “Tell me whatever you can, Mr. Shapiro.”
    He shook his head and raised his shoulders in a shrug as he tried to remember.
    “A man and a woman, though I couldn’t tell you how old. Both were white, I believe. I do recall that she had long, dark hair and was slightly taller than the man.”
    “Did you see what they were wearing?”
    “Both had on long coats against the cold. That’s all I noticed—long, dark coats.”
    “What exactly did they do?”
    “Went up to the door. Rang the bell or knocked, I guess. Then the woman reached out and touched the man’s face. She drew him toward her and they kissed—quite passionately, as a point of fact. Very romantic, that pair, although I sensed more urgency in the woman than the man.”
    “You’re an observant person.”
    Shapiro looked down at his leather slippers.
    “Perhaps I shouldn’t have been spying like that.”
    He glanced up shyly.
    “We try to keep an eye out for one another up here. It being somewhat isolated and all.”
    “Anything else, Mr. Shapiro?”
    “No, just two indistinct figures, as I said, waiting for Charlotte to open the door. Stealing a kiss together.”
    “Did you see a car?”
    “I didn’t think to look.”
    “Charlotte invited them in?”
    “Without hesitation, as if she was expecting them. She closed the door behind them, and after that, the dogs got quiet. I went back inside to my reading, then to bed. I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you.”
    Templeton closed her notebook.
    “You’ve told us quite a lot, Mr. Shapiro. We appreciate it.”
    I saw headlights coming up the canyon. Moments later, an unmarked police car pulled over across the road. Two men in unpretentious suits got out, one taller than the other. They glanced at us as they crossed the road, then went directly into the house.
    “I imagine you’ll have to repeat all this for the detectives, now that they’re here.”
    Shapiro looked at me, almost startled.
    “You don’t suppose the two people I saw had anything to do with Miss Preston’s death?”
    “You never know.”
    “My goodness, I should have been more vigilant. That’s what they teach us in Neighborhood Watch. Whatever was I thinking?”
    “I’d say you did very well, Mr. Shapiro, everything considered.”
    He smiled gratefully, though without much conviction, and pulled the afghan more snugly around him.
     
    *
     
    After a while, the detectives came out of the house and began to question witnesses. The shorter one talked to me while the taller one spoke to Shapiro. Mine was a no-nonsense dick who asked questions in a terse, cool manner, like a lot of L.A. cops tend to do. When I gave him my name I saw recognition register in his otherwise passive eyes. He asked me if I was the Benjamin Justice who’d once done some reporting for the Los Angeles Times, the one who’d had “that little problem” with the Pulitzer.
    “That would be me, yes.”
    He nodded knowingly, and I figured that my observations about the crime scene weren’t going to impress him all that much, so I didn’t bother to repeat them or anything else that struck me as odd about Charlotte Preston’s death. He wanted to know what I was doing at her place at such a late hour, and why I’d gone into the house uninvited. I filled him in on the business deal I’d made with Charlotte that morning, then the details she’d mentioned about her late father’s Montecito estate. I told him she’d seemed upset during our final conversation, that I’d been concerned about her well-being. He told me he might have more questions for me later, took my phone number and address, moved on to one of the neighbors.
    When I was alone again with Templeton, she studied my face a moment, rubbing my shoulder sympathetically.
    “I’m sorry