Read Murder Misread for Free Online Page B

squeezed closed with the effort to remember. “Some kind
of a checked shirt. Bluish, I think. Blue jeans. Gray sweater tied
around her waist.”
    “ Good.” Hines seemed
pleased, scribbling in his notepad. “And the child?”
    “ About five, I’d guess.
Red sweatshirt, jeans. Brown hair. Kept running over to throw
stones in the water.”
    “ Fine. And no sign of
Professor Chandler?”
    “ No. Nor of anyone else.
They were the only people I saw.”
    “ Was anyone entering the
trail from the Collegetown side?”
    “ No. Only a few people on
the street this time of year.”
    “ Right.” Hines turned the
page. “Is there anything else you can add?”
    Bart blinked at the big
detective. To Charlie Bart seemed a big, sad creature out of his
element, a Neanderthal puzzling over Cro-Magnon behavior. He said,
“No, I can’t think of anything. But if I do—”
    “ Right. Let us know. We’ll
let everyone go in a few minutes. Bear with us a little longer.
We’ll want a formal statement later. You’ll be back at your office
today?”
    “ Yes, until six o’clock or
so.”
    “ Fine. Give your phone
numbers and address to Officer Porter.” Hines nodded at the
blue-uniformed cop who was taking notes nearby. Bart lumbered
toward Porter as Hines consulted his notes for the next witness.
“Ms. Peterson?”
    “ Yes. Here,” said
Nora.
    Charlie had hardly been
aware of her, standing silently in the shade of the maples nearby,
her navy blue suit as dark as the shadows. Now she stepped into the
dappled sunlight of the trail.
    “ Just a few questions, Ms.
Peterson.” Hines smiled at her, but his quick glance was sizing her
up professionally. Height, weight, hair color, eye color, any
distinguishing marks—Charlie could almost see her being converted
to checkmarks in boxes on official police forms.
    Charlie had already talked
to Hines, so he’d been converted already.
    “ Yes, he invited me to
lunch too.” Nora was businesslike, only a quiver of her eyelid
betraying stress. “He said it was some kind of celebration. I
figured maybe he’d had a book published.”
    “ I see. Now, what route
did you take to the restaurant?”
    “ The upper
bridge.”
    “ What time was
it?”
    “ Noon, maybe even a minute
or two after. I was a little late because I wanted to finish some
exams I was grading. Essay type, they take a long time to
grade.”
    “ Right. Did you see anyone
on the lower trail?”
    She shook her head slowly.
A couple of strands of her scraped-back hair had come loose, making
her look strangely vulnerable. “I’m sorry, I was in such a rush
because I was late. So I just hurried straight to
Plato’s.”
    “ You didn’t glance
down?”
    “ I probably did. One does
when crossing a bridge. But nothing registered as any different
from the last hundred times I walked across.”
    “ You didn’t notice a man
by those trees?” Hines nodded at the clump of maples that Charlie
and Maggie had identified as the place the unknown man was
lurking.
    “ No. I didn’t.”
    “ A woman and a
child?”
    “ No.”
    “ Was there anyone else on
the upper trail?”
    “ I passed a couple of
students just as I entered, coming out on the campus side. Young
men.”
    “ Good. Could you describe
them, please?”
    “ I didn’t really notice.
Well, jeans, of course. Sweatshirts. Backpacks, maybe. One of them
was blond.”
    “ How tall? As tall as
Officer Porter?”
    “ Yes, roughly. Not as
heavy.”
    Charlie became aware of a
murmur farther up the trail. A gray-uniformed Campus Security
officer was talking to a city cop. The campus officer was escorting
a short, stout woman—oh, God, it was Anne! He hadn’t thought about
Anne. She’d always awed him a little despite her good humor,
because of the keen intelligence and brusqueness wrapped in that
solid matronly little figure. But Tal doted on her, proud of her
accomplishments, even bragging that he’d married the prettiest
professor on campus. “None of these wispy