Red Rain

32

Pavano again let Pinto do the questioning while he studied Sutter’s sister. Sitting across from them in Sutter’s office, Roz kept her hands clasped tightly in her lap, squeezing her fingers. But it was the only sign of nervousness. She seemed like a straightforward woman, and Pavano believed what she told them.

Which was nothing useful.

She had come home from grocery shopping and was in the kitchen the whole time Hulenberger and Sutter were meeting in the office. She had heard voices, but she hadn’t seen Hulenberger and definitely hadn’t seen him leave the house. She hadn’t heard anything unusual. Now she was worried about upsetting the kids.

“You certainly don’t think the kids saw what happened?” she asked.

“We have to talk to them. You know. Be as thorough as possible,” Pinto said, glancing at the notes on Pavano’s phone. “It’s possible they saw or heard something helpful.”

“Elena and Ira were upstairs in their rooms,” Roz told them. “I’m sure they didn’t see a thing. And the twins. . I’m not sure where they were. Probably in the guesthouse out back.”

“Ma’am, could you bring them in one by one?” Pinto asked, speaking softly.

“A horrible murder like this could upset them terribly, Sergeant. Ira is very delicate. You might say he’s troubled. And the twins just arrived here.”

Pavano raised his eyes. “Arrived here?”

“Mark and Lea adopted them. She brought them home less than two weeks ago. It’s hard enough for them to adjust. If you-”

“We’ll do our best not to upset them, ma’am,” Pinto said. “You and Mr. Sutter are welcome to stay in the room when we talk to them.”

“Where is Mr. Sutter?” Pavano asked. Sutter had slipped away while they were questioning his sister.

Roz sighed. “I think he’s trying to phone Lea. His wife. She’s in the city.”

Pinto shifted his weight on the desk chair. He suddenly looked old and weary. Pavano knew he was ten years older than he, but he looked even older than that. Frayed. That’s the strange word that popped into Pavano’s mind. The frayed life of a cop.

With another warning to be careful, the sister went to round up the four kids. Pavano picked up a pink paperweight from the desk and tossed it from hand to hand. It took him awhile to recognize it as a porcelain model of a human brain.

The color reminded him of the slender windpipe tossed on the backseat of the victim’s car. He set the brain back down on the desk.

Elena, the fourteen-year-old, came downstairs first. She was a pretty girl with shiny black hair and lively dark eyes. She seemed confident and mature for her age. She spoke in full sentences, not in teenage grunts and fits and starts. She didn’t seem at all hesitant to answer Pinto’s questions, but she had nothing to tell them.

She had been in her room since getting home late from school, texting her friends and listening to music. She had glimpsed her father talking to a man in a suit but didn’t hear what they were talking about and didn’t see or hear the man leave.

Ira Sutter, the twelve-year-old, slunk down on the couch and pressed close to his aunt. He gripped the couch arm tightly with a slender hand. Before Pinto could ask a question, Ira demanded in a tiny voice, “Is Dad in trouble?”

“No, of course not.” Roz answered for them.

“Then why is he so upset? Why are all these policemen here?”

“There was an accident. In your driveway.” Pinto spoke up before the sister could answer. “We’re just trying to find out what happened. No one in your family is in trouble. I swear.”

“Ira, did you see that dark car in your driveway?” Pavano asked.

The boy had a slender, pale face. His natural expression appeared to be worry. “I saw it after the police came.”

“But not before?”

He shook his head, then glanced at his aunt. Roz gave him a reassuring pat on the knee of his jeans.

“Did you see the man when he was talking to your dad?”

He shook his head again. “No. I was upstairs. Then Roz called us down to dinner but there was no man here.”

A few more questions and they let him go.

“Do you want to see the twins together or one by one?” Roz asked.

Pinto sighed and rubbed the stubble on his jaw. “Together is fine. I know this seems like a waste of time. But we just have to do it. You know. So we can say our report is complete.”

Somewhere a clock chimed. Was it seven o’clock or eight o’clock? Despite the horror of what they had seen, Pavano was starting to feel hungry.

The twins plopped down on the couch, all blond hair, wide eyes, and innocence. They were very cute, Pavano observed. They looked smaller than their twelve years. Their voices were little boys’ voices.

The two cops chitchatted with them for a few minutes. The boys had funny accents, sort of English, sort of Irish. They didn’t seem at all fazed by having to talk to policemen.

Their answers turned out to be a lot more interesting than those of the other two kids.

“Did you see the man talking to Mr. Sutter?”

“Yes, sir,” the one with dimples seemed to be the one who liked to talk. “We saw him in the den with the new pa.”

“The new pa?”

“That’s what they call Mark,” Roz interjected.

Pinto leaned forward in the big chair. “You saw them in here when you came home from school?”

Both boys nodded. “He was talking to the new pa, telling him bad things.”

Pavano’s breath caught in his throat. He squinted at the expressionless boy. “Bad things?”

“For sure. He said he had bad news. The new pa looked very sad.”

Pinto and Pavano exchanged glances. Pinto cleared his throat. Roz suddenly looked troubled, her lips pursed tightly. She started to say something, but Pinto motioned for her to remain silent.

“So what did you do?” Pinto asked.

“Sammy and I took a ball and went outside to play.”

“Did you hear the man have a fight with your dad?”

“No. They weren’t fighting. Just talking, right, Sammy?”

Sammy nodded his head solemnly.

“Were they arguing? You know. Shouting.”

“No. Just talking,” Daniel insisted. “But I think Pa was a wee bit angry.”

The quiet one spoke up. “Daniel and I went out to play catch. With a tennis ball.”

“Where did you play?” Pavano asked.

“By the driveway. You know. Next to the garage.”

“And so you saw the man’s dark blue car?” Pinto asked.

They both nodded. “The ball bounced off it a couple of times, don’t you know. But it didn’t make a dent.”

“And did you see the man leave the house?”

They nodded again.

“Did you see him get into his car?”

Daniel nodded. “He got in his big car. And the new pa shouted at us.”

“He said get out of the way,” his brother chimed in. “He said the man was backing up and we should get out of the way.”

“So what did you do?”

“We went back to our house. In the garden.”

“Your house?”

“Their room is in the guesthouse,” Roz explained. “That’s where they’re staying.”

“You went back to your room? And you didn’t hear anything strange? Did you see anyone come to the driveway? Did you hear a shout or a fight or anything weird?”

The twins exchanged puzzled glances again. They shook their heads.

“We didn’t hear anything. Not a peep, sir.”

Pavano heard a baby crying somewhere.

Roz jumped to her feet. “That’s Axl, my little boy. He’s waking up from his nap. Officers, I have to go upstairs and get him. I’m afraid this interview session is over.”

Pinto climbed up with a groan. Pavano’s head suddenly felt like solid granite. Too much. This is too much to think about.

They followed Roz to the front. Before they could exit, the screen door swung open. A uniform cop, one of the crime scene guys, poked his head into the house.

“Sergeants, one more bit of info you can add to your report.”

“What’s that?” Pinto asked. Pavano pulled out his phone to write it down.

“That blowtorch in the garage? We went over it. Looks like it’s been used recently.”