Sugar and Spice Chapter 7

 

Chapter Seven

October 17 Friday Morning

Cambridge Police Headquarters

Cambridge, Massachusetts

 BILL REARDON AND Patrick Kelly were still in Bill’s office. “Ok, here’s how we’ll play it. I’ve Mrs. Jackson and her daughter sitting in a room with a two-way mirror. It’s smaller than the ones on TV shows, so maybe they won’t think anyone is watching.”

“I’ll sit with you and watch through the mirror. Bunker and Lee will do the questioning. It’s their case.”

Despite the radiator, the room was chilly. Perhaps to save money. October had been warmer than usual. Climate change? Who knew? Last night the temperature had dipped. Typical New England weather to change seasons overnight or even in minutes. Since Patrick grew up in Boston, he shouldn’t have been surprised. He brought his mind back to the present. “What about the father?”

“Hasn’t showed yet. The mother brought an attorney. He’s a specialist in family law, wills, divorces, custody cases.” Bill leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “I don’t think he’s ever handled a criminal case. I suspect that’s all Mrs. Jackson could find last night.”

The same woman who served the coffee knocked on the glass door. “Dr. Jackson just came in. I put him in with his wife, daughter and lawyer. He kept asking how long we were going to take.”

“And . . .” Bill said.

“I told him, I didn’t know.”

“Good girl . . . er job.”

When the officer left, Bill said, “She keeps lecturing me about how I should speak to women. No danger of looking at women’s breasts because with the uniform there’s never any cleavage.”

Patrick remembered how in sixth grade they had found a magazine in the trash that showed not just women’s breasts but vaginas. It turned him off. He worried he might be gay, but when he discovered the real thing his freshman year at Boston University, he was relieved to find he was a hundred percent heterosexual.

“Damn it,” said Reardon. “We have a second girl and her family coming in at 12:30. “Do you want the little background we have on this family? From what the headmistress at the school told me?”

“After I see them.”

“We could be on tricky ground here considering their ages and no real crime was committed.” He put on his jacket. “One thing I need to add. One of the girls is the niece of the City Manager Paul Lander, so we’ve got to tread carefully.”