“Were you a couple at the time of Leslie’s death?” Claire asked.

  “We were in transition again. She called us ‘friends’.”

  “Were you annoyed with Leslie’s indecision?” Nicole asked.

  “Sure I was.” Safer made eye contact with the young women sitting across from him. “But certainly not annoyed enough to kill her.”

  Claire was careful how she worded her next comment. “We’ve heard some people suggest that Leslie might have been dating a professor.”

  Safer’s face did not reveal any emotion he might have been feeling. “I’ve heard the rumors. I don’t believe they were true.”

  “Someone mentioned that Leslie might have had a relationship with a professor named Malden Ambrose.”

  “No, she didn’t.” Safer shook his head. “Ambrose was interested in her, but she didn’t share his interest.”

  “Leslie told you this?” Nicole asked.

  “She did. Leslie told me about men who wanted to date her, men who flirted with her. I don’t think she was trying to make me jealous or anything, she was only making conversation, letting me know what was going on.”

  Claire wasn’t sure if Safer was correct about Leslie’s motives for talking about other men and she didn’t believe the young graduate student would discuss with Peter a man she was having a relationship with. “Did you know Professor Ambrose?” she asked.

  Safer’s forehead wrinkled in thought. “I may have met him once.”

  “He was not affiliated with your university. He taught at a college in Boston.”

  Safer said, “Yes. Ambrose went to Iraq on the dig expedition that Leslie worked on.”

  “Leslie reported to you that Professor Ambrose was interested in her?” Nicole asked.

  “He was one of many men who was attracted to Leslie.”

  Claire said, “Someone told us about a trowel Leslie had. It had mother-of-pearl inlays on the handle. Did you ever see the tool? It was used on archaeological digs.”

  “I know the tool. Leslie kept it in a box with some other equipment.”

  “Do you know where she got the trowel?” Claire asked.

  Safer thought back for a few moments. “I don’t know. I assume she bought it along with her other dig instruments. Why do you ask?”

  “Did she have the trowel in her possession leading up to the night of her murder?”

  “I think she did.” Safer’s eyes brightened. “She did, yes. I saw the trowel the night I dropped her off. The last time we went out, we had pizza and then ran into some friends at a pub where we had a few drinks. I walked her home afterwards. She had an exam the next day. I didn’t want to keep her up late so I was going to walk her to her place and then head home. Leslie asked me to take a look at her stove. She said she thought she smelled a gas leak when she put the oven on to bake so I went up to her apartment to check it out. I saw the trowel in Leslie’s bedroom on the book shelf near her bed.”

  “You remember it being there?” Nicole marveled at the man’s memory.

  Safer said, “I only remember because Leslie asked me to push her bedroom window up. It was always getting stuck. She liked sleeping with the window open, even in the winter she’d keep it open a crack. I used the trowel to poke under the window to make a space to get my fingers in there to push it up. I always intended to bring over some WD-40 to try and loosen the window in the casing.” The man rubbed his forehead. “If I’d left it stuck that night, the killer might not have been able to get in.”

  “Do you think that’s what happened?” Claire asked. “It was an intruder who got into the room through the open window?”

  “That’s my assumption.”

  “What happened after you got the window open?” Nicole asked.

  “I left and went home.”

  The last few sentences Safer said had sent shivers of discomfort over Claire’s skin. She asked for clarification. “So you left Leslie’s apartment as soon as you opened the window?”

  “I did.”

  “And you went straight home?” Nicole asked again.

  “That’s right.”

  “Did you head right to bed?”

  “I watched a movie for a while and then I went to bed.”

  “What did you watch?”

  “Um … it might have been … hmm, I think it could have been an old Hitchcock movie. I think that’s what it was, but I might be wrong.” Safer’s eyes narrowed and his shoulders straightened. “I’ve told all of this to the investigators. I was not charged with the murder. I don’t recall every detail of that night. Perhaps, the passage of time has erased the details from my mind or maybe the shock of the event blocked some of my senses. But, being unable to remember things does not make me guilty. I did not kill Leslie.”

  “We’re not implying that you did,” Claire explained with a gentle tone. “We’re only trying to get a sense of the time, who Leslie knew, what she was like, who might have done this to her.”

  “It was most likely an intruder.” Safer set his glass of whiskey on the table with a little too much effort.

  Claire asked, “Why though? Leslie wasn’t assaulted. Her valuables were left untouched. What would have been the intruder’s motivation?”

  Safer shook his head. “The killer may have seen her coming and going. He may have been mentally disturbed. Maybe the person’s only intention was to kill her.”

  “What about the red powder that was sprinkled over the body?” Nicole asked.

  “I don’t know the answer to that. Leslie was an artist. I’ve been told the red powder was used in painting. I didn’t know she had it in her place.”

  “Why would a random killer spread the powder over her?” Claire questioned.

  “The killer had to be disturbed. He saw the powder and decided to spread it around the room. The person had to be mentally unstable to commit such a crime. Who knows why someone like that would latch onto the powder? The question is unanswerable.”

  Is it? Claire wondered.

  “So your assumption is that Leslie’s killer was a stranger to her, he came in the open window, murdered her, saw the red powder and sprinkled it around the room before exiting back out through the window,” Nicole said.

  “I think so, yes.”

  Claire gave a nod. “Did Leslie have any run-ins with anyone? Did anyone have it in for her? Was there someone who didn’t like her? Was someone obsessed with her or jealous of her?”

  “Probably. Leslie attracted attention. There were men who were attracted to her whom she wouldn’t date. There were probably women who were jealous of her looks, her personality, the attention she got from men. Isn’t that normal life? People don’t usually kill someone because they’re smarter or prettier or not interested in dating you. I think its far-fetched to imagine someone killing Leslie because of a grudge. It wasn’t some dramatic screenplay we were involved with. It wasn’t a movie we were living in.”

  “You brought up talking to the police investigators,” Claire said. “They interviewed you several times?”

  “More than once, yes, they did.” The muscles near Safer’s jaw seemed to tighten.

  “Do you think they considered you a suspect?” Claire asked.

  “Sure they did. It’s common procedure to think the boyfriend did it.”

  “They didn’t make any charges against you.”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Were you frightened when they questioned you?” Nicole asked.

  Safer looked from Claire to Nicole with hard eyes. “A little.”

  “Do you think your fear could have caused you to hold back any information?” Claire asked.

  An angry look flashed over Safer’s face and he answered with an almost defiant tone. “No, I don’t.”

  “You feel you answered all of their questions fully?” Claire said.

  “Yes, I did.”

  “The police asked you to take a lie detector test,” Claire stated.

  Safer stared at her without speaking.

  “You chose not to take the test.”

  “That’s correct.” Safer sounded like his teeth were clenching.

  Claire squared her shoulders. “May I ask why you didn’t take the test?”

  Safer answered forcefully. “I didn’t take the test on advice from my attorney.”

  “I see.” Claire nodded. “Why didn’t the attorney want you to take it?”

  “He said the test was unreliable. He said the test gave many false positives and many false negatives. He said the thing was useless and not to subject myself to its follies and whims.”

  “It sounds like good advice,” Nicole said.

  Safer glanced at his expensive watch. “If there’s nothing else, I really need to get going.”

  Claire thanked Safer for his time and shook his hand.

  When the man was gone, she looked at Nicole. “How come I get an odd feeling from that guy?”

  Nicole pushed her long brown hair back from her face. “What kind of an odd feeling?”

  Claire narrowed her eyes at her friend. “One that tells me Mr. Safer might be leaving out a few details.”

  10

  With the sun about to dip below the horizon, Claire and Ian strolled hand in hand along the darkening river with the two Corgis walking beside them on leashes. The dogs had their heads down close to the ground sniffing the path and the edges of the grass to find out which dogs and people had walked beside the river that day.

  “Do you ever wish you could smell things the way dogs do?” Claire asked Ian with a smile. “It might come in handy for a detective. You could sniff around a crime scene to help determine who had been in the room.”

  “I never thought about that.” Ian chuckled. “Having such a strong sense of smell might be really annoying. I think I’ll stick to my conventional methods for crime-solving.”

  Before heading out for their walk, Claire and Ian had cooked dinner together at her townhouse and sat outside on the small patio enjoying the meal in the shade of the big tree. Conversation flowed easily as they chatted about exercising, what they’d done at work that day, plans for the weekend, how the Red Sox were doing, and current events.

  The talk didn’t turn to the Leslie Baker cold case until after dessert was finished.

  “I guess we have to talk about the case. Tell me about the people you and Nicole have met with,” Ian said, the smile disappearing from his face.

  Claire had reported who they’d spoken with, but she and Ian wanted to enjoy part of the evening without discussing murder. She told him about Rosalind Fenwick and Peter Safer.

  “What did you think of Professor Fenwick?” Ian asked.

  Claire put her napkin down next to her plate. “She seemed sincere in her concerns. She told us she hadn’t been interviewed by the police. Professor Fenwick was looking at old photos recently and remembered the trowel. She felt it might be important to the case.”

  “That’s interesting.” Ian leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. “Leslie may have taken the trowel from the dig site. Sounds like she and Ambrose had a flirtation going on. Maybe the guy gave it to Leslie. I’ll look through Marty’s case notes to see if the trowel was mentioned. I wonder where it is now.”

  “Do you think it’s odd that Peter Safer recalled unsticking the bedroom window with the tool?” Claire asked.

  “Maybe that’s what he always did to get the window to go up. Maybe he always used the trowel.”

  “I don’t know. It seems such a minor detail to remember using it after all these years.”

  Ian said, “Some things are probably burned into Safer’s mind. He was interviewed by the police … most likely, more than once. He had to tell and retell what he did that night. A lot of the details got stuck in his head and are still in there after all these years.”

  “Too bad you and Marty can’t access the interview transcript from back then,” Claire said. “I’d like to know exactly what Mr. Safer said in those sessions.”

  Ian rubbed his chin. “It would be a big help if the DA’s office would release some information.”

  “Is Safer married?” Claire couldn’t remember if she’d read anything about Safer having a family. “We didn’t ask him about that.”

  “He was married for about a year in his late thirties and then got divorced. I didn’t see anything in the notes about him remarrying.”

  “He didn’t stay married long, did he?” Claire started to feel antsy, like something was picking at her. “I wonder what ended the marriage. It might be interesting to talk to the ex-wife.”

  “Couldn’t hurt.”

  “What do you think about Safer?” Claire watched the dogs playing with a stick in the grass. “He refused the lie detector test. That makes me suspicious of him.”

  “His lawyer gave him good advice. The test can produce false positives. Even if the police were suspicious of him, they mustn’t have had any hard and fast reasons to pursue Safer. He may be guilty, but … no evidence, no witnesses, no nothing … then no arrest.”

  “I think he’s hiding something.” Claire frowned. “He’s had years to consider what not to say, what to say, and how to say it. He’s smooth. He didn’t show any feeling or emotion over Leslie’s death.”

  “It’s been a long time,” Ian said. “Hurt gets buried. Pain dulls. People learn how to protect themselves from past misery.”

  Claire crossed her arms over her chest. “Did Safer experience pain when Leslie was killed?”

  “Safer’s friends and colleagues might be able to give some insight on that question.”

  “Safer thinks an intruder came in through the window and killed Leslie. He thinks it could have been random or maybe, someone who’d seen Leslie come and go from the building and got the idea to attack her.” Claire fiddled with the edge of the napkin on the table. “Is he advocating for this idea because he’s trying to protect himself?”

  “It’s possible.” Ian reached down to pat the dogs’ heads for bringing him the stick they were playing with. He tossed it across the grass for them to chase. “Or Safer might really believe it was a random killing.”

  “I don’t trust him.”

  “Is that a preconceived notion you have about the man?” Ian tossed the stick again after the Corgis retrieved it and placed it at his feet.

  Ian had no idea that Claire had some paranormal abilities, so she couldn’t tell him that she’d had a very strong “feeling” that Safer hadn’t been completely honest in his answers to their questions. “My notion is from interacting with the man. Something seemed off. I’d like to talk to people who knew him years ago, a friend, his ex-wife. I’d like to get a sense of Safer by hearing what others thought of him.”

  Ian took a swallow from his glass of beer. “Who will you be interviewing next?”

  “Nicole and I found Professor Ambrose. He’s still teaching in Boston. We’re meeting with him in a couple of days. We’ve also been in touch with two people who lived in the apartment building on the same floor as Leslie. We’ll be talking to one of them soon.” Claire let out a sigh. “How will we ever dig up something new on this case? We’ll never find any new evidence. The people involved with Leslie have had years to refine their stories. It seems hopeless.”

  “It’s only hopeless if we stop looking into it.” Ian held Claire’s eyes. “It’s a heck of a long-shot, but it’s worth a try … if only to give Marty some measure of peace that he did all he could.”

  “You’re right.” Claire gave a nod and smiled warmly at Ian. “We’ll see it through.”

  A chilly breeze came over the water and made Claire shiver. Ian moved closer to her and put his arm around her shoulders. The sun set earlier now that it was September and with darkness settling around the couple and the dogs, Claire suggested they turn around and head back to the townhouse for cups of hot tea.

  With her mind still working over the discussions with Peter Safer and Rosalind Fenwick, Claire said, “Do you think it odd that Professor Fenwick got in touch with Marty out of the blue?”

  “It might have been what she told you, she read the newspaper article, started thinking about the case, thought of the trowel, and decided to bring it up with Marty.” Ian held Bear’s leash and stopped to wait for the dog to sniff at the base of a tree.

  Claire buttoned her sweater against the chill. “If Professor Fenwick thinks the trowel might be the murder weapon, why didn’t she bring it up at the time of the murder? She claims her concern about the trowel is a new idea. I don’t know if I buy it.”

  “She might have been afraid to go to the police,” Ian said thoughtfully. “She might have thought her idea was silly and didn’t want to appear foolish in front of law enforcement.”

  Claire looked up at Ian. “Do you think the police deliberately ignored evidence in the case? To protect someone?”

  Ian let out a long breath. “Mistakes could have been made in handling evidence. And why the investigators didn’t speak with people who should have been interviewed, I can’t say. It’s more likely it was sloppy police work than a conspiracy to hide facts and protect someone, but that sort of thing, although rare, has been known to have happened in other cities.”

  Bear glanced up at the couple and whined.

  “I’d lean towards a fumbled handling of the case,” Ian said. “Things weren’t followed up on, things slipped through the cracks, things were overlooked.”

  As they turned off the path by the river onto the street that led to Adamsburg Square, Claire squeezed Ian’s hand. “Somebody knows something. I’m sure of it. We just have to find that person and get him to talk.”

  11

  Professor Malden Ambrose preferred to meet Claire and Nicole off-campus at a Boston coffee house. Claire thought it was interesting that both Peter Safer and Malden Ambrose did not want to meet in their offices and chose public places in the city to get together. It was clear that the men wished to distance themselves from the decades-old murder.

 

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