“Understood.” Bennie nodded with approval. “It’s a completely alternative theory. Somebody enters the apartment through the fire escape, an intruder or burglar. He could have surprised John in the living room, while John was working. The killer sneaks up behind him, they struggle, he kills John with the lamp base and steals the laptop and phone, if that’s what the police meant by electronics. We have yet to find that out, by the way. We need to know what was actually taken. We’ll have to get his phone records, too.”
Mary nodded, grimly. “It’s a good theory, assuming the office window isn’t locked.”
Judy’s face had gone pale. “It won’t be. We never locked these windows. John loved fresh air. He worked in his office all the time with the window open.”
“Let’s go see.” Mary left the bedroom, followed by everybody else, and she entered the office, switching on the light. An overhead fixture came on, revealing a room slightly smaller than the bedroom, with a computer workstation covered with legal files and papers on the right side, and on the left, two gray file cabinets and a bookshelf full of old law school textbooks.
“Please God, give us a break.” Mary beelined for the window, which had no shade on it, unlike the bedroom. She checked the window lock and almost cheered. “It’s unlocked!”
“Whew.” Bennie heaved a relieved sigh.
“Hold on, lemme take some pictures.” Lou snapped photos of the window, and Bennie did the same.
“Let’s see the fire escape.” Mary opened the window, letting in the cool night air. The fire escape was directly outside the window, and its landing was only about two feet lower than the windowsill.
Bennie leaned outside the window. “The fire escape’s righthere. Anybody could’ve climbed in through this window. Anybody.”
Mary nodded. “Anybody who wasn’t pregnant.”
Bennie smiled. “I have to tell you, that the killer is a burglar makes sense to me. That must be why the police went there initially.”
“What’s your reasoning?” Mary asked, intrigued.
“It gives a motive for the crime, and it’s a motive that makes sense. This neighborhood is mixed, and there’s transients. John is a successful lawyer, and there’s people passing through who don’t have jobs. They could see where he is, they could even follow him home. And one day, they decide to come back.” Bennie gestured out the window. “You could even see John sitting here, working at his desk. You know he has a laptop, and some money, and a second-floor climb is easy. Please, I know somebody who was burglarized using a fire escape, and they lived in a fourth-floor walk-up.”
Mary mulled it over. “But if they saw John here, then why try to burglarize the apartment when he was home? The detective’s theory was that John surprised the burglar when he came home, but we know that didn’t happen because we know Judy had just left, relatively, so John wasn’t out.”
Bennie shrugged. “Maybe the burglar thought John wasn’t home, but he was, or maybe he just didn’t care. With the typical burglary, you’d expect ransacking of the apartment, like drawers overturned and such, but this was interrupted, botched. The burglar was surprised to find John and kills him impulsively because he doesn’t want to get caught. He doesn’t have time to look for any other valuables, so he grabs the laptop and John’s phone. We don’t know if he took his wallet and watch. Nor do we know if he leaves by the back entrance, but that’s most likely. We have to find out if there’s any cameras out back.”
“Will do.” Lou nodded, gravely. “It does explain the motive. I can’t see any other reason why anybody would kill John.And I will look at cameras on the back. I focused on witnesses because I wanted to get people when the recollections were fresh. I’ll follow up with that tomorrow. It’ll be easier in the daylight.”
“Hold on a second.” Bennie dug in her bag and produced a flashlight, and Mary marveled at the stuff the woman carried around, since she didn’t bother with makeup bags or blotting papers.
Lou looked over. “Bennie, you going out there?”
“Yes, to test our theory.” Bennie switched on the flashlight. “You coming with me or are you too old?”
“How dare you.” Lou smiled as Bennie climbed out the window and onto the fire escape, shining the flashlight on the landing so Lou could climb out, which he did, slowly with a theatrical groan.
Mary watched them go down the stairs outside the building, feeling a rush of happiness, for the first time in a long time. They had lucked out, and her theory was actually a credible one, which might save Judy from being charged with murder.
Mary turned around, excitedly, until she saw that Judy had sunk onto a chair at John’s desk, her head in her hands. “Oh no, honey.”
“I’m okay.” Judy straightened up, rubbing her face, and Mary came over, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so thoughtless.”
“You aren’t, you’re not. It’s just hard to get excited about knowing how he was killed. I just can’t see it academically, like any other murder case.” Judy’s eyes brimmed, but she held back her tears.
“I totally get that. Really, I’m sorry.”
“I mean, I knew it wasn’t me who did it, but I can’t stand to think that some burglar, somethug, snuck up behind him and killed him. Somebody who wasn’t fit to clean his shoes. Somebody who would kill another human being for alaptop.” Judy’s lips quivered, but she stayed in control. “And I know this is weird to say but I just keep thinking, where did the police find the engagement ring? How? Was it in his dresser? His closet? Did they searcheverything?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know what’s worse? What if after we had the fight, he took out the engagement ring from wherever it was? Or maybe he even had it while we were fighting. Maybe he was going to propose this weekend, but then I gave him such a hard time, and we broke up, and he didn’t—”
“You can’t go down that what-if trail again.”
