The Right Jack

"That brings us back to Ted Flythe. Even without a Red Snow co

Matt Eberstadt cleared his throat. "Now that everything's up for grabs again, what about the possibility that the bomb was meant for Tillie?"

"I don't know," Sigrid said doubtfully. "We haven't seen any linkage. On the other hand, if the commander hadn't dropped a peg so that her chair was pushed away from the table and Tilliew as actually under the table when the bomb went off, they probably would have been killed, too."

"It would certainly help if we knew who the real target was," Albee complained.

"The right jack," said Knight.

They looked at him curiously.

"It's a cribbage term," he explained. "When you're counting up points after the hand's been played, if a jack in your hand matches the suit of the turned card, you get an extra point. It's called the right jack."

"So all we have to do is find out what suit the turned card is?" Elaine Albee smiled.

"You got it, honeybunch."

24

WHILE Alan Knight used her typewriter to type up his notes from all their interviews that weekend, Sigrid went to Captain McKi

A gruff man who did not lightly suffer fools, McKi

The door was open today and Sigrid paused on the threshold while her boss finished speaking to one of the clerks.

As the other man left, McKi

She closed the door, but remained standing. "This will only take a moment. I wanted to post you on the status of the Maintenon homicides."

"I understand Detective Tildon's better," he said, sounding equally stiff. He was large and solid and he filled the battered leather chair behind the wide cluttered desk. His big hand absently shuffled papers.

"Yes, he was moved out of intensive care into a regular room yesterday. I plan to see him after lunch today."

"And that Navy commander. Too bad about her arm. How's your arm?" he asked, glancing at the loose sling.

"It feels much better. My doctor's going to take a look at it today."

"Not rushing things too much, are you?"

"No, sir."

The crisp monosyllables seemed to bring him back to the official nature of her visit. "Okay, what do you have?"

As she succinctly outlined the facts learned, people interviewed, alibis established, and theories they had formed, McKi

An odd combination of her parents, he thought. Leif's tall slender build and A

His thoughts flew back across the years. 'She's such a serious little thing,' he remembered saying as he watched Leif and A

'It's her eyes,' A

A

"Will that be all, Captain?" Sigrid repeated, and a tinge of color flushed her thin cheeks, as if she were aware of his scrutiny and his memories.

"No, that's not all," he growled. "Ands it down, dammit!"

She sat and gazed at him warily.

"I've been calling all weekend," he said bluntly. "A

"No, she's on assignment in Peru."

" Peru?"

"An interview with El Diego, the poet."

"Oh."

McKi

"She should be home this weekend," Sigrid said at last. "I'll tell her you were-"

The pencil snapped. I

"What did she say about me Friday night?" he asked, not meeting her eyes.

"That you and my father were once partners."

"That's all?"

"And that you were with him when he was killed. She blames you for Dad's death, doesn't she?"

"Is that what she said?" Suddenly he looked more tired than she had ever seen him, and sad.

"No, but why else would she-?" Sigrid took a deep breath and began again. "She's heard me speak your name, yet she never once asked if you were Dad's partner. And you! You've known all along who I was, haven't you?"

"Yes."

"Then why, Captain? Is Mother right? I always thought he was killed in the line of duty."

"He was." McKi

"Who wrote it?"

He gave a short bitter laugh. "Right." Sigrid flushed. "If I'm wrong-"

"No, don't apologize for your instinct. Anyhow, you're right. I wrote most of it. But not all. And every word's the truth. Leif got careless. The guy that did it-a pe

He figured he could just walk in the guy's room and waltz him down to the station. He laughed at me because I had my gun out."

His voice trailed off as he remembered.; Sigrid waited quietly.

"He was a Viking. Do you remember him? Big and blond and so sure of himself." There was pain in his voice.

Sigrid shook her head. "Not very clearly. There are pictures, of course. And I remember standing at a high window once and waving good-bye to him down in the street. A few things like that. Not much more."

"You were so young." He looked at her and his smile was almost wistful. "I don't suppose you remember the trot-a-horse rides you took on my knee?"

"No. What happened to the man who shot him, your pe

"I saved the state the cost of a trial," McKi

"If that's the way it happened, why did Mother react the way she did?"

"You'll have to ask her." He'd gone back to twisting the pencil ends. "Maybes he thought I should have shot sooner or maybe she thought I should have been the one to go into that room first. She wouldn't talk to me or see me after the funeral. I tried. God knows I tried. She called me a murderer and said she hoped to heaven she'd never see me again. I don't know. Maybe she was right. Maybe there was something I could have done. I couldn't bring Leif back, but I could get out of her life and I did."

"Why didn't you tell me when I was first assigned to work here?"

He shrugged and threw the broken pencil aside. "What was the point? At first I thought you knew and chose not to speak of it. Later I realized you probably didn't know and then it seemed best not to rake up the past. You're a good officer. I didn't want you to transfer out."