Chapter 6

Mrs. Thurston lived in a large home with a three car garage and a well manicured yard. From what Chip could tell all the homes in Hanover Heights were large. He was aware of the area but had never had reason to be out here on a case. He parked in the drive and walked to the front door at almost exactly the time he had told Mrs. Thurston.

When the door opened he was almost speechless. She was lovely. She was 5'8" with shoulder length light brown hair and blue eyes. She had large breasts and a good body for her age. Her age being younger than her sister by he would guess five years and she smelled like sex. He didn't know if that was natural for her or if it was a cologne. If it was cologne all women should wear it or maybe not. Otherwise they would be investigating more rapes than they already did. "Detective Scott I'm Victoria Thurston, please come in. I've heard so much about you. Please call me Vicky."

"All good I hope," he said as he entered the expansive foyer.

"Oh, definitely good. May I call you Chip? That is your name I believe."

"Yes, certainly. I prefer it."

"Well, lets go somewhere it's comfortable. Follow me."

They wound through the house until they were in a large sitting room that was part of the master suite. The outside wall was all glass opening onto the in-ground pool. There was a huge flat screen hanging on one wall and a fire place which was lit on the wall opposite and a wet bar in one corner. There were several chairs and tables and there were back to back large sofas, one facing the TV, the other facing the fire place. She seated him facing the fire place and walked to the bar.

"I understand that you like gin," she said returning from the bar with two drinks. There was low volume classical jazz playing on a music system that she must have just turned on.

"Yes, thank you I do and I see from the bottle on the bar that it is Beefeaters, my favorite."

"Yes, so I've been told," she said as she took a seat in a chair opposite him. "And what can I help you with?"

"Well as I'm sure you know Kenneth Kane was murdered two nights ago and your sister says that she was here for dinner that night. Is that correct?"

"Yes. I know the bastards dead and my sister and I had dinner here that night. We have dinner every three or four weeks, sometimes more often and last night it was my turn to cook. And before you ask yes I can cook. I haven't always lived like this.

"Before I met Harrison I pretty much had to know how to do a little of everything. Besides I learned how to cook from my mother just as Hazel did. To save you time checking it out Harrison was twenty years older than I when we married.

I met Harrison when I went to work in the steno pool at his company. We married a year later. He died three years ago at sixty from a massive cerebral hemorrhage. And no I didn't fool around on him. He was quite adequate. We didn't have children because I couldn't conceive but Helen and Hank Junior were always around and they made up for our lack"

"Whoa, that's way more information than I really need. At least as far as your personal life is concerned.

"What time did your sister arrive and when did she leave here?"

"She got here around 6:00 and left around 9:30."

"When you say around how much lea way is that?"

"I don't have a time clock that my guest have to punch in when they arrive. We usually get to each others houses around 6:00 and it seemed about that time. Usually we stay a little later but that night she developed heart burn from the spicy Indian food I had prepared. Do you like Indian food Chip? I can really cook it. You will have to let me fix you some."

"So you're guessing that it was 9:30?"

"Yes. I know it was well after 9:00 because I remember looking at the clock when I got up from the table to go to the bathroom."

"What did you do after she got here?"

"Well, we always have drinks. As you know we both like gin. Speaking of which let me freshen our drinks," she said as she took his glass and went to the bar for refills. Pouring straight gin on ice doesn't take very long and she was back with the drinks.

"There you are. Now where was I. Oh yes, we were having drinks as usual and discussing what had been going on since we last talked. Then we had dinner. No drinks with dinner. Indian food doesn't translate well with alcohol. We had hot black tea from Ceylon which is now called Sri Lanka for some ungodly reason. After dinner we both had Tia Maria. How many I don't remember."

"What did you talk about after dinner?"

"Why sex of course. What all widowed old broads talk about all the time. We neither have a regular suitor so sex is more on our minds than it might be otherwise. I am hoping that you will remedy that for me tonight. I'm told that you are quite good at it," she said as she moved and sat very close beside him and placed her hand on his thigh near his crotch.