“Creepy in what way?”

“You know…” She lowered her eyes. “Lewd looks.”

“We’ll check him out.”

Minette’s eyes drifted to the wall clock. She stood and wandered around the room. “Anything else?”

Amanda said nothing, deferring to Barnes. He was senior anyway. Let him handle it.

He said, “Could you sit back down for just a moment, Minette?”

“Why?”

“Please…” After Minette sat, Barnes said, “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m going to be blunt. Did you know that Davida Grayson was infected with gonorrhea?”

“Gonorrhea?” Minette appeared truly stunned. “Like in STD gonorrhea?”

Amanda nodded. “The coroner found evidence at the autopsy.”

“Holy moly shit!” In a few ticks of time, the woman’s features had turned from baffled to enraged. She flung her coffee cup across the room. “That motherfucker bastard!” She got up and started to pace. “I’ll kill him. I swear to God I’ll kill the fucking bast- ” She stopped talking and turned to the police. “I don’t mean that literally. I’m just so fucking furious! How could he do this to me?”

“Who is he?” Amanda asked.

“Kyle of course! Kyle Bosworth.” She spat out the name. “Son of a bitch!”

“Are you sure you got it from him?” Barnes asked.

She turned her wrath on him. “Look, Detective, I don’t know what you think about me and frankly right now, I don’t give a shit. I only began seeing Kyle because I was so goddamn lonely. I loved Davida but it gets real old drinking by yourself. If she would have been a tiny bit more available, I wouldn’t have had to look elsewhere!”

Amanda said, “I don’t think he meant it that way, Minette- ”

“It sure as hell sounded accusatory.”

“I think he meant to ask if it were possible that someone gave the disease to Davida other than you.”

That suggestion did little to mollify Minette’s fury. Her face turned bright red. “If Davida didn’t have time for me, she certainly didn’t have time for another woman!”

“Or man?” said Barnes.

“You two have a lot of nerve! And for your information, Davida wasn’t into men!” She burst into tears. “I’d like you both to go now.”

Amanda said, “We don’t mean to be intrusive, Minette- ”

“But you’re going to be anyway. I really need you both to leave.”

Barnes said, “You need to get tested.”

“What do you think? Of course I’ll get tested!”

“When you get the results, could you give us a call, please?”

“No, I won’t give you a call please. I don’t give a shit about you or her or anything else!” A new batch of tears. “Why is everyone always fucking me up?”

“I’m sorry,” Amanda said.

“No, you’re not!” Minette wiped her eyes. “I’m going to call up that bastard and give him a piece of my mind!”

Barnes said, “I don’t blame you for being angry, but maybe you should wait until you’re tested. If you come back negative, you may be angry at the wrong person.”

Minette shook her head. “It’s impossible for me to be angry at the wrong person because I’m so fucking angry at everyone!”

Barnes kept his eyes on the picture window, the one that framed a magnificent view of the bay. A lot more interesting than watching Kyle Bosworth pace back and forth. The man was raking his hair with long, slender fingers. The parallel rows cut into the shafts reminded Barnes of a field during planting season. Summers working the ranches.

Notepad in hand, Amanda kept refocusing in on the moving target. “I’m sorry that you had to find out from us. You should know that Minette accused you of giving it to her.”

“The bitch!” Bosworth exclaimed. “The absolute bitch!”

“I take it you don’t agree?”

“No I don’t agree! I don’t know what that wicked witch was talking about! I was clean when I met her and if anybody gave anything to anyone, it was she who gave it to me!” He muttered as he paced. “This is great! This is just fucking great!”

“So you had no idea you might be infected,” Amanda stated.

“None whatsoever!” He glared at her. “I had no symptoms- have no symptoms. Why would I be infected? I don’t routinely go around cheating on my spouse. Minette was a distraction and only because Yves works too hard.”

Same thing Minette said about Davida, Barnes thought.

“Minette wasn’t even a serious distraction,” Bosworth continued. “I like women but I prefer men. Why in the world would I suspect I was infected with anything?”

Amanda said, “Not to get too clinical, but symptoms of the disease appear much earlier in men than in women.”

That stopped Bosworth’s running a rut in the rug. “The symptoms. Burning, pus, hard to pee- no, I’ve never had it but in this day and age one educates oneself.” He brightened. “The obvious conclusion from no symptoms is no clap. I know it can be latent, but pu-leeze.”

Suddenly standing straight.

Amanda said, “Mr. Bosworth, you need to talk to a doctor. Men do get more obvious symptoms and they get them earlier than women do but there are no hard-and-fast rules.”

Barnes said, “Also it’s easier for a man to give the disease to women than for men to get the disease from women.”

Kyle stared at him. “Are you saying that Yves gave me a dose?” Anger tightened his face. He started pacing again. “I’ll kill that bastard! I should have known all those late nights were more than work!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Barnes said. “Before you consider homicide, maybe you want to get yourself tested. It could be that Yves has been working late at night and you’re not infected at all.”

Kyle stopped moving and stared into space. “Yes, that probably should be the first step…maybe I’m not even infected…first things first, eh? Maybe I’m clean. That would certainly be nice. Heh heh- if you two will excuse me now, I have to make a rather embarrassing appointment.”

Amanda stood up from the couch. “Will you let us know the results as soon as you find out?”

“What’s it your business?”

“It might have some relevance to Davida Grayson’s murder.”

“Ruling me out!” Kyle proclaimed. “And here I was enjoying being a suspect- so delicious, when you know you’re innocent.”

“You will let us know, sir?”

“Yes, of course, but please don’t call me, let me call you. If I get a reprieve on this, I don’t want Yves to know I was tested. I think he’d tolerate my indiscretion, but the man has an absolute phobia of germs.”

17

The two interviews turned out to be the highlights of the detectives’ day. The remainder of their time was spent chasing down leads that dead-ended. At five in the afternoon, Barnes put in calls to Minette Padgett and Kyle Bosworth, reminding them to phone as soon as they got their test results. They didn’t expect to hear from Minette but held out hope that Bosworth would cooperate.

Bosworth figured a negative would rule him out- if only life were so simple. No disease meant only that Kyle was out of the infection loop. Though if there was a good reason to seriously suspect him, neither Barnes nor Amanda could come up with it.

Flagging blood sugar made it hard to work and before returning to their cubicles, they made a pit stop at Melanie’s, snagging Barnes’s favorite corner table. Will stoked his engine on black caffeine and Amanda ordered a decaf, no-sugar-added vanilla latte with nonfat milk.

Barnes said, “Are you sure there’s even coffee in that concoction?”

“I don’t know how you drink it black. Rots your stomach lining.”

“It’s already rotted from dealing with all these deceptive jokers. Lord, give me a dishonest drug dealer any day of the year. At least I know what I’m dealing with.”

“Notice how Minette didn’t make eye contact when she was talking about her ‘creepy’ condo manager.” Amanda made quotes with her fingers. “While we were in LA a couple of the uniforms canvassed the complex. The residents had nothing but nice things to say about Davida.” She sipped foamy milk. “Minette was a different story.”