I gave it to her.

“That’s Berwyn.”

“Yes it is.”

“Nice place, Berwyn. Any idea who might have wanted to kill Ms. Prouix other than this Leila Forrest?”

“I never said Leila wanted to kill her. And I don’t know of anyone else.”

“What was she like, the victim?”

“I don’t know, Hailey was… special. Sweet, in her own way. Pretty. A nice girl. This thing is just tragic.”

“Any problems between Mr. Forrest and Ms. Prouix?”

“They were in love, madly in love. Sick in love. Anything else?”

“You want to get him out of here, don’t you?” said Breger. “You want to take him someplace where the body of his fiancée isn’t lying dead on a mattress upstairs.”

“Exactly.”

“Good idea. We’ll see you and Mr. Forrest tomorrow. Is nine too early?”

“It’s going to be a tough night,” I said. “Let’s shoot for ten.”

Breger and Stone glanced at each other. Maybe it was my unfortunate choice of verb.

“Ten it is,” said Stone. “You didn’t by any chance have an umbrella or something?”

“No, why?”

“Thank you for your help,” said Breger, his gaze back in the file. “See you tomorrow at ten.”

I left the two of them huddling in quiet conversation and went back to Guy in the dining room. I spoke to him softly. I helped him stand. I helped him put on the raincoat. I took hold of his gym bag. Gripping his arm, I helped him toward the door before Detective Breger dropped his meaty hand on Guy’s shoulder.

“Mr. Carl,” he said, while looking not at me but at Guy, “we won’t ask Mr. Forrest any questions, because you asked us not to, but could we perform one small test, just for our peace of mind?”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” I said.

“Just one test,” said Breger. “It won’t take but a minute. Just a precaution really. Shirley, come here please. Shirley is one of our best Forensic Unit technicians. Shirley, could you do what you have to do with Mr. Forrest’s hands?”