Saturday 25 November 2017

Episode 19 - God from the Machine (Deus ex Machina)


Tuesday October 9


Dorothy made sure that the chorus rehearsal had been cancelled for that evening, but she would go along to the church hall anyway to make sure that everyone who had come not knowing about the chorus director’s appendix operation went home.
Cleo phoned Dorothy very early to find out if she wanted to be at the questioning of Barbarella Knowles  later that morning.
“It’s nice of you to invite me,” Dorothy commented drily, not mentioning that she had not heard from Cleo for several days. She could be at the cottage by ten fifteen.
Of course Dorothy did not want to miss that event even if she was semi-retired and preoccupied with trying to arrange a Christmas special, but she did not answer with particular enthusiasm. Dorothy did not usually wear her heart on her sleeve.
Cleo was a little crushed by Dorothy’s curtness. She was not really aware of how hurt Dorothy was when cases were not being discussed with her as often as she thought they should.
Gary went to HQ early. His phone-call to Lisa Keys from there was on a purely official level. There would be no more danger now, he told her, so he would call off the police guard. Lisa was curious to know why she had had a guard on her at all.
“You noticed that exchange of pills, Miss Keys,” Gary explained once again.
“Oh, but I never told anyone that I knew about it, except Miss Price of course.”
“That’s just as well, Miss Keys. People don’t like to be observed doing subversive things and might take it into their heads to dispose of the observer. Miss Knowles is due for questioning this morning. Did she visit you yesterday?”
“No. but I’ve been under guard all the time. I don’t suppose anyone was allowed in. Some of the women are still in hospital, aren’t they?”
“As far as I know they’re all going home except for the two who did not survive. If anyone turns up to see you, please call us immediately and make sure that someone else is in the room. And don’t eat or drink anything that is given to you except the hospital food. There’s a poisoner around and we would not like you to become a victim.”
“What if the poisoner can get at the hospital food?”
“That’s unlikely, Miss Keys.”
“If you say so, Mr Hurley. I assume that my brother, Miss Hartley and Miss Price are allowed to visit me.”
“Of course. Have a nice day.”
“I will,” said Lisa. “I can go home soon.”
You’d better not tell anyone when,” said Gary.
***
Gary had plenty to do quite apart from all the recent poisonings. Yesterday’s revelation that HQ data could be freely accessed by anyone with elementary hacking skills was alarming. Something would have to be done about it, and fast. Nigel volunteered to follow that up. Should he get Stan Butterworth in to talk about Dr Fargo? No. Greg should go to the villa and meet Dr Fargo, who was presumably unaware of the problems his supposed disappearance had caused.
Gary wanted to talk to Ed Fargo before he found out about his uncle’s return, if he did not know already, but there would not be enough time before Miss Knowles and Cleo arrived. On the other hand, since Fargo was behind bars without means of communication to outside the walls, his cell phone having been confiscated, he could not react even if he did know. Sally Fargo would be informed when she came next day. Meanwhile, it would be a good idea to get Dr Fargo into HQ so that they could all observe the confrontation of uncle and nephew. Greg agreed. No problem. Greg would fix it up.
***
Cleo and Dorothy arrived at HQ before Knowles. For reasons best known to himself, Gary did not want Dorothy to question Miss Knowles, so she was to sit in the observation room. Of course, he did not tell her that was the reason. He wasn’t even sure that it was justifiable. He was, he said, relying on her judgement of the woman’s sincerity.
Dorothy did not complain about her exclusion from active questioning, but she asked Gary a few very searching questions about Miss Knowles. Where had she come from? Where did she work? Was she all she seemed to be?
Gary did not seem able to answer her questions.
“What impression have you gained up to now?” he asked back. “I can see that you want to tell me something.”
“She’s sham, Gary. She’s pretending to be what she isn’t.”
“In that case she’s pretending to be a criminal. On what do you base your theory?”
“I had a chance to observe her when Laura was alive and I was playing for chorus rehearsals. Knowles was always loud-mouthed and her tall figure was imposing if not crushing. Stories about her bullying any gate-crashers at that gay bar and wielding a butcher’s axe in a threatening way behind the counter of a small shop were common knowledge. Her short employment at the Moses Meat Market in Middlethumpton lasted until she had apparently flagrantly overcharged for so long and pocketed the difference that she was no longer sustainable.
Who ever heard of a butcher undercharging except for Robert Jones,” she added, remembering the extra chops, sausages and bacon she would find wrapped in the greaseproof paper with “your family butcher” printed all over the outside, after she got home from shopping. She did not order much and she only ever paid for half of it.
“You’ve never told us that before about Miss Knowles, Dorothy,” said Cleo.
“You have rather left me out recently, Cleo. I haven’t been able to communicate the way we used to.”
“I didn‘t leave you out deliberately, Dorothy. You knew about Miss Keys first and have made valuable contributions all along, but you are supposed to be enjoying your retirement,” said Cleo.
“Semi-retirement and I’m not,” said Dorothy, “I’d thank you not to think I’m old hat.”
“Nobody has ever thought that, Dorothy,” said Gary.
“Mark my words,” insisted Dorothy. “Miss Knowles is definitely not what she seems.”
Knowing that Dorothy was prone to having hunches and had Argus eyes, Gary thought it wiser not to pursue her line of thinking until after the questioning.
“What isn’t she?” he asked, however.
“Well,” said Dorothy. “She is anything but dumb. In fact, I would say that she’s making fools of everyone.”
“You’ll have to expand that theory,” said Gary.
“For a start, she made a fool of Laura, who found her intensely annoying, but was afraid to throw her out. She has apparently starting selling those chorus women aspirin and diuretic pills saying they were personality-enhancing and good-mood pills based on common drugs but not habit-forming. That is not the thinking of a simple-minded person.”
“Even simple-minded people can swindle, Dorothy,” said Cleo.
“That may be, but Miss Knowles is not one of them.”
***
Cleo was sceptical about Knowles reappearing. Gary was sure she would but relieved when she did. It was high time to find out what the woman was playing at.
Dorothy disappeared into the observation room through a side door that had been constructed recently and shrunk Gary’s office by several feet in the process. Observers no longer had to go into the corridor to get behind that one-way mirror. Gary did not like his office getting smaller. He thought it might be a ploy to get him into a managerial position on the top floor, where the offices were much bigger, but he was reassured that the wall between his office and the next one would be replaced by a sliding door over the whole width so that the two offices could be used as one. However, no one could tell him when that would actually happen and Gary thought it was probably unworkable.
Cleo and Gary were still discussing the coming questioning of Barbarella Knowles when the lady in question literally barged in. Dorothy had forgotten her handbag and returned through the inside door.
“Oh,” she said.
“Bad timing, Dorothy,” said Gary.
“The blind was drawn. I need my handbag.”
“What are you doing here, Miss Price? Shouldn’t you be playing the piano?” said Knowles.
“Good morning, Miss Knowles,” said Dorothy.
“We were just discussing professions and retirement,” Gary extemporised.
“Which professions do you mean?” said Miss Knowles.
“The legal ones,” said Dorothy. , which surprised Cleo and Gary and startled Miss Knowles.
Gary took a deep breath and waited for Dorothy’s next comment. He wished she was next door.
“You are a lawyer, aren’t you Miss Knowles?” said Dorothy triumphantly.
Cleo and Gary gasped. Gary thought ‘blast the woman’, meaning Dorothy. Nigel, who had been sitting quietly at his own laptop, thought he would deal with the IT man later. There was going to be an unholy row, if he wasn’t mistaken.
A knock on the door announced Greg’s arrival.
“Is this a party?” said Knowles.
Having digested Dorothy’s triumphant move, Cleo wondered if Knowles had made a fool of Phyllis or just used her. Or was Phillis the guilty party on all counts? There was no time to discuss that eventuality.
“I need to go to the restroom,” Cleo said, and disappeared to phone Robert and get him to send Phillis to HQ as soon as a patrol car arrived to collect her. She could not explain why for the moment and the woman should not be forewarned. Robert was alarmed at the urgency in Cleo’s voice.
Back in Gary’s office, Cleo signalled to him that they should make coffee in the little pantry-sized room that housed his files, espresso machine and a tiny washbasin. Gary listened to Cleo’s reasoning and ordered a patrol car to go to the shop urgently and collect a lady called Phillis. Cleo was convinced that Phillis must confront Knowles without delay.
“It sounds like the last act of a whodunit,” Gary commented.
“It probably is,” said Cleo.
***
“Sorry about that interruption,” said Gary on returning to the office. “Black or white coffee, Miss Knowles?”
“Black, please.”
***
“Are you really a lawyer?” Cleo asked.
“How did you find out, Miss Price?” she asked, thus confirming Dorothy’s statement for all to hear.
“Just a hunch, but now you’ve confirmed it.”
“I don’t think of myself as a lawyer,” said Knowles. “I see myself as a sort of adviser.”
Who do you advise?” Gary asked.
“I’m discreet, Mr Hurley. I do not snitch on my clients.”
“I accept that, Miss Knowles. What do you advise them?”
“Not to reveal who advised them,” said Knowles.
“I suppose I asked for that,” said Gary, realizing that if this woman was highly educated he could not treat her as a common or garden butcher’s assistant.
“You’re very secretive,” said Dorothy. “I’m sure your clients pay you well for your discretion.”
“They do, Miss Price.”
Gary put two and two together. The clients probably included the Nortons and others in their fraternity. It was useful to have someone qualified to tell you how to avoid being held responsible for your criminal actions.
“Do you know Dr Fargo or his nephew, Miss Knowles?” said Cleo.
Knowles smiled.
“Ed Fargo is chicken-feed, Miss Hartley. He’s for the high-jump.”
”Why?” said Gary.
“That tramp, Mr Hurley. A very unwise move.”
“Will Fargo confess to killing his uncle then?” Gary asked, now aware that Knowles was probably in the picture about everything that went on.
“Heaven forbid! He’s organized it so that his wife takes the rap for anything that comes up.”
Dorothy noted that Miss Knowles had not actually said that Dr Fargo was dead.
“Now you’re being indiscreet, Miss Knowles,” said Gary. He was starting to enjoy himself.
“I’m not indiscreet about clients who don’t pay their bills.”
“He’s waiting for a windfall, Miss Knowles.”
“People with problems confide in others. I got to know him through a client,” said Knowles. She did not say that Ed Fargo had found her through dark channels and was certainly not the kind of client she normally cultivated. She preferred elegant criminals who let other people do their dirty work. It was only the promise of a fat fee that had persuaded her to take Ed Fargo on.
***
“What are we waiting for,” she said. “Why don’t you tell me why I’m here instead of wasting time with idle chat? I’m not going to say any more about my work.”
“I don’t see it as idle chat,” said Gary. “The business of Margie Busby’s death behind the church hall, for instance. You will have to sign a written statement on that. Perhaps you’d like to change the version you gave us last time.”
“Even if you had witnesses, I would still deny any complicity, Mr Hurley. There are no witnesses because everyone else was in the rehearsal room. If there had been any, surely they would have come forward by now. Margie wanted to tell me something. I don’t know what, but she insisted that it could not wait until after the rehearsal.
Maybe she wanted to twist my arm. She had tried unsuccessfully to blackmail me on more than one occasion. She was drunk. I did not realize how drunk until we were outside and she started to badger me. Then she went for me, I sidestepped, she lost her balance, tripped backwards over the edge of the rockery and fell over. End of story. I thought she’d sleep it off if I left her there.”
“What did you do after the rehearsal that night,” Gary asked.
“It was late, so I collected my care and went home to bed,” Knowles replied with an unmistakeable invitation in her voice. At least, that was how Cleo interpreted it. Gary either ignored the innuendo or hadn’t noticed it.
“On Wednesday afternoon you visited some of the chorus ladies in the intensive ward, Miss Knowles. How did you know they were in hospital?” Cleo asked.
“One of the girl’s husbands rang me.”
“But surely you already knew what had happened, Miss Knowles,” said Cleo.
“Not until the man rang me,” said Knowles.
“That’s not true, Miss Knowles. You had planned it with Robert Jones’s assistant,” said Cleo.
“What makes you think that, Miss Hartley? I went to the hospital and talked to some of the girls before calling on Phillis. She had a problem she wanted to discuss. It was a prearranged visit to her flat.”
“But you’d been there before, Miss Knowles,” said Cleo.
“So what?”
“How friendly are you with Phillis?” Cleo asked. “Aren’t you a pair?”
“Who told you that?”
“Phillis herself.”
“Phillis is up a gumtree! She wanted advice and would have to pay for it.”
“Just as you would pay board and lodging, I suppose.”
“It’s part of the service, but I’d avoid going down that track. I’m married to a nice guy, and have been for the last 15 years.”
***
Gary was sure that Knowles was leading Cleo on and he was finding it rather fascinating. Rescuing Cleo from her line of questioning was regrettable, but he would have to. Cleo was getting irate and Knowles was playing it cool. That was how Cleo’s interviews normally proceeded.
“But you returned to the hospital during that night, didn’t you?” Gary said firmly. “Someone saw you.”
“Who?”
Knowles swung round to face Gary. She explained without further questioning that had emptied a bottle of port with Phillis that evening, after which she was obliged to spend the night there. Phillis passed out, or so she thought. She had lain down on the vacant side of the bed. There was unfortunately no guestroom and no sofa. They had not got round to discussing Phillis’s problem as Phillis obviously could not hold her drink. Knowles suspected that the problem was to do with getting money for the child.
“Did you get up during that night, Miss Knowles?” Cleo asked.
Were there knockout drops in the port, Miss Knowles?” said Dorothy.
“It’s odd that you should say that. The same thought went through my head. I’m normally an insomniac even after a whole bottle of fortified wine, but who would drug me and why?”
“Your bedfellow, if she had an axe to grind, Miss Knowles,” said Dorothy, who was not at all sure what it was all about. “She might have faked her own deep sleep so that she could go out without your knowing.”
“Phillis is not that much of a tactician, surely,” said Cleo
“She told us that you brewed your own medicines, Miss Knowles,” said Gary.
“Correction, Mr Hurley. She brews medical potions. I don’t have time for such nonsense.”
“Supposing she did not know that she had brewed a deadly concoction and then someone advised her to add it to Mrs Barker’s homemade soup, would that explain the food poisoning?” said Dorothy.
“I suppose it would.” Knowles admitted. “It’s a nice theory.”
“You said you worked as an adviser, so advising your friend Phillis would be quite normal, wouldn’t it?” said Dorothy.
“I was joking. I did not believe she had actually brewed a poison. She was always trying to impress me.”
“Supposing she had, however?” said Dorothy, giving Gary a rather triumphant look.
“I expect she wanted you to try it,” said Dorothy.
“It was all a joke,” said Knowles. “I told Phillis to put some of her vitamin brew in the soup because in that dilution it would be harmless, even if it did not have the medical value Phillis said it had.”
“Ever heard of homoeopathy, Miss Knowles?” said Dorothy.
***
“But neither of you spent Wednesday night in bed, did you?” aid Gary. “Can you explain why you went back to the hospital?”
“I actually wanted to see how the women were and I had no time slot the following day.”
“But you’d already been visiting in the afternoon,” said Cleo.
“Spit it out,” said Dorothy. “Something is wrong with your story.”
***
“OK. You’re right, Miss Price. I pretended to be asleep at Phillis’s place. She got up, dressed, and left the house on foot. It isn’t far from her place to the hospital and I had a hunch that she was going there, so I followed her.”
***
“Let’s stop there, Miss Knowles,” said Gary. “I want you to go into the observation room and watch Phillis when she arrives. Her story contradicts everything you’ve said so far, and knowing Phillis, I’m inclined to believe yours.”
***
Gary had taking a liking to Barbarella Knowles and Cleo felt a wave of jealousy coursing through her veins. He escorted Miss Knowles and Dorothy to the observation room and made sure they was sitting comfortably before returning to his office. He saw panic in his wife’s face.
“Nigel, can you please find out if Phillis is on her way here?” Gary said.
Nigel understood immediately and left the office. He would meet Phillis downstairs. Gary went into his tiny storeroom and Cleo followed him.
“I do believe you are jealous, Cleo,” he said.
“You were rather familiar with Miss Knowles. It really hurt.”
“Cleo Hartley, I can’t believe my ears. You know how I feel about you. Please get a hold on yourself. We have lot of talking to do with our suspects.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t bear to see you being nice to other women.”
“I have to be nice to them, Cleo. Just as you are nice to the men. It means nothing. Get that straight!”
With those words he pulled her to him and indulged their preference for body hugs. Cleo was unable to resist him.
“Better now, my love?” he said. “Je t’aime.”
“OK, Sweetheart,” said Cleo, but she was still too hurt to respond to the French endearment.
***
After a decent amount of time given over to Cleo and Gary so that they could solve the problem that Nigel rightly interpreted as the one Cleo had with Gary’s attraction to Miss Knowles, the observant assistant came into the office with Phillis after knocking, which was not something he normally did when he entered his workplace.
Nigel checked that Dorothy and Miss Knowles were OLK in the observation room. They were both busy with their phones.
Gary went towards Phillis. Cleo followed at a distance, confused by her own emotions and not in the mood for a questioning. They had only been in that little room for a few minutes but to Cleo it felt like an hour and she was emotionally drained.
***
Gary was anxious for Phillis to repeat what he had decided was the pack of lies that she had told previously.
“What’s your surname, Phillis?”
“Cartwright. It should be Mrs Bartolo, but it never got that far.”
“Shouldn’t it have been Mrs Morgan, Miss Cartwright?”
“’That f***ing organist? He went home to mother, didn’t he? Isn’t Babe here?” said Phillis.
“Should she be?”
“I thought she would be.”
“Why?”
“We are in this together.”
“In what?”
“In the chorus, of course,” said Phillis, improvising.
“Can you see Miss Knowles?” said Gary.
“No, but I need her now,” whined Phillis.
“You’ll have to make do with me, Miss Cartwright,” said Cleo.
“You can call me Phillis, but you don’t love me like Babe does.”
“I don’t love you at all,” said Cleo, “but I’m good at advising people with problems.”
“I haven’t got a problem except that I want to talk to Babe.”
“Talk to me instead,” said Gary. “Tell me again what you said about Jane Barker’s soup!”
“She poisoned it.”
“Who?”
“Babe.”
Gary was glad that Dorothy was in the observation room with Knowles and hoped she would restrain the woman for a moment.
“Is there more to say about that, Miss Cartwright?” said Gary.
“She made the poison then forced me to put it in the soup, didn’t she?”
“Did she?” Cleo said, deliberately provoking Phillis to embroider her story.
Gary was relieved that Cleo was at least temporarily distracted from Miss Knowles.
“If you knew it was poison, you didn’t have to put it in the soup, Phillis,” Cleo continued. “You could have taken it to the police.”
“I didn’t know it was poisonous and Babe promised to love me forever.”
“So she knew it was poison, did she?”
“No. We wanted to improve the singing.”
“Miss Knowles is married, isn’t she?
“She’s leaving him for me.”
“I admire your loyalty, Miss Cartwright,” said Gary. “But I don’t admire you for putting the blame for that soup drama on Miss Knowles if you love her.”
“What if she told me to put my potion in the soup?”
Cleo picked up on that statement immediately.
“YOUR potion? Didn’t Miss Knowles make it after all?””
Phillis sniffed. She did not like being in the room with these smart Alecs. She would have to tell them a thing or two that would impress them.
“I make herbal remedies for inside and outside beauty,” said Phillis. “I wanted to give her one for her hands.”
“That’s interesting, Miss Cartwright,” said Gary, thinking that the outside potions had not done much for Phillis. A glare from Cleo told him that she had read his mind and he was not to make a remark.
“So that was a special potion, was it?” she said.
“Very special. A sort of creamy mushroom magic,” said Phillis. “I got it out of the internet. Mushrooms grow overnight and so the potion will make your skin smooth overnight.”
“Wow. But soup is eaten, so the potion should not have gone into it, should it?” said Cleo.
“The internet said that you could take it like cough mixture if you were hoarse.”
“So it would improve the singing if  the chorus ladies got some, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes. We were experimenting with a cure for bad singing.”
“A dangerous game, Miss Cartwright,” said Gary.
“What about people living  elsewhere? Would it improve their health?” said Cleo, now wondering if Phillis had made money out of her potions.
“Elsewhere?”
“Camping and stuff like that,” said Cleo carefully
“I suppose so. I gave some to a friend once, and he was going give it to his friend. He was camping.”
“The friend wasn’t a Mr Fargo, by any chance, was it?” said Cleo.
Phillis looked startled.
“How long have you known a Mr Fargo, Phillis?” said Gary, thinking that it was a ridiculous coincidence.
Is he an older man, Phillis?” Cleo asked, wondering if Dr Fargo had succumbed to Phillis’s potion-.
“Where did you meet him,” said Cleo.
Phillis bit her lip.
“I don’t get much money in my job,” she said. “So I advertised my herbal potions in the Gazette.”
“And Mr Fargo got in touch, I expect.”
“He gave me some special mushrooms. He said they were precious and could I make up a potion from them.”
Talk about Grimm’s fairy tales, thought Gary.
It can’t have been Dr Fargo, Cleo decided.
***
Cleo wondered about the coincidence of Phillis knowing Fargo, but other people advertise their skills and hobbies in Bertie Browne’s Gazette, so why not Phillis?
“Did Mr Fargo say where the mushrooms came from?” Gary asked.
“All natural,” said Phillis. “But foreign, Mr Fargo said. That’s why he needed a skilled person to make them up. He was grateful to find me.”
“I’m sure he was,” said Gary. “So you made up the medicine and he paid for it, did he?”
Phillis nodded proudly.
“I’ll let you into a secret, Mr Hurley. I kept some of it back because I did not know if I would ever get any more of those specially imported mushrooms. They don’t grow on trees.”
That was a non sequitur.
***
On the whole, Phillis had exonerated Miss Knowles, though there was the problem of knowing if Knowles or even Phillis knew that the potion was an unhealthy mixture laced with amatoxins.
“I made some sweeties from some of the mushroom juice,” Phillis said. “I didn’t tell Babe, but I gave some to Brenda. She was always coughing.”
“Did you give any to Miss Norton, Phillis?” Cleo asked.
“No, but she was friends with Brenda. Maybe she had a cough, too and Brenda gave her one.”
“Eileen Norton was smothered, Miss Cartwright,” said Gary.
“I didn’t do it,” Phillis squeaked.
***
Gary now had the unenviable task of deciding how to proceed, but his thoughts were interrupted by the loud arrival of Knowles, who had finally broken Dorothy’s resistance to her leaving the observation room and crashed into the office through the side door.
“You are a terrible liar, Phillis,” she shouted.
Phillis rushed to her with open arms.
“What have I done, my Sweet?”
Knowles pushed her away roughly.
“I’m not your Sweet and you told lies about me. I am not interested in you and I did not know that the potion you turned up with was poisonous.”
“Neither did I,” wheezed Phillis.
***
“Come on, Ladies. Supposing you did not know, was that any reason to go traipsing to the hospital at dead of night?” said Gary.
“How do you know that,” Phillis said.
“You were seen,” said Gary.
That was not quite true. Crown had not seen Phillis.
“But I wasn’t there,” Phillis protested.
“Yes you were,” said Knowles. “I followed you.”
“Why?” said Phillis.
“To see what you would do, Phillis.”
“I didn’t do nothing.”
“You did. You went into the hospital, so I followed you to the women’s internal ward.”
Dorothy had followed Knowles into the office.
“I couldn’t stop her,” she said when there was a short gap in Knowles’ account.
Phillis looked ebullient. She was clearly hating rather than loving Miss Knowles now.
“The woman named Brenda Simpson died of a heart attack, Miss Knowles,” said Gary. “We had no proof that her death is connected to the soup, but now Phillis has given me to understand that she made up some poisonous sweeties and gave them to that woman. She was getting better, like all the others, but her heart gave out thanks to a poisoned sweetie.”
“So which of you gave the nurse that knock-out cocktail,” Cleo said.
“You mean Crown, don’t you?,” said Knowles. “I put something in her vodka. She drank it all in one gulp and collapsed in a heap, silly woman.”
“Why did you do that?”
“I didn’t want her to see me, and thought Phillis needed protecting from herself.”
“Did you see Phillis leave?”
“I never went there,” said Phillis.
“Of course you did, you silly girl,” said Knowles.
“You’ve split on me now,” said Phillis.
“And you’ve admitted going to the hospital,” said Cleo.
Gary watched the drama unfolding. Pure Greek theatre, he mused.
“I left the hospital immediately, but Phillis didn’t, did you, Phillis?”
***
Timing was everything in the theatre. Gary decided to step into this drama without further ado.
“Why did you smother Eileen Norton, Miss Cartwright?” he said.
That was a genuine shot in the dark.
“She was making eyes at Babe,” said Phillis, who did not seem to be aware that she was confessing to murder. “I wanted to teach her to keep her fingers off Babe.”
“I arrest you for the murder of Eileen Norton”, said Gary and Phillis looked surprised..
Nigel broke off his note-taking to advise Phillis that anything she said could be used as evidence against her.
“I haven’t said nothing,” said Phillis.
“Shut up, Phillis,” said Knowles. “Don’t say another word. I’m your lawyer now and I’ll have to get you out of this mess.”
“You’re not a lawyer, Babe.”
“Yes she is, Miss Cartwright,” said Gary. “Take Phillis down to the arrest cells, Nigel, and make sure she is thoroughly searched. She might have a bonbon or two in her pocket.



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