First Murder by Fred Limberg Read Free Book Online

to. I’d like to have known her.”
    “We’d go over to their house. They have this great TV and sound system downstairs and a dish. We’d watch football and hoops.” Swenson said.
    “And she’d feed us.” Hong looked like he appreciated that more than the skinny Swenson.
    “She even bought beer.”
    “In the summer she’d let us use the pool like anytime, like for parties.”
    “Last summer she and a couple of her friends joined us. We had some girls with us and they just hung out. She was easy to talk to.” Swenson’s voice was quiet and thoughtful as he reminisced.
    “Her friends, too?” Tony knew they would be talking to the friends later. He paid close attention.
    “Yeah. Sure. There was this one woman, lemme see, Roxie. Right, Swennie?”
    “She was a babe.” Tony noticed a little blush creep up Swenson’s neck.
    “And this other woman, Erika, she was kind of like…”
    “Also a babe.”
    “A small lady, but not like a midget.”
    “Not everything’s small.” Hong shot a frown toward Swenson.
    “Okay…
Sean
.” Something was going on between them that Tony couldn’t get a handle on.
Why did he call him Sean?
Some roommate thing?
He was glad they’d opened the door about the friends. He thought he remembered Mae talking about them. The husband definitely had. He decided to nudge a little.
    “Sure, I get you. Mrs. Fredrickson was kind of a babe, too.” Swenson screwed up his face at that, and Hong rolled his eyes again. “What?”
    “She was Scotty’s mom, dude.”
    “Moms can
not
be babes. Major foul. Hit the escape button.” Tony thought of some of the pictures he’d seen in the house. Deanna had been a very attractive woman, definitely a babe in some of those pictures. Then he remembered her sightless surprised eyes, the knife in her chest, and the blood pooled on the floor. Too bad she hadn’t had an escape button then.
    “This is so bogus. I mean, I just saw her last Friday.” Hong stared out a dirty window toward the street.
    “At the house? At the Fredrickson’s?”
    “Naw. She and her friend, uh…Karen. They stopped in to see if Scotty was here. Me and Sean were just hanging out, you know. Neat lady. This all sucks so bad.”
    “Sorry. Hey, either of you have a cell number for Sean? I still have to talk to him.”
    “Not me.” Swenson shrugged. That surprised Tony. A roommate didn’t have his cell number? Maybe they didn’t get along.
    “I do somewhere,” Hong said and headed off to his room.
    Tony made a note of Stuckey’s number and rose to leave. He told the young men that he’d probably need to talk to them again, that he’d enjoyed meeting them. Actually he had, he realized. Nice kids, in school, out of trouble and on their way somewhere in life. He’d seen too many young people headed in the opposite direction—down instead of up. Even in the midst of the tragedy that had been Deanna Fredrickson he felt some bit of hope.
Now if their alibis will
just check out…
    On the way to his car he veered to the house next door and rang the bell. A striking young woman—thin, blonde and smiling, finally answered it.
    “Erin?” Tony asked tentatively.
    “Do I know you?” She wide-eyed the badge he held up. Confused, maybe a little worried. The smile faded.
    “Did you have a fight with your boyfriend Monday morning? Out here on the porch or in the yard?”
    “Did someone complain?” Erin looked up and down the street.
    “Do you remember what time it was?”
    “Why?” She crossed her arms across her chest and cocked her head to the side.
    Tony rubbed his face with one hand. “Erin, at some point one of us is going to have to answer a question instead of asking one. Did you know that?”
    “What’s going on here?”
    “See what I mean?” Tony had his charming smile working. The girl was disarmed.
    “Why do the police care if Gregg and I had a fight?”
    Tony was determined to keep up with her. “Did I say the police cared if you had a