The Lady Who Cried Murder (A Mac Faraday Mystery) by Lauren Carr Page B

right. He put the moves on her and she tried to leave, but he blocked her way to the door.”
    “He did say she was rude,” Mac said.
    Bogie laughed. “That’s putting it mildly.”
    “I never heard about this.” David didn’t know whether to be amused or concerned about Robin’s encounter with Senator Harry Palazzi.
    “Remember,” Bogie said, “all Palazzi was wearing was his bathrobe. When he got in Robin’s way, she planted the pointy toe of her stiletto pump right in the family jewels. She said not only did he land on the floor, but also that it was a full body slam. She ran for the door. Now, we can’t forget that this guy was a trained law enforcement officer. He managed to grab her by the ankle and pull her down to the floor.”
    “Oh, my,” Archie said. “Tell me Robin got away.”
    “Well,” Bogie gestured for them to come around to see his computer monitor. “After it was over, Robin didn’t have a scratch. You can’t say the same for Senator Harry Palazzi.”
    The picture on the monitor was of a younger Senator Harry Palazzi with his arm in a cast, a broken nose, and a black eye. The headline for the news article read that the junior senator had been injured playing football with some of his security officers.
    “Robin did that to him?” David asked.
    “Yeah,” Bogie chuckled while admiring the picture. “Never mess with a murder mystery writer who takes her research seriously.”
    Mac wasn’t so amused. “We need to put a stop to him. He’s raped more than just Dee Blakeley and Florence Everest, and he tried to attack my mother. I’m convinced that the same guy who killed Dee killed Khloe and those two other women. He’s had plenty of time to escalate, and it can’t be a coincidence that both Khloe and Dee had connections to Palazzi that made their deaths beneficial to him.”
    “Problem is,” David said, “we can’t find any connection between Senator Palazzi and the woman in Hollywood, or the woman in Pittsburgh.”
    “Listen,” Mac said, “We know this. The senator isn’t the type to get his hands dirty. So these murders weren’t committed by him, but for him. If he uses a paid contract guy, he could be taking on contracts for other people, but using the same M.O. Maybe the other two women weren’t for Palazzi, but for someone else.”
    “Now we’re talking about a pro, Mac,” David said. “A pro wouldn’t leave his semen behind. He’d know that, if he ever got picked up, his DNA would directly connect him to these murders. So what is it? A professional hit for Palazzi, or a maniac?”
    Frustrated by the logic in David’s point, Mac paced the squad room to sort out his thoughts. Bogie went into his office to answer the ringing phone on his desk.
    “Is Senator Palazzi’s DNA in the system?” Archie asked Mac.
    “Yes,” Mac said. “We were able to get it with Blakeley’s case.”
    “Is it a match for the semen left with Khloe and these other two women?” she asked.
    “No,” David said with a shake of his head. “No match at all.”
    “Was there any evidence left behind at the Blakeley murder?” Archie asked.
    “Nothing to trace back to Palazzi,” Mac said. “I didn’t expect there to be. The creep even had a solid alibi for the time of the murder. He spent the whole evening playing chess with his son, Bevis.”
    Bogie came out of his office. “We got some luck. That gay friend of Khloe’s that she was spilling her guts to? His name is Nick Fields. He used to be a singer with a rock group. According to the producer for Khloe’s show, it was like a package deal when they signed on Khloe. She insisted that he be on the show, too, so they had him in a scene or two every couple of shows and he made some money.”
    “Then she knew him before the show,” Mac said. “Like while she was living here and he helped her to pull that stunt.”
    “He went to Hollywood with her,” Bogie said. “He came from Smithfield, Pennsylvania, not far from