A is for alibi

A is for alibi / by Sue Grafton YL7 80,000words ★★★★

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Kinsey Millhone is a private investigator, licensed by the state of California.
She is thirty-tow years old, twice divorced, no kids.

Nikki Fife came to Kinsey's office.
Eight years ago, she was convicted of murdering her husband, Laurence, a prominent divorce attorney. He'd died as a result of ingesting oleander, ground to a fine powder and substituted for the medication in the capsule he took.
Now, she was released from prison and she said that she didn't kill Laurence.
She hired Kinsey to discover who really killed her husband.

When Kinsey started the investigation, she recognized a second homicide.
An accountant named Libby Glass had died from ingesting ground oleander four days after Laurence Fife died. She worked for a business-management firm representing the interests of Laurence Fife's law firm.

A is for alibi.
This was a murder where an alibi meant little or nothing. With a poisoning, it only mattered if you had reason to want someone else dead --- access to the poison, access to the victim, and all you have to do afterward is sit back and wait.
Laurence Fife had been a difficult man. He alienated a lot of people.
But who had an ax to grind with him? Who could have hated him that much? And how about Libby Glass? Maybe this was going to be more than a rehash of old business, maybe there was more to be turned up than a trail that was eight years ago. Kinsey was intrigued.

On the other hand, Kinsey was attracted to a man who is one of the suspected persons. As a rule, she scrupulously avoid personal contact with anyone connected with a case. She knew her sexual wrangling with he was foolish, unprofessional, and in theory, possibly dangerous. But she did love his moves. What's she going to get?

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Now I want to talk to about Kinsey and some people. They were involved with the case and Kinsey was struck with each person.

Kinsey is a tough and has self-controlled mind.
She runs almost every day. She runs for the same reasons as learned to drive a car with a stick shift and drink her coffee black, imagining that a day might come when some amazing emergency would require such a test.

She likes people. Actually whenever she'd well people-watching. If she got a good impression from someone, she admired the person. If she got a not good impression, she hated the person and she totally knew why she felt that way. Any way, from my point of view, she can't help pay attention to people.

She got a good impression by Nikki. Of course Kinsey didn't believe that Nikki killed Laurence. Because if Nikki has something to hide, why would she open this whole thing up again? She couldn't be that kind of fool. What could she possibly gain? Eight years ago, the hole trial had a sensational air. Nikki was young. She was pretty. She was born with money. The public was curious and the town was small. It was all too good to miss. But also at that time, Kinsey had never believed she was guilty.

Kinsey met Nikki's son, Colin, too. At first, Colin's back to Kinsey. She thought that Colin looked like he was just on the verge of adolescence. When he turned and his gaze sliding over to her, she was startled. His eyes were peaceful, empty, glowing with acute intelligence. He was born deaf, so when Kinsey spoke to Nikki, he watched them lips, his own lips parting breathlessly, so that the effect was oddly sexual. "I think I just fell in love," Kinsey said and laughed. Colin flashed a smile at her, much older than his years. She felt herself flush.

She talked with Gwen, Laurence's ex-wife Now Gwen owns a grooming parlor. She was a beauty, tall and slim. And in any event her manner was friendly. Then Kinsey hoped to hell she could look that good in another ten years.

Kinsey went to meet Charlie Scorsoni who was a Laurence Fife's former law partner. Before met Charlie, Kinsey talked with the firm's secretary who looked to be in her early seventies. She was thin and energetic. Kinsey and she became instant friends. Kinsey thought that she was a chatty little thing, full of pep, and wondered if she wasn't about perfect for Henry Pitts.

Now, Henry Pitts is a Kinsey's landlord. For a man of eighty-one, Henry Pitts has an amazing set of legs. He also has a wonderful beaky nose, a thin aristocratic face, shocking white hair, and eye that are periwinkle blue. The overall effect is very sexy, electric, and the photographs she's seen of him in his youth don't even half compare. At twenty and thirty and forty, Henry's face seems too full, too unformed. As the decades pass, the pictures begin to reveal a man growing lean and fierce, until now he seems totally concentrated, like a basic boiled down to a rich elixir. Kinsey was halfway in love with Henry Pitts.

Kinsey hated Marcia Threadgill who was in the another case. (Kinsey sometimes handle more than one case at a same time.) She'd slipped and fell because there was a bad conditioned sidewalk. She was suing the owner of a shop whose property the errant walkway. The claim, a "slip and fall" case, wasn't a large one. So it looked like the insurance company would pay, but Kinsey had been instructed from the insurance company to give a cursory look on the off-chance that the claim was trumped-up. While Kinsey spied on Marcia Thredgill, she knew this woman was cheap at heart. She became irritated. She wanted to get a proof that Marcia Thredgill is going to defraud the insurance company. Then Kinsey made a trap. How did it come out? Marcia Thredgill won. Even though she was trapped. Cheaters win all the time. What a jerk. Kinsey made efforts to get a proof. I'm so sorry, I know Kinsey was serious but I was bursting into tears while I saw her way. Never mind, Kinsey. I'm on your side!

Kinsey met Charlie Scorsoni. When she saw he, she though that his smile has suppressed sexuality. In the second time, they shook hands as he left. Even a contact that casual made the hairs stand up along her arm. She thought that she goes a long time between men and maybe it was time again. Also she knew it was not good. Her early warning system was clanging away like crazy and she wasn't sure how to interpret it…

What will happen?

Oh, I want to read the "B"!!!