Two men entered the lobby of a condo and approached the desk clerk.
“NYPD,” one of the detectives said as they flashed their badges.
“Yeah, I can see that,” the clerk said.
“We have reason to believe that a Christine Hutchins resides at this address. She’s wanted for questioning. Would you direct us to her unit, please?”
“Uh, sure. One moment, please.” The clerk looked away from the two men and glanced around the lobby. He saw the doors to the elevator open and out stepped Christine.
“There she is,” he said to the two men as he nodded in her direction. “She’s the one with the short, blond hair and wearing a black windbreaker.”
“Miss Hutchins?” the first man said as he approached Christine.
“Yes,” she said.
“I’m Detective Burke,” he said as he held up his badge, “and this is my partner, Detective Vaughn. Would you come with us, please?”
“What for?” she asked.
“Well, that remains to be seen,” Detective Burke said.
“I want to know right now why I’m being taken in,” Christine said.
“You either come with us for questioning,” Detective Vaughn said, “or we’ll drag you down there ourselves. Which is it?”
“Could you at least tell me what this is all about?” Christine asked.
“We think you know what this is about,” Detective Burke said. “If you don’t, then you’ll find out soon enough.”
“You cop folks think you’re so right!” Christine said. She fumed as she sat on a chair at a table in the small interrogation room.”No such thing happened! It couldn’t have! Where would I have gotten such explosives?”
“You tell us,” Detective Burke said.
“Well, I don’t know anyone with connections to C-4. I was all by myself at the hotel.”
“We know at least three other persons were with you at the hotel in LA,” Detective Vaughn said. “If we have to, we will hunt them down, too. You don’t have to give us names. We’ll find them, with or without your help.”
“Look, I got kicked out of my sister’s place,” Christine said. “I didn’t have a job and couldn’t share the expenses. I wouldn’t help my sister around the house and didn’t get along with her, either. So, out I went, on my own. I swear I had nothing to do with whatever happened to the house. I didn’t even know such a thing happened until I heard it on the news, and I didn’t realize it happened on the same night I checked out of the hotel. It’s purely coincidental. And, yes, I had some friends visit me on occasion. So what?”
“Well, we’re going to need their names,” Detective Burke said, “to validate what you’ve just told us. Otherwise we’ll look for them ourselves. Also, we know the story about your mother, too.”
“Let me tell you something,” she said with a snarl as she leaned over the table and pointed an angry finger at Burke and Vaughn, her eyes ablaze with fury and hatred. “She’s not my mother. She never was. Don’t you ever utter that moniker again.”
Christine stomped down the corridor to the front door of her condo.
“I’ve never been so humiliated,” Christine said.
She fumbled in her handbag for her keys and when she withdrew them, they slipped from her fingers and fell on the floor.
“Oh, damn it!” she said. “You stoopid klutz!”
She snatched up the keys and flung them at the door in a huff. They dented the door and plopped to the ground with a clatter. She picked up the keys and inserted each into its proper slots, rotating each as she did so, then opened the door, entered her condo, and slammed the door.
“Just wait till I get her,” she said. “I’ll get her good. How about a little visit, big sister?”
She withdrew her smartphone from her handbag and called Jimmy, then Dougie and Tawny, and reiterated her visit to the police.
“Run! Jump! Fly!” Christine urged Jimmy. “Just scram! Anything to avoid the police. They’re on to us . . . Oh, don’t worry about that, dear. I’ll take real good care of her myself. I’ll fly out there and see her first thing tomorrow. You can be sure it will be the last time she ever mucks with me.”