Blood Relatives by Ed McBain Page B

to turn this on again, and I want you to tell us exactly what happened. Are you ready, Patricia?”
    CARELLA : We’re talking now about the night of September sixth. Tell us what happened on that night, Patricia.
    PATRICIA : We were at the party. You know about the party, I already told you about the party.
    CARELLA : Tell us again, Patricia. Who was at the party?
    PATRICIA : Muriel and I.
    CARELLA : Was your brother there as well?
    PATRICIA : No. He wasn’t there. He was working. I thought he was working. But it turned out he got through early and came looking for us.
    CARELLA : All right, you and your cousin were at this party. Is this the birthday party that took place in Paul Gaddis’s apartment?
    PATRICIA : Yes, it was Paul’s eighteenth birthday party.
    CARELLA : What time did you get there, Patricia?
    PATRICIA : At about eight.
    CARELLA : And what time did you leave?
    PATRICIA : At ten-thirty. We were supposed to be home by eleven.
    CARELLA : Were you and your cousin alone?
    PATRICIA : Yes. We left the party alone.
    CARELLA : Go ahead, Patricia.
    PATRICIA : It began raining again. It had let up a little, but it started pouring cats and dogs again, so we ran up Harding Avenue to Sixteenth Street, where all the stores are. We were standing under an awning there when he came up to us.
    CARELLA : Who?
    PATRICIA : My brother, Andrew Lowery, my brother.
    CARELLA : Came up to you where you were standing under the awning?
    PATRICIA : Yes.
    CARELLA : Patricia, this isn’t what you told us on the night of the murder. When we talked to you then—
    PATRICIA : I know. I was lying. I was trying to protect my brother. But I realize now that he did a terrible thing, and…and no matter how much I love him, I’ve got to…to tell the truth.
    CARELLA : All right, Patricia, you were standing under the awning—
    PATRICIA : Yes, and Andy came up to us, he just came running through the rain, we were so surprised to see him. He said Hi, girls, I’ve been looking all over for you, or something like that, I can’t remember what he said exactly, but it was something like that. And he told us he’d got through work early and went over to Paul’s house to pick us up, but we’d already left. So he’d gone downstairs to look for us, and when it began pouringagain he went back to Paul’s, but we still weren’t there, so he came looking for us again, and now he’d found us. I’m just giving you the gist of what he said, those aren’t the exact words.
    CARELLA : What time was this, Patricia?
    PATRICIA : When he found us? Oh, I can’t be sure, I guess it must’ve been about ten to eleven. Maybe five to eleven.
    CARELLA : All right, what happened then?
    PATRICIA : The rain let up, and we began walking down Harding again, toward Fourteenth, where the construction site is.
    CARELLA : The three of you?
    PATRICIA : Yes. Muriel, my brother, and me. By the time we got to Fourteenth, it started raining very hard again, so we ran into the hallway of this abandoned tenement. To get out of the rain. We were only three or four blocks from home. And we weren’t worried about getting home late, because now Andy was with us, we knew my mother wouldn’t raise a fuss. Because he could protect us, you see. So we were in the hallway there, looking out at the rain, and I remember I said we should just make a run for it, and Muriel said, No, she didn’t want to ruin her dress, and Andy said, Why don’t you take the dress off, Mure? We both thought he was kidding, you know, I mean…well, I don’t know what Muriel was thinking, but I certainly thought he was kidding. I mean, Muriel was our cousin, you know? So you don’t go around saying things like that to your own cousin—you know, about takingoff her dress. You just don’t say something, well, sexy, like that to your own cousin.
    CARELLA : How did Muriel react to his suggestion?
    PATRICIA : She said, Oh, come on, Andy. Something like that. To just tell him he shouldn’t be saying something