The Ties That Bind by Warren Adler Page A

confession. They did
not survive the light of day.
    "Are you happy with your new partner?" Dr. Benson
asked.
    "I like her a lot," Fiona replied. "Very
bright. A wonderful specimen of a black woman, bigger than life." Fiona
paused. Interspersed between her agonizing last night she had thought a great
deal about Gail Prentiss. All her life she had searched for a true female
friend.
    "And very traditional," she said, which seemed to
weaken the case to make Gail that kind of a friend.
    Dr. Benson nodded.
    "She adores her father, a man of awesome dignity, tall
and straight as an oak. He hasn't got long, poor fellow. Aside from his skill
as a surgeon he is a man who worships traditional values. He is very wise,
impeccable in his moral stance, the kind of person who commands respect and is
sought after for advice."
    "Gail too has that kind of a persona," Fiona
agreed.
    Like you as well, Fiona wanted to say. But Dr. Benson
abhorred flattery.
    Fiona looked at her watch.
    "I think we better get on with it. Mr. Herbert will be
here soon."
    "Awful," Dr. Benson said, shaking his head, but
continuing to keep his finger cathedral intact.
    "Her anus was violated with a large blunt instrument.
There are signs of trauma everywhere in that organ."
    Bingo, Fiona told herself. Not that she needed
confirmation.
    "I'd put her death at sometime Saturday
afternoon."
    "Afternoon?"
    "You look surprised."
    "Flannagan figured later in the evening or early
Sunday morning."
    "Flannagan is wrong."
    It flashed through her mind that her "episode"
with Farley Lipscomb also occurred in the afternoon.
    "Any evidence of semen?"
    "Oddly enough, no. And there is no sign of
intercourse."
    "Any evidence of struggle?"
    "Yes. Some."
    Dr. Benson became thoughtful for a moment, then destroyed
his finger cathedral, put on his half-glasses and looked at a paper on his
desk.
    "There were thirty-one stab wounds on the front
portion of her body." He shook his head and took off his glasses.
"They were messy but they weren't deep. I'd say a Swiss Army knife, a size
larger than a pen knife. Actually there were two neat slices on the carotid
artery, slices, not stab wounds. Very strange."
    "Strange?"
    "They were made after the woman was dead," Dr.
Benson said.
    "Really."
    She was shocked and for a moment wondered if this discovery
would shake her theory.
    "Not very long after death," Dr. Benson said.
"A kind of after-thought."
    She pondered the idea silently for a long moment.
    "What was the immediate cause of death?"
    "Oh. How could I have neglected the most important
fact? I'd say the cause of death was asphyxiation."
    "The gag in her mouth?"
    "More than that. I'm speculating now, but I believe
that the gag contributed to blocking her air passages, when she needed them
most. I'd have to check her medical history, but I'd say if you're looking for
a cause of death, the principal culprit could well have been an asthma
attack."
    "Are you positive?"
    It was, Fiona knew, a kneejerk reaction. Dr. Benson was
rarely wrong.
    "About seventy-five percent of the way. It was obvious
that the pain must have been excruciating. But I think she went fast, perhaps
just as she was intensifying her struggle to be released."
    "You think the attack was brought on by the ... the
situation?"
    "Sometimes these things can't be pinpointed. Certainly
the placement of the gag in her mouth contributed. But we can't be sure. An air
passage was blocked. Asthma is an affliction that results in blocked air
passages. Ergo..."
    "A chicken-and-egg situation. Which came first, the
gag or the attack? It does rule out first-degree murder."
    "Afraid so, Fiona," Dr. Benson sighed. "Too
bad. This person committed a most beastly act." He paused, remade his
finger cathedral and leaned back on his chair.
    "Then, seeing that she was dead, he stabbed her a
number of times, which created the mess we saw in the pictures."
    "At least the poor child did not suffer the pain of
the stabbings."
    "Do you think he believed that you