Soon, they came inside
and sat down in a booth, glaring at each other.
A siren wailed in the
distance and County Sheriff Homer Poague strode in moments later. "Which
of you called about a body?"
Before either could
answer, Deputy Clem Bunk rushed in, saying, "It's where she said, Sheriff.
The body of Ivan Douhevcic, Muldivian Ambassador to the U.S., is a couple
hundred yards up the road, over that steep hill where his drive joins the
county road. Shot through the heart. His Bentley's there and his estate
gates are locked."
The sheriff questioned
the women in the diner's storeroom. First the blonde claimed to be the
driver of the rented Ford parked outside, then the other broke in and said
she was. The blonde then said she was a member of the U.S. diplomatic corps
and threatened a lawsuit if he searched her for the rental contract or
anything else unless it is done by a female deputy and with a member of
the U.S. State Department present. The woman in black said the same thing.
Neither would offer any proof of identity. The key to the Ford was in the
ignition.
"You are making a great
mistake," the lady in black told the sheriff in a faintly east European
accent. "I was on my way to meet the Ambassador and saw her standing over
the body. She said he had suffered a sudden illness and asked me to drive
her to a phone. I did, and now I am not only late for a meeting vital to
the security of your country, but suspected of murder. Pah! Small-town
American police."
The blonde laughed.
"It was me who found her. As I drove up the hill, I saw her just beyond
the crest, about to run from the approach of my car. But I topped the hill
too quickly for her, so she tried to make it look as if she was helping
the Ambassador. Search her and you'll find his secret papers on her. I
am the one due at a meeting vital to the nation's security. Give me the
papers and let me go immediately!"
"I wouldn't give you
last week's paper," the sheriff told the blonde. "I'm holding you for murder."
"How'd you know?" Deputy
Bunk wanted to know as they drove away from the jail a while later.
"Wasn't too hard," Sheriff
Poague told him. "The blonde said she saw the other woman just beyond the
crest of the hill. A car's headlights don't bend over the top of a hill,
they point straight up the way the car's going. On a dark and stormy night
like this, she couldn't have seen anything beyond the top of the hill,
especially a woman dressed in black. Say, pull in here at the Blue Moon.
That woman in black said she might stop after her meeting, wanted to learn
how a small town American cop handled other things."