Dawn of Danger (ONC Entry)

Three

Colin and Bonnie sat on the sofa, watching the widower with wary eyes. Bonnie glanced at Colin, one side of her mouth lopsided as she caught her bottom lip between her teeth.

Colin nodded at her, raising one eyebrow. She cleared her throat. "Mr. Whelan, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Whelan sat back in his chair, rubbing his temples. "Yeah."

"We already know a little bit, but could you tell us about...this morning?"

A sound caught Colin's ears and distracted him from Whelan's reply. His eyes widened as he glanced towards the interior of the house. A little girl stood in the doorway, watching them with round, grave eyes.

He must have made some sort of movement because Bonnie trailed off in the middle of a question. "Oh." Bonnie's soft intake of breath made Colin glance at her. She was staring at the girl, her mouth opened in surprise.

Whelan followed their gazes and let out what Colin would have called a laugh if it had come out differently. Coming from his throat, it was a pained sound. "Hey, sweetheart." Whelan's voice cracked and he cleared his throat, blinking. "Come here."

The girl walked over to Whelan and leaned on the arm of his chair, staring at Bonnie. "Who are you?"

Bonnie blinked once and glanced at Colin. "I...my name is Bonnie. What's your name?"

"Suzie." The girl reached up and twirled a finger in her light hair. "Are you my new mom?"

Colin glanced at Bonnie and almost laughed at the expression on her face, but got control of himself quickly. Now's not the time.

Whelan coughed and spoke haltingly. "No...she's...not." He took his daughter's hand and squeezed it.

Colin spoke for the first time, feeling like the visit so far had been a disaster. He needed to get things back on track. "Bonnie and I are here to...well...find out why your mother is gone."

"Oh." Suzie stared at them both, one finger on her tiny bottom lip.

Whelan gently pushed his daughter away. "Go to your room." He let his head sink back into his hands, not waiting to see whether Suzie obeyed or not. She glanced at Bonnie, who nodded and gave her a small smile.

Suzie tilted her head to one side and then finally meandered back through the doorway she had first come from.

Colin exhaled slowly. Okay, take things slowly. "Mr. Whelan, we know the details of your wife's death." He ignored the sidelong glance Bonnie cast his way. We will as soon as we get back to the station and get the dope from Hudson, that is. "What we need to know is if your wife had any enemies who would have wanted to kill her."

"Of course not!" Whelan raised his head and stared dully at Colin. "How could she have had enemies? She was the most...kind-hearted - " his voice broke and he clenched his fists.

Colin clenched his jaw in an effort to stay unemotional. Sitting and listening to Whelan was more difficult than he had thought it would be.

Bonnie surprised him by asking promptly, "So...she had good relationships with her family and yours?"

Whelan nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess so."

"The usual in-law awkwardness?"

"Yeah." Whelan reached for a bottle beside his chair and took a swig. It was some cheap booze, Colin noted.

He cleared his throat. "Mr. Whelan. We need to know how you discovered that your wife was dead. Were there signs of a struggle?"

Whelan shook his head. "I...came down to make coffee and she was..." He gulped and continued, "she was...dead."

Bonnie frowned. "Why were you making the coffee if she was already awake?"

Whelan shook his head back and forth slowly. "I...I thought she was in the bathroom."

This struck Colin as odd and he glanced at Bonnie, who simply nodded, her frown gone. Colin shifted and spoke slowly, trying to measure his words. "And she was already dead." He let that thought come out as a statement. Whelan had already said she was dead, but it couldn't hurt to hear it again.

"Yes." Whelan was staring at the floor, eyes half-closed. "She was...sitting at the table...I thought she was sleeping."

"But she wasn't," Bonnie said softly. "How could you tell she was dead?"

Whelan glanced up at her, his hooded gaze becoming very similar to a glare. "She didn't get up when I spoke to her." He reached for the bottle again. When Bonnie gave no reaction except for leaning forward a bit, he continued in a low, weary voice. "She had...blood...on the front of her robe."

"Stabbed?" Colin inquired.

Whelan spread his arms in a helpless gesture. "I don't know."

"And there were no signs of a struggle?"

Again Whelan shook his head. "If I hadn't seen the blood I'd have thought she just sat down to rest. Everything looked...normal."

Normal. Colin narrowed his eyes, thinking hard. "If everything looked...normal...how did the killer get away?"

"You're the gumshoes. That's your job, isn't it?" Whelan mumbled belligerently. "You tell me."

Colin set his jaw. "That's what we're trying to do, Mr. Whelan." He found himself wishing he could commandeer Whelan's bottle for himself. "Was your front door locked?"

"Yes."

Colin let his eyes wander around, thinking out loud while he took in the room. "Front door was locked..." He focused on Whelan again. "Did you find any of the windows open?"

"I...hadn't thought to look. And the police didn't mention anything about a window."

Colin rolled his eyes. "Morons." He stood up and grunted as his joints readjusted. "Do you mind if we check around the house?"

"Be my guest," Whelan said grimly, taking another long drink from the bottle.

Colin glanced back at Bonnie and jerked his head towards the interior of the house. She tore her gaze away from Whelan and rose, following Colin into the next room, which happened to be the kitchen.

"He shouldn't be drinking so much. What about his daughter?"

Colin rested his hand on the back of one of the kitchen chairs and surveyed the room. "You're not one of those fuddy-duddy drips who doesn't drink, are you?" He glanced back at Bonnie and felt a flicker of satisfaction at her affronted frown.

"No, I'm not!"

"Then have a drink with me tonight once we get done at the police station?" Colin pushed away from the chair and went to the window overlooking the sink. He was startled to hear Bonnie let out a harsh laugh.

"Not on your life!" When he whirled around, she was standing with her arms crossed and feet spread. "Just because we're working together does not mean you get to buy me drinks and treat me like some floozy!"

Colin felt his eyebrows contract and his mouth drop open. "What kind of cock-eyed bilge is this? Listen here, toots, just because I ask you for a drink doesn't mean I've got the hots for you. You said a partnership, right? Right?"

Bonnie was still frowning, but she nodded slowly. "Right."

"Well, in this biz, partners buy drinks for each other. It's got nothing to do with you personally. Get it?"

Bonnie's nostrils flared. "Got it." She turned and headed up the stairs, her shoes clacking loudly on the floor.