Poking through the most intimate possessions of her old nemesis must be particularly sweet.
She gave me that toothy smile and took the box that Angus handed to her. “Basements are so much less scary in a newer house like this. Mine is horrible, all dank and dark. I never go down there if I can help it.”
Fifteen minutes later, we had gone through the second stack and were working on the last row against the wall. This was it. If we didn’t find anything soon, the mystery of Sophie’s murder would die with her.
Come on, Harriet. Help me out here.
“Here ya go, Daisy.” Serrano held up a box that said ‘Sophie’s House’ on the side in Harriet’s spidery handwriting.
He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and lifted some items out, one by one, onto the folding table next to the washer and dryer. Eventually out came the insulin pump and then, to my dismay, the remote.
I stared glumly at the killer device, obviously left at the scene of the crime. I explained my theory to Angus, Birch, and Ardine that maybe someone had stolen Sophie’s remote, but now I was stumped because the house had been locked up tight when the body was found.
“We can check it for fingerprints though, right?” I asked Serrano.
He nodded, almost imperceptibly.
There were a few moments of silence while Birch flipped through some more photos with a bittersweet expression on his face and I paced up and down in front of the washer and dryer.
Wait a minute. “Hey, what if there was a second remote?” I said. “Is that possible?”
There was a pause while we all stared at each other.
Birch roused himself from his trip down memory lane for a moment and shook his head. “The problem is that you can only pair one remote to one pump.”
Ardine chewed at her bottom lip for a moment, deep in thought. “Well, it is conceivable, although the second one would have had to be in the presence of the pump at some point to synchronize them. You have to confirm pairing on the pump first and then on the remote.”
I stared hard at the washing machine, picturing the tree outside Sophie’s house, and imagining the inside of her bedroom, while the surroundings in the basement faded away.
“So, let’s say the killer gets into the house,” I said slowly, “and sets up the new remote with the pump, when Sophie has it disconnected while she’s in the shower or something. Once that was done, he leaves, and then Sophie locks up the place before she goes to bed.”
“Daisy, you’re so clever,” Ardine said, admiringly. “You’re so good at figuring things out that even the police can’t.”
I didn’t dare look at Serrano. “That oak tree is pretty close to the house. He could have been on a branch just outside her bedroom window. Later on he sends the signal to deliver the fatal dose.”
“You may have something here,” Birch said. “They can work up to about ten feet away. You don’t even need a direct line of sight as long as it can read the RF signal. It works on the same kind of frequency as your cell phone.”
“Birch, can’t you download the information from this pump and see if the serial numbers of the pump and remote match?” Ardine asked.
“Hey, that’s a great idea. I’ll get my laptop.” He jogged upstairs while it was my turn to gaze at Ardine in admiration.
“I forgot you sold medical supplies. You’re the genius, not me!”
“She’s our guru for all things now,” Angus said.