She narrowed her eyes at him. “What words would you use?”
“Conservative. In control. Sedate.”
“Do you know that the synonyms forsedateare staid and dull?”
Banner raised his brows. “No. I didn’t mean that.” He shook his head. “And only you would point that out.”
“But that’s what you think I am—sedate.”
Eric looked contrite. “You do a great job, Kate. That should be enough.”
His demeanor didn’t satisfy her. She sighed. “Right. Gotcha.”
“You’re upset?”
She gave him a savage look. “No. Why should I be upset when my coworker calls me dull, and my other friends call me Sister Kate? Why should that bother me at all?”
“There’s nothing wrong with being conservative.”
“No. I guess not.”
“Kate—”
She held up her hand. “Just forget it. We’d better get to work. After all, an innocent man’s life is at stake here.”
Eric looked as though he wanted to say more, but he thought better of it. He sat in one of the chairs in front of Kate’s desk. “How can you be sure that Danny didn’t commit this murder?”
“I’ve known Danny for six years. I’ve lived in the building. Danny couldn’t intentionally hurt anyone. He’s not a violent man.”
“That may be the key word—intentionally. What if you’re wrong?”
She gave Eric a knowing look. “I’m not. I have a gut feeling about this. I have no doubt that Danny was in her apartment, but I don’t think he killed her.”
“Who do you like?”
“I’d rather not say right now because I haven’t done enough investigation.”
“Let’s get to work then.”
“I thought we should reconstruct the crime scene and figure out what happened.” Kate paused and sat back. “I’d say she was murdered in the bathroom.”
“Why?”
“She was found there. And there’d been a struggle in there—the mirror was broken. I got blood off mirror fragments and drops on the sink. My guess is the murderer surprised her somehow.”
“You think the guy was in the bathroom?”
“Yes.”
“While Hamilton was there?” Eric mused.
“That’s what I think. Mrs. LePlante had her argument with Danny in the kitchen. Danny got agitated and left and went into the living room to get out the door. If Danny had strangled her, he would have cuts on his hands.”
“What makes you think he’d try to leave?”
“Danny doesn’t like confrontation. He’ll do almost anything to avoid it.”
“Including hitting someone with a candlestick?” Eric asked skeptically.