Fellinger’s eyes widened. “I’m not aware of their getting along in any way—oh, no, you can’t be …” He backed behind his desk, began sitting down but was inches from the chair and had to catch his balance.

His second attempt succeeded. “Richard and Jens? You have to be—Richard was an occasional presence here. How in the world would they ever develop any sort of—”

“You never saw them together.”

“Well, of course—I mean … Jens was my assistant, we had meetings, he’d obviously be in the same room during some of them.”

He mopped his face with his handkerchief. “You really think the two of them had something to do with—they somehow colluded to kill Ursula?”

Milo said, “We’re not even close to that, sir, and we’d appreciate you not suggesting it to anyone.”

“Then why bring it up? You need to tell me—”

“With all due respect, Mr. Fellinger, we’re not your employees.”

“No. You’re not. Sorry. I’m simply worried about Merry and you keep hopping from topic to topic—let me say this. Much as I think Richard’s a wimp, I can’t see him wanting her dead. The entire crux of the negotiations was the interdependency of their relationship.”

“Meaning?”

“Without both of them, there’s no business, so why would Richard jeopardize his financial stability?”

Milo said, “Let’s talk about Deirdre Brand.”

“Her?” Fellinger paled. “You’re researching me? Why the hell would you—”

“Ms. Brand was murdered—”

“Nonsense. That’s ridiculous.”

“Nothing ridiculous about it, sir.”

“No, no, I didn’t mean it that way, no one’s death is … trivial. What I’m saying is I had no connection to her, my lawsuit was discontinued because I was informed that she’d left town, hadn’t responded to subpoenas, couldn’t be located. I figured I’d done what I set out to do, put the matter out of my mind.”

“What did you set out to do?”

“Isn’t it obvious, Lieutenant? I wanted to teach her a lesson. Even crazy people can’t be allowed to overstep.”

I said, “Civics lesson for a schizophrenic.”

Fellinger said, “You weren’t on the receiving end of her insanity, Doctor. But murdered? I was never told anything about murder. So let me go on the record: I’m sorry that happened. Yes, she was nuts and abusive but I certainly didn’t want to see her murdered.”

“Who informed you she’d left town?”

“The court informed me she couldn’t be found. I assumed she’d run away.”

Milo said, “Learned her lesson and left.”