“This is your idea of nice? I’ll make a note.” His tone was almost playful. Had I misread what had happened in the break room? I’d expected accusations about Claudia, at least from Bruxton. Or was he hoping to trip me up? I tried to play along.

“It’s like a piranha being nice,” I explained. “You have to wonder why. What was going on up there? Before you and Renfrew came in, you were listening to Sarah and me from behind that two-way mirror, weren’t you? Then you made us change rooms before the interview. What was that about?”

He took a long drag. “Observant of you. Norah and I were testing a theory.”

“What theory?”

“Sarah Lyons responds differently to my partner and me,” said Bruxton. “You see this a lot in police work, people will feel comfortable talking with one detective and not another. Sometimes it’s a gender thing, or race or age. There’s all kinds of unconscious biases people have, and it affects what they give you when you interview them.”

“What bias does Sarah have?”

“She doesn’t like me. Go ahead and laugh.” He’d made me smile and I couldn’t hide it. “When she came in, I put her in the interview room and got her a glass of water. She wouldn’t even take off her coat, never mind sit in a chair or take a drink in there. When Norah came in, it was her job to calm the feathers I’d ruffled.”

“I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you’re kind of… brusque. Maybe she’d like you better if you weren’t so brusque.”

“That go for you, too?” he shot back. Then, as if thinking better of the question, he flushed so red that even his ears were burning. There was something a little bit endearing about a pit bull who blushed. “So, what do you think of Sarah Lyons?” he asked.

“She knows a lot about me and I know nothing about her. Why are you interested in her?”

“We think she may have had a significant relationship with the dead woman,” said Bruxton. “Possibly a sexual one. Of course, this is based in part on some stuff the Decarnos said, so it could all be crap.”

“What did they say?”

“Apparently Sarah was always knocking on the woman’s door, inviting her places and giving her little presents.”

“Interesting.” I tried to remember what Sarah had said about Claudia when she’d met me on Monday. I’m so sorry about your sister. I was very fond of Claudia. She was such an unusual person. Unique. It wasn’t exactly a passionate declaration. “Is Sarah a suspect?”