shiny bouncy hair, bright eyes, bright smiles, bright voices. All that was missing was the
“Now you sound like Daddy,” chided Lauren, which shut me up. She spread a selection
Lauren nodded as though this was a good point from one who didn’t have all the facts.
Well, yeah. When did one not? Did they honestly think they had to explain the center
continuing to prove promising – had wandered off to explore.
and dearest.
1940s Big Band music. So bizarre. I still had the images of the night before buzzing in the
I think I had blanked to the Indian Head test pattern when I heard a voice pipe,
appeared to be an in-progress fashion shoot. The scarecrow brightened, scoping out my
connection with the Angus Gordon case.”
were communicating telepathically, a la Village of the Damned .
wasn’t getting the message. Jake’s message, on the other hand, was coming through loud and
“Is everything all right, officers?” Lauren inquired evenly.
“Everything’s fine,” I said quickly. “I’ll call you. But really, whatever you guys – girls –
bag from Velvet, pushed it into Emma’s hands. I gestured for the coppers to follow me.
backroom, shut the office door firmly.
“What did you need?” It came out abruptly. I was angry with Jake, angry to find myself
“I’m sure you’re aware that we’ve arrested Angus Gordon?” Rossini said.
Abruptly, I remembered the first time I’d met him. Even less happy circumstances than
I admitted I had seen her before, that she had come into the store asking for Angus. I
students.
“Safe to say, Gordon was more than an employee?”
the edge of the desk as though trying to recover his train of thought.
Ten p.m. So she hadn’t been dead for long when I walked in. I wondered if she had
Once again I was standing in that dark hallway staring at the broken bloody corpse
“At what point? What time exactly?”
at all. It didn’t matter; this was all basically true. “I went to bed after leaving the message
Partners in Crime dispersed – or killed her before everyone arrived and then calmly
but I was betting on Rossini’s commonsense. (Although the guy did wear red socks with blue
split for Angus’s. Hopefully, the police had no interest in my actions after the hours of six
“Right.” It took willpower not to look toward Jake. Why would Rossini ask that?
senior officer in this investigation. He could probably have Jake removed from the case if he
There was a lull in the questioning. I said, without thinking, “Do you think any of this
They scrutinized me.
inflection.
person case. They hadn’t been impressed with my story, and I had to admit, hearing myself