Part 14 (2/2)
”All right.” Larry put his keys back in his pocket. ”We can all walk over there. Charles, are you coming?”
”Am I?” Charles asked Nev.
Rather than risk having Charles run off, Nev said yes.
The four of us walked the short distance between Angela's house and the museum. Because the Big Museum wasn't scheduled to open for another hour, the front door was locked.
”Not to worry.” Larry led us around the side of the building. ”On the days Susan is the first one here, she always leaves this door open so the docents don't have to wait for her to unlock the front door.”
He opened the door he indicated, and we stepped inside.
As I suspected, the Big Museum was quiet, and after the commotion over at Angela's, it was a welcome relief. I drew in a breath of air faintly scented with the comforting aroma of old things, and followed Larry down a short corridor that led us up three steps, through a door, and into that main entryway just inside the museum's front door.
”Her office is this way,” Larry said, heading straight down the hallway. ”I'll go get her and tell her you're waiting. That will light a fire under her.”
While he was gone, it gave me the perfect chance to wander, and I intended to make the most of it. While Charles and Nev waited in the hallway, I strolled into the room that featured all those wonderful old photographs of Ardent, intending to take another look so I could compare what used to be with what we were going to see down at the reservoir.
I never had the chance.
Just inside the doorway, I stopped cold, and my voice wobbling, I called for Nev.
He is, after all, the professional. With any luck, he wouldn't be stunned and frightened out of his gourd by the scene that met our eyes. Not like I was.
My heart in my throat, my blood hammering in my temples, I stared at Susan, lying on the floor just inside the doorway. She was on her back in a pool of blood, her arms splayed at her sides, one leg c.o.c.ked at an unnatural angle. One of the photos of old Ardent had been taken down off the wall and used to batter her over the head and shards of gla.s.s glittered in her ashen hair.
I didn't need to wait to see Nev kneel down beside her, feel for a pulse, and shake his head.
One look, and I knew Susan wouldn't be joining us for lunch.
JIMMY CARNS MIGHT have been taking that accident report up on the Parkway, but he hotfooted it right over when Nev called the station and the dispatcher relayed a message that included the word murder. Within fifteen minutes, Jimmy's boss and the mayor had arrived at the Big Museum, too, and with the Ardent photo room packed, I'd been asked to step out into the hallway and stay out of the way.
I was only too happy to oblige. Finding two bodies in the s.p.a.ce of two weeks does not do good things to a girl.
Of course, I wasn't the only one reeling. Charles had gotten a glimpse of the carnage and that was all it took for his already-shaky composure to dissolve completely. Sobbing, he flopped into a delicate-looking wing chair just inside the front door. When he heard me call for Nev, Larry had hurried out of Susan's office and had found us bent over her body. Now, pasty and trembling, he paced the hallway.
”It can't be true. It can't be happening. Not again.” Larry's voice jumped to the same restless beat as his footsteps. ”We just found each other again. To think that Susan's gone, too. Just like...” His voice broke. ”Just like Angela.”
”Yeah, Angela.” Since I, too, was too worked up to keep still, Larry and I were at opposite ends of the hallway from each other, and it was just as well. I was trying to make sense of a situation that was messed up to the extreme. First Angela. Now Susan. Angela who'd owned the charm string. Susan who was supposed to be receiving it as a donation. Both murdered.
No way it was a coincidence.
I closed the distance between me and Larry. ”When was the last time you saw Susan?” I asked him.
Under any other circ.u.mstances, I was sure he wouldn't have had to stop and think about it. But stress does strange things. To our brains and to our bodies. Larry's breaths were coming hard and fast, and when I spotted a water fountain near the entrance, I went over there, took one of the little paper cups from a dispenser on the wall and filled it, and brought it back to him.
He drank down the water in one gulp. ”Thank you,” he said. ”You're very kind.”
”I'm very curious.” There was no use hiding the fact, especially since-dead girlfriend or no dead girlfriend-I wasn't planning on letting up on the questions. ”When did you say you saw Susan last?”
He pa.s.sed a hand over his eyes. ”This morning,” Larry said. ”When she got to Angela's. I got there a few minutes ahead of her and I waited for her on the front porch. When she arrived, we went into the house together, but...well, you can understand how easy it was for us to get separated in that house of horrors. Before we did, though, we talked about what we'd do the rest of the day. We said we'd go to lunch together after the preview.”
”And did it seem like anything was wrong?” I asked.
”With Susan?” Larry paused to think about it. ”It's hard to say,” he admitted. ”What I mean is, we'd been apart for a while. You know that. You know I was dating Angela. Susan and I were just finding our way back to some sort of relations.h.i.+p. We were taking small steps. Sometimes...” He drew in a trembling breath and let it out slowly. ”Sometimes, she seemed distant. Not that I'm saying I blame her. After all, I'm the one who made the mistake of breaking up with her and going to Angela.”
”Did Susan feel any resentment?”
Larry shot me a look. ”Resentment is a strong word.”
”It's a strong emotion,” I reminded him.
I thought he might argue, but honestly, I don't think Larry had the energy. He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. ”I don't think Susan so much resented what happened between me and Angela as much as she was hurt by it. And honestly, I couldn't hold that against her. I was heartless. Not to mention stupid. And now...” His voice cracked. ”Now I'll never have a chance to prove to her how wrong I was to ever let her go in the first place.”
”But you and Angela, you said you were solid that day she died.”
Larry's breathing stilled. ”Yes, we were. Just like I told you. Angela and I had a little tiff, but we settled things. The last time I saw her, we were in a good place.”
”A good place that you've since decided was stupid.”
Larry pinned me with a look. ”I didn't say it was stupid.”
”You said it was stupid to ever break up with Susan in the first place. That must mean it was stupid for you to date Angela. But now you're telling me you were happy with Angela. Which is it, Larry?”
”Are you trying to send me over the edge?” I don't think Larry was actually expecting an answer to this question. One hand on either side of his head, he raked his fingers through his thick hair. ”What difference does it make now, anyway?” he asked. ”I've lost Angela. And I've lost Susan. Two wonderful women. Gone. Gone, too soon.”
”And now all we can do is wonder why. And who did it.”
”Yes.” Larry bobbed his head. ”Yes, we have to do everything we can to bring this monster to justice.”
I couldn't have agreed with him more, but I didn't have a chance to tell him. The hallway door-the one we'd come in just a short time before-opened, and Marci stuck her red, spiky head into the museum. ”What's going on?” The rest of her followed, wobbling on heels as high as any I'd ever seen. ”I was just driving by and I saw the police cars.” The cops were all gathered in the room across the hall with the body and a noise from that direction made Marci glance that way. ”Something happened? Something bad?”
The worst, and I told her all we knew and watched Marci's face turn a sickly green. One arm out, she braced herself against the wall. ”Oh my G.o.d, poor Susan. I just saw her. Over at Angela's. She was...she was fine.”
Who was I to be the voice of cynicism and point out that that's the way murder usually works: fine one minute, dead the next.
Instead, I stuck to facts. ”We were all at Angela's,” I pointed out. ”Larry, I saw you in the kitchen. Did you leave at any time?”
”Me?” He poked a finger at his chest. ”I...well, yes...If you consider going out to Angela's garage leaving. There was a collection of old tools out there that I wanted to take a look at.”
”Was anyone out there with you?”
”Are you implying...” At his sides, Larry's hands curled into fists. A muscle jumped at the base of his jaw. ”As a matter of fact,” he said from between clenched teeth, ”there were three other fellows out there. No one I knew, so I can't give you their names. Maybe you'd better have your police friends issue an all-points bulletin to find the guys so you can ask them if I'm lying.”
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