Part 6 (1/2)

Abigail started for the stairs and the second-floor staff room. I headed up behind her. ”You want coffee?” she asked. ”I'll start it.”

”Please,” I said.

I unlocked my office, dumped my bag on my desk chair, hung up my coat and then bent to take off my boots. Something was caught in the cuff of my pants-probably another chunk of frozen snow.

I started to turn the fabric inside out to dump whatever it was onto the floor when I realized it wasn't a dirty piece of snow caught in my pants; it was a broken piece of gla.s.s. How had I gotten that stuck in my cuff?

I went to pull it loose and then stopped myself. I'd bent down in the alley next to Agatha's body when I'd felt for a pulse that hadn't been there. There had been tire tracks and other bits of detritus in the sand and snow near the body. Had I picked up the piece of gla.s.s there? If someone had run Agatha down, the jagged piece of broken gla.s.s caught in my pants cuff could be evidence.

I reached for my bag. I had Marcus Gordon's card with his cell number in my wallet. He'd given it to me the previous summer when my house had been broken into. Now I used the number.

I wasn't surprised to get his voice mail. I left a brief message explaining that I might have found something connected to Agatha's death and then hung up. I pushed back the sleeves of my sweater and turned around.

Marcus was standing in my doorway. Startled, I made a strangled sound halfway between choking and gargling.

”I'm sorry,” he said. ”I didn't mean to scare you.”

”It's okay,” I said, leaning back against the desk. ”I just left you a message.”

He pulled out his cell and flipped it open. ”So you did. Was there something you forgot to tell me?”

”No.” I pointed to my pant leg. ”There's a piece of gla.s.s caught in my cuff. I think I might have picked it up in the alley when I bent down to check on Agatha. It wasn't there when I got to the cafe this morning.”

He tipped his head and looked down at me. I was five foot six; he was taller, over six feet, so tall that I always felt little in his presence. ”How can you be sure it came from the alley?”

”Because the laces on my boot came undone when I was at the cafe and I dumped snow out of that cuff. I would've felt a piece of gla.s.s.”

”Did you walk over here?”

”Yes,” I said, s.h.i.+fting so the edge of the desk wasn't digging into my backside. ”On the sidewalk all the way.”

He gestured at my leg. ”May I?”

”Go ahead.”

I put my foot up on the seat of one of the black fauxleather chairs that flanked my desk. ”The inside edge of the cuff,” I said.

He pulled a thin purple glove from his pocket and put it on. Then he reached into the fold of fabric and carefully pulled out the piece of gla.s.s, holding it by the edges with his thumb and forefinger. He had huge hands. He stood up and looked around. ”Do you have an envelope to put this in?” he asked.

”I think so,” I said. I dropped my foot and squeezed past him to get to my desk drawer. He smelled citrusy-a bit like one of those drinks with a tiny plastic sword skewering a wedge of lime. I shook my head. Why the heck was I smelling the man? Most of the time I didn't even like him.

I held up a business-sized envelope. ”Will this do?”

”That's perfect.”

I held open the top and he dropped the piece of gla.s.s inside; then I handed the whole thing over to him.

He sealed the top and put the envelope into the pocket of his coat. ”Thank you,” he said.

”You're welcome.”

He didn't move.

”Was there something else you wanted to ask me?” I said.

”I just have a couple of questions.”

I gestured to the chairs. ”Have a seat.”

He made a dismissive gesture with one hand. ”I'm okay,” he said.

I didn't want to sit down if he wasn't and have him looming over me like a cop in an old black-and-white movie, so I stayed standing, as well. ”What did you want to know?”

”You were meeting Ms. Adams and Ms. Blackthorne at the restaurant. What time did you get there?”

”I was meeting Maggie,” I said. ”She told me Ruby was coming, as well, because she had the lightbulbs Maggie needed for the Winterfest display. And as for when I arrived, I'd say about seven thirty. Maggie was already there.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. ”How long before Ms. Blackthorne showed up?”

I shrugged. ”Five minutes, maybe,” I said. ”Less than ten, for sure. We'd ordered, but our food hadn't arrived and I hadn't finished my first cup of coffee.”

He nodded and I guessed he was filing the information away somewhere in his head. ”So, you went to the alley to check on Mrs. Shepherd?”

I nodded.

”Why?”

”Why?” I repeated.

He s.h.i.+fted from one foot to the other. ”Why didn't you just call nine-one-one, or at least let someone else go take a look?”

I exhaled slowly, trying to get rid of some of the irritation Marcus always seemed to make me feel.

”I didn't know there was a reason to call nine-one-one,” I explained. ”Ruby was . . . upset, and the alley's dark. Maybe she hadn't seen what she thought she had. As for why me”-I gestured toward my boots standing on a square of newspaper under the coatrack-”Maggie had boots with heels, and I didn't. The sidewalk was icy and I could move a lot faster than she could.”

He looked at the boots and for a moment I thought he was going to walk over to pick them up. But he didn't. ”So, you got to the alley. What did you do then?”

”I could see that there was something on the ground about halfway down. I couldn't tell if it was a person or maybe a bag of garbage that had just blown there.”

I folded my own arms across my chest, mimicking his stance. ”I told Ruby to stay at the end of the alley while I walked down to see who it was. As I got closer I could see that it was Agatha, and I could see that she was dead.”

”How did you know that?” he asked.

”That wasn't my first dead body,” I said dryly. ”But as I told you, I felt for her pulse.”

”Did you touch anything else besides the body?” He unfolded his arms and turned his head from one side to the other to stretch his neck.

”No,” I said slowly and clearly. He'd already asked me this, so there was obviously some reason he was intent on going over it again. ”I didn't touch anything else. I walked down and back, and I tried to stay in Ruby's footsteps. When I realized I couldn't do anything for Agatha, I went back to Ruby. Maggie was with her, and I asked Maggie to call nine-one-one because my phone was in my briefcase, which was still in the restaurant.”

I held up a hand before he could speak. ”Ruby was cold and I was afraid she might go into shock, so I got Maggie to take her back to Eric's while I waited for you to show up. That's it.”