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Waiting wasn’t something I tended to be very good at, but in this case, I could see why we didn’t have many other options. It sure seemed to me that whoever the murderer was, they’d gotten the drop on poor Jack, because it sounded as if he hadn’t made sufficient noise to wake up Chloe. I had no idea whether she was a sound sleeper, and yet you’d think if there had been any kind of a struggle, she would have heard something.
“Okay,” I said, and leaned over so I could press a kiss against my husband’s cheek. “Then we’ll wait.”
Chloe was understandably subdued the next morning, and I asked her if she wanted to stay at the house rather than go to the store.
“It’s a Wednesday, so I know things shouldn’t be too busy, even with the sale I’m running,” I told her. We were alone in the kitchen, since Calvin had to be at work at eight and had left more than a half-hour earlier.
But she shook her head, even as her hands tightened around the mug of coffee she held. “No, I think I’d go crazy if I had to be here by myself all day. At least at the shop, I have more things to distract me.”
That was about the same answer I would have given if I’d been in a similar situation, so I didn’t bother to argue with her. “I understand,” I said gently. “But if you change your mind, that’s okay, too.”
Her jaw set. “No, I won’t change my mind.”
So we had a light breakfast of toast and yogurt, and a while later, I drove her to Once in a Blue Moon. Her VW was still parked in the driveway of the Airbnb, and I wondered if she should bring it to my store sometime today, just so she wouldn’t have to rely on me to ferry her around. When I brought up the topic as she was unlocking the door to the shop, she nodded.
“That’s probably a good idea,” she said. “I don’t want you to think you have to be my chauffeur or anything.”
“Well, I don’t mind,” I replied. “But this way you can come and go on your own without having to rely on me, especially since I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow afternoon that I can’t miss.”
“Then maybe I should get the car now?” she suggested after sending a quick glance toward the street outside. As I’d expected, it was very quiet in Globe’s downtown that particular Wednesday morning, and I knew this was probably the best time for her to run her errand.
“Go ahead,” I told her. “I doubt I’ll have anyone beating down the door here, and it should only take about fifteen minutes to walk to the Airbnb and then drive back.”
She flashed me a quick smile, one that seemed to let me know she was beginning to bounce back from the trauma of the night before. Not that she was over Jack’s death, but only that she could begin to see her way through the tragedy.
Only a few minutes after she’d left to fetch her car, Josie came bustling in, face full of questions.
Clearly, the Globe grapevine hadn’t failed her.
“Is it true that your sister’s boyfriend was murdered in Hazel’s Airbnb?”
“Ex-boyfriend,” I corrected her, but Josie, as usual, brushed that fine detail aside.
“Still,” she said. “How terrible!”
“It is,” I agreed. “I asked Chloe if she wanted to stay home today, but she was adamant about coming into work. I suppose she just wanted something to distract her.”
Josie’s expression turned solicitous. “I can understand that. What an awful shock, even if they weren’t together anymore. Does Henry have any leads?”
“Not that I know of,” I said. “But you know he doesn’t share all the details of his investigations with me.”
“Well, he should,” Josie returned, now looking indignant on my behalf. “After all, you have a much better track record at solving murders than he does.”
I smothered a smile and did my best to look suitably serious. “Calvin says we have to wait and see what the medical examiner has to say.”
As I’d hoped, that comment neatly deflected Josie from any ruminations on Henry Lewis’s and my relative competence at solving murders. “Why, was it poison?”
“No, Jack Speros was strangled,” I replied. “But there could still be some physical evidence that wasn’t immediately apparent at the crime scene.”
Josie gave a serious nod. “I can see that. But where is Chloe? You said she came in to work today, but I don’t see her.”
“She went to get her car from Hazel’s Airbnb. It’s not a long walk, and at least this way she’ll have her own wheels just in case, even though she’s staying with Calvin and me for a couple of days until the shock begins to wear off.”
That last comment made Josie take in my oversized belly, and she nodded again. “Yes, this isn’t a time when you’d want someone dependent on you to drive them around. Of all the terrible timing!”
I agreed mentally that the situation wasn’t what you could call optimal, but at the same time, I wanted to do my best to gloss things over so Josie wouldn’t think matters were any more dire than they already were.
“We’ll get past it,” I said lightly. “I think the most important thing is to just keep on keeping on, and hope that Henry can get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later.”
