“No?” Neil asked quietly.
“She doesn’t seem like the kind of person who could do that—take a life. Let alone several. Maybe in the heat of the moment, something awful could happen, but it’d definitely be directed at Frank. As far as she’s concerned, he’s the enemy, the one who broke her heart.”
“Hmm.”
I rolled onto my side and studied the blurry outline of Neil a few feet away. “But chopping off a man’s hands at the wrists requires a certain kind of steel stomach. I don’t think hers can handle much more than cheap whiskey.”
Neil was quiet. A thinking quiet. He shifted to cross his arms under his head.
“Rossi has the motive,” I stated into the dark.
“You said that before.”
“Well, if he’s really dating one of the staff members in the paleontology division….Youknow how easy it is to learn a thing or two about someone else’s profession when sharing an intimate relationship.”
“Do I?”
“Hi, honey. How was your day,” I said teasingly.
“Yeah, that sounds familiar,” he agreed. “But do you think enough honey-how-are-yous would give Rossi all the information he needs on the Bone Wars in order to plug those minute details into the messages?” Neil turned his head to look my direction. “He managed to stumpyou, if that’s the case.”
“Ouch. Now I’ve got a bruised ego to go with the rest of my boo-boos,” I answered. “Maybe his girlfriend is his partner.”
“In crime?”
“It’s possible. Dr. Gould met with Calvin in his initial interviews. She’s got a really sweet personality. And if it’s a ploy—it’s a believable one. She wouldn’t have necessarily had to overpower Calvin. A few sweet words may have been all it took.”
“I suppose it’s the most we’ve got to work with,” Neil replied.
The central heat kicked on.
“I learned that the Cope skull was originally an artifact housed at UPenn.”
“Does the backstory matter in this instance?”
“You’re askingmeif history matters?” I said mockingly.
Neil looked at the ceiling again. “You’re right.”
There didn’t seem to be anything else to say after that. To do—sure. There was plenty I could be doing. I didn’t want to stop moving, not until my redhead was in bed again, his legs twined around mine and his head on my chest. But as it stood, I was already operating on too little rest, not enough food, and I could confirm from experience that multiple adrenaline spikes could wreak havoc on the human body. I was on a crash course toward making mistakes. Maybe critical, life-threatening mistakes.
I yawned so deeply, my jaw cracked. My eyelids drooped. “Neil?” I murmured. “You awake?”
“No,” he responded.
“Last night, at my place,” I continued, “you said I’d interrupted your night.”
Neil was silent.
“Was it a date?” I could feel, rather than see, his surprise. “It was your clothes,” I told him.
“What about them?”
“You were wearing your it’s-not-a-date date clothes.” I was well acquainted with that particular portion of Neil’s wardrobe.
“All right, Miss Marple. Calm down.”
“Where’d you meet him?” I asked.
