I’d come across way too many dead bodies in my life.
“Brady, hey,” Reddick said as an afterthought.
“You sound sick,” I said. “Where’s Detective Summers?” Dylan Summers and I had crossed paths too often. I respected him, and he respected me, but he was never keen on me providing my two cents about a crime scene.
“On vacay. I’m in charge.” He cleared his throat, pulled a tissue from a pocket, and blew his nose. Then he crumpled the tissue and tucked it back where he’d found it. “One of you, fill me in.”
As he donned latex gloves and bent to inspect Tianna, I gave him her name and brief history.
“A spiritualist?” He eyed me over his shoulder.
“A medium,” Brady explained. “Meaning she holds seances.”
Reddick lifted a piece of the crumbled cookie and sniffed. “Bitter almonds.”
“Cyanide, right?” I murmured.
He rose and pulled a notebook and pen from his pocket. “How’d she get in?”
“We’re not sure who entered first.” I explained the multiple theories Brady and I had devised. “Shara Popple caught sight of me using the code and employed it without triggering the alarm. Tianna followed. Or vice versa and they were working together.”
“And the cookie?” he asked.
“Shara gave it to her as a friendly gesture.”
“Not so friendly.” Reddick clicked his tongue.
Fiona soared above Tianna, pausing over her face. “Mention the glitter.”
I did.
Reddick blew his nose again, pocketed the tissue, and then took a few photos, including a closeup of Tianna’s cheeks. “Why rob the shop? It’s not like you have a lot of cash on hand. Was the register emptied?”
“This wasn’t a robbery,” I said. “Actually, I’m not sure of that. We tallied up receipts and deposited it all in the safe in the office at end of day, but I haven’t checked to see if it’s still there.”
“On it!” Fiona whizzed away and returned in a flash. “The safe is secure.”
I relayed the news to Reddick. He didn’t pooh pooh the idea of a fairy. Like Brady, he had yet to see one, but he wasn’t averse to the notion. “Officer, you’d better take a look at this.” I strode to the baker’s rack and pointed behind it. “I think the killer dug this hole.” I explained how both Shara and Tianna believed there was a treasure beneath Open Your Imagination. Then I spotted something else. Tianna’s high-end knapsack, tucked behind fairy houses on the leftmost rack. “Reddick.” I pointed. “It’s the victim’s. Do you think she hid it there?”
“Or the killer did,” Brady suggested.
“So she wouldn’t be seen leaving with it,” I added.
“Or he wouldn’t,” Reddick revised. He bent down and reached for it, but his hands were too big to wedge into the space.
“Let me remove those houses.” I repositioned them on higher shelves and nabbed Tianna’s knapsack by the strap. “Okay to pull it out?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to open it?”
“I am.”
“May I peek inside?”
“To see what?” His mouth quirked up on one side.
“I’m not sure.”
