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“And then…?” I prompted.
Dark eyes met mine. “You know what I’ve told you about ongoing police investigations.”
Of course. Still, I wouldn’t be dissuaded that easily. “Okay, you don’t have to tell me outright. Just blink once if I’m right.”
“Selena, this isn’t junior high.”
I refused to be offended. “I know. But you wouldn’t have this piece of evidence at all if it weren’t for my help, so can’t you give me just a little bit?”
An unwilling chuckle escaped his lips. “You’re very persistent, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know about that,” I said. “It’s just…I want to know what happened. No, Ineedto know what happened, because otherwise, everyone’s going to keep on thinking that I had something to do with Lucien’s murder even if you don’t have enough evidence to charge me. And that’s no way to start a new life in a new town.”
“Well, that’s true.” Calvin’s expression was almost sympathetic. He hesitated a moment before saying, “After I check the medallion for fingerprints, I’m going to talk to Athene Kappas again. Whether or not she’ll give me any actionable information is, of course, up to her. Is that enough for you?”
I supposed it would have to be. As easygoing as Calvin was being right now, I doubted he’d let me do a ride-along on that particular interview. “It is for now,” I replied, and he chuckled again.
“All right, you do have a vested interest in all this. I get it.”
“And you don’t think I’m guilty?”
His gaze caught mine and held. A little shiver went through me, the kind of pleasant thrill I might get from touching a nicely charged crystal.
Actually, it was way more than that. I just didn’t know whether he felt any of the same things I did.
“No,” he said quietly. “I don’t think you are.”
It turned out that I really didn’t need Calvin to give me the skinny on what was going on, not when I had Josie Woodrow on my side.
She rang the buzzer for the back entrance off the shop, since it was Sunday and the store was closed. I hurried down the stairs, wondering who could be calling and inwardly hoping it was Calvin Standingbear.
No such luck…but a little gossip with Josie wasn’t a bad second place.
I asked her if she wanted some iced tea, and of course, she accepted. Glass in hand, she settled on my couch, eyes alight with anticipation.
“I talked to Betsy, my friend with the Airbnb,” she told me in confidential tones. “It seems the woman staying there left this morning.”
“‘Left’?” I repeated. “But I thought Calvin Standingbear told her she had to stay in town.”
Josie didn’t exactly say, “aha!”, but an air of triumph about her after hearing that news told me I’d just dropped a piece of important information. Damn it. One problem with being a Gemini — you tended to run at the mouth.
“Well, she’s gone,” Josie said. “Betsy said the place was a mess, too — towels on the floor in the bathroom, half the bedclothes on the floor as well, sink full of dishes. And she said it stank so much of incense, she wasn’t sure whether she was ever going to get the smell out of the upholstery.”
I hoped Betsy had gotten a hefty deposit from Lucien and Athene. Somehow, I guessed she probably wouldn’t have any other way of covering her cleaning costs. Which led me to wonder who — if anyone — he’d designated as the heir to his not-inconsiderable fortune. He didn’t have any children, but his parents were still alive. And I knew he had a younger brother named Eugene, who’d followed in their father’s footsteps and was a dentist of some sort, although I didn’t know much more than that. I’d gotten the impression he wasn’t much involved in Lucien’s life, which I supposed was understandable.
“Oh, that’s terrible,” I said. “I suppose if Athene left in a hurry, that would explain the mess, but still.”
Josie sipped some of her iced tea. “It may explain it, but it certainly doesn’t excuse it. Betsy has her cleaning gal over there now, so I hope she can get the place straightened up without too much trouble. But where do you think she could have gone?” she went on, barely stopping to take a breath before changing the subject.
I had to guess that the “she” in Josie’s question wasn’t a reference to Betsy’s cleaning lady. “I have no idea. I mean, she didn’t have access to Lucien’s car, but I suppose she could have called Travis Cox to give her a ride somewhere.”
That suggestion made her eyes light up. “You know, that’s exactly it. We should call Calvin to let him know he should question Travis!”
“I’m pretty sure Calvin can figure that out for himself,” I responded. While he’d been friendly enough during our meeting earlier that morning, he’d also given me the impression that he wouldn’t appreciate too much more interference on my part. “In fact, since he said he was going to talk to her again this morning, it’s probably a pretty safe bet that he’s already discovered she’s missing and has put two and two together.”
“Was there a particular reason why he wanted to talk to her again so soon?”
There, I hesitated. I could have tried to tell myself I was only having a cozy gossip with a friend, but at the bottom of it all, this was still a very fresh murder investigation. The irritation Calvin had showed earlier over my attempts to get more information told me all I needed to know about how he’d feel if I started spreading every detail of the inquiry all over town.
