AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ididn’thurt her,” Pierre says. “I had nothing to do with her disappearing. That’s why I lied about the necklace. If you’d come to me and asked—without threatening my life—I’d have told the truth. I wasn’t going to admit it while you were holding a knife on me, ranting and raving.”
“Pierre,” I say sharply. “That’s enough. I didn’t hear ranting and raving.”
“Nanette did ask him calmly,” the other woman says. “He denied it. That’s when she pulled out the scalpel.”
“She caught me off guard,” Pierre says. “I didn’t understand what she meant at first. She was talking about me having something of Penny’s, and I had no idea what she meant. I found anecklace outside the clinic, and I put it in the locked drawer, planning to turn it over to Yolanda, but then Penny and Bruno went missing and with everything that came after that, I forgot about it.”
“You didn’t know it was Penny’s?” Nanette says.
“Of course not. If I did, I’d have turned it over after she disappeared.”
“You seriously didn’t recognize it?”
Nanette lifts the necklace toward me. When I reach out, she passes it over. It’s a very old Roman coin in a gold bezel.
“Kind of distinctive, huh?” Nanette says. “More than one person asked her about it. In grad school, she’d worked on a project in Rome, finding ways to keep an ancient building from toppling over. Everyone said her plan wouldn’t work, so she backed down, and after a few things failed, they tried her idea and it did the trick. The necklace was a reminder to have faith in her work.”
“I never saw it,” Pierre says. “I’m sorry.”
“He’s lying,” Nanette says.
“I don’t memorize jewelry—”
“—on women you chase even after they very sweetly—but firmly—turn you down?”
“Can confirm,” says a voice behind us. It’s Gunnar, still holding his drill. “I saw Penny shoo Pierre off multiple times. Guy didn’t take a hint.”
Dalton grunts in annoyance. He’s been quiet, but now he’s looking at me, knowing how I’ll react.
“And no one saw fit to tell me this?” I say. “When I was going around asking whether there was any conflict between Penny and other members of the crew.”
“I wouldn’t call it conflict,” Gunnar says. When I glare, he raises his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Fine, yeah, he pesteredPenny, but so did a few other guys and they all backed off weeks ago, including Pierre.”
“I wasn’t pestering,” Pierre says. “I was interested and letting her know it. When she wasn’t interested back, I gave up.”
“Only after Kendra staged an intervention,” the other woman mutters. She looks at me. “No one mentioned it because, for women on a job, it’s par for the course. Kendra told him he was overstepping, and he backed off.”
“Or heseemedto,” Nanette says. “But now there’s this necklace.”
I turn to Dalton. “Would you escort Pierre to the station? Gunnar, can you please tell Kendra I need to speak to her.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Pierre says.
“If we were sure you did, you’d be going in handcuffs,” I say. “You’re being taken in for questioning. Nanette? You’ll be at the clinic?”
“I will.”
“I’ll check in with you if I need more.”
“Isn’t she being arrested or something?” Pierre says. “She threatened me with a knife.”
Dalton takes his arm. “You don’t admit to something when asked nicely? You’ll be asked a lot less nicely the next time. Remember that when Detective Butler is questioning you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I interrogate Pierre. He sticks to his story. Yes, he found Penny attractive. Yes, he pursued her. But once he realized she really wasn’t interested, he backed off. Okay, Kendra may have talked to him about it, but that’s just because he misunderstood Penny’s signals and thought he was making progress. Once he discovered otherwise, he backed down in embarrassment.
Then he found the necklace and, no, he reallydidn’trealize it was Penny’s. He found it out behind the clinic. The clasp was broken. He brought it inside and locked it away, since it seemed valuable. That was the morning after Penny and Bruno disappeared, but at the time, he hadn’t heard the news, and he’d been working in the clinic. When the news came, he never made the connection and forgot all about the necklace.
