AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Is he delivering his findings to McCreadie? Pursuing a lead? Either way, shouldn’t I be invited along? Or is it personal business, and therefore none ofmybusiness? Whatever the answer, it is a reminder that we may have spent the last twelve hours together in the heart of an investigation, but that doesn’t mean we are actually investigative partners.
Isla wasn’t in her lab when I dropped off the samples, so I go to track her down, only to discover she also stepped out, though at least she left word she’ll be back in an hour.
So it’s back to playing housemaid. I mop the floors and polish some silver and pretend I am fully engaged in the work and not mentally with the case and all my questions.
I want to know more about the previous poisonings. I want to know what’s going to happen with Annis—will she be arrested? I want to know whether the murder will hit the news—along with Leslie’s accusationagainst his wife—and whether that will affect Isla and Gray. There are a dozen other questions, but those three loom largest in my mind… until I realize I can answer themwithoutGray’s help.
I zip through a half-assed polishing job and then tell Alice I’m stepping out. That’s not technically allowed. I can bristle at that, but it’s no different from working in a shop where I couldn’t just pull off my name badge and pop out whenever I liked.
Now that I’m “Mallory,” I have special privileges, which include being able to leave or assign a task to Alice or just tell Mrs. Wallace I’m busy. That’s great… if I’m willing to work in a household where the rest of the staff justifiably hates me.
Today, I decide to take the risk. Mrs. Wallace and Alice know I’ve been out all night “working” with Dr. Gray, and so any housecleaning I do is a bonus.
Alice promises to hold down the fort, and I slip out the back door. As I do, I pass Isla’s poison garden. That gives me pause. I’ve been meaning to ask her about this little garden—gated with warning signs. That will come later. Right now, I’m flying along the path, searching the stables for a sign of Simon, fearing that he’s gone, taking Gray into the city.
When I see Simon hauling out a pile of manure for compost, I get upwind and then wave him over.
“I need newspapers,” I say.
“Lovely to see you too,” he says. “Pleasant day we’re having. Looks like the sun will be coming out soon.”
“Fine. Yes, isn’t it lovely? I do hope for sun. It has been dreadfully dreary. Now, I need newspapers.”
He shakes his head. “In some ways, you are nothing like I remember. In others, you are exactly the same.”
“In other words, I’m as rude as ever.”
“Not rude. Just focused. Very, very focused on the task at hand, which seems to be… newspapers?” He pauses. “Ah, you are seeing whether there is any mention of Lord Leslie’s death.”
“Is it too soon?”
“It is never too soon for the press. If the daily edition had been printed, they would have added a special page. Or put out the evening edition early. Also, by now, I’m sure someone has printed a broadsheet or two. I’m presuming Dr. Gray wants me to gather what I can?”
“He hasn’t asked yet, but he’ll want them, so I am being proactive.”
“Pro…?” He shakes his head and doesn’t ask.
I continue, “The problem is that I cannot remember how to do so.”
“You cannot remember how to obtain a newspaper?”
I tap my temple, where Catriona had received the blow.
“Ah,” he says. “Dr. Gray did warn there would be such holes in your memory, where you might forget commonplace things.”
“I have seen the newsstands,” I say. “But I do not know which is closest, and how much money to take, and which papers are the most reliable.”
He nods. “You wish me to fetch you newspapers, then.”
My tone softens. “I would not ask you to do anything I can do myself, Simon.”
“Then you truly are not the Catriona I remember.”
“Perhaps, but in this case, I should understand how to do it, so that I may do so myself.”
“All right then.” He sets the wheelbarrow by the stable wall. “Let me change my boots, and we will go together.”
“You do not need to do that. I can take instructions.”
