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She stared at him for an uncomfortably long time before saying, “I’m sorry that happened to you. But thank you for being honest with me.”
“You deserve it.”
She looked around and said, “Why did you bring me here?”
“I want you to see if you notice anything different from when you were here last working with Bertie.”
“Why?”
“Just bear with me and I’ll explain later. Go ahead. Use your artist’s eye for detail.”
She shrugged and walked around looking at everything. Then she stopped and pointed toward the ceiling rafter. “That wasn’t there before.”
He looked where she was motioning. A blackened pulley had been screwed into a roof joist directly above where Earl had been found hanging. It was the same color as the board it was attached to and thus blended right in. Devine wasn’t certain he had even noticed it before.
“You’re sure it wasn’t there?”
“Very sure. We could have actually used something like that to lift up a few of the heavy sculpture pieces Bertie and I did here.”
Lift up?
She eyed the pulley and then glanced at him. “On the widow’s walk, you mentioned that someone might have killed Earl?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure. Yet.”
Devine quickly formulated a rough trajectory that carried him back to a large bolt that was screwed into the wall over the top of a wooden workbench set there.
He bent down and examined the bolt more closely with his phone light. Was that a rope fiber on top of the workbench?
Things were starting to make sense. Still, there were unanswered questions. Lots of them.
“Was that helpful?” she said, drawing Devine from his reverie.
He looked at her. “Oh, Alex, you don’t know how much. Thank you.”
CHAPTER
60
DEVINE AND ALEX NEXT DROVEto the police station, where Mildred James greeted them.
“Alex?” she said in surprise. “I haven’t seen you in some time.”
Alex looked down at her boots. “Yes, I’ve...been pretty busy.”
“I’m sure. And I am so sorry about your sister, hon. Jenny was so—”
“—perfect?” said Alex, looking up with a sad expression. “I know everyone says that, but she really was, you know.” She glanced nervously at Devine. “At least she was to me. She looked after me and supported me, when others were...preoccupied.”
James looked a bit confused by all this, and Devine hastened to move things along.
“The evidence file for Earl Palmer? Can I take a look at it?”
“Certainly.”
