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“Well, the owner, of course.” Laura clasped a hand onto her forehead as she tried to think. “But Joe wouldn’t kill anybody…and me, I have a key… Well, I had a key…the police took it. Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck!”
Theo tried to calm her down. “Are they the only keys, Laura?”
“Yes… No!” Her eyes lit up. “There’s a key kept behind the bar…on a hook.”
“When you locked up,” Mac asked, “did you use your key?”
“Yes, of course.”
“So you have no idea if the key behind the bar was still there?”
“No…”
“Who would have known about the key behind the bar?” Theo asked gently. Laura was beginning to look quite flushed.
“Oh, almost anybody. Most of the regulars.”
Theo held her hands. “Laura, you need to tell the police about this, if you haven’t already.”
“Oh, no…I don’t think I did… I was so upset about Mary…”
“They’ll understand that.”
Laura pulled herself together. “I’ll call them. Tell me, Theo, how are you doing? People have been asking after you.”
“What people?” Mac asked sharply.
“Oh, Jock and Chic and that grad student who drinks bourbon at midday and a few strangers. We miss you.”
“Strangers?”
“There were some New Yorkers and tourists who claimed they were speaking for Dan after that article came out in the Star, but we sent them on their way pretty quickly. We won’t have anyone speaking trash about one of our own.”
Impulsively Theo hugged Laura.
“You do know that Mary wrote that article, don’t you?” Mac asked.
Clearly, Laura hadn’t. The revelation shook her. “But she never asked anything about you…just sat in that corner—at your table—and worked on her laptop. Oh, Theo, I’m so sorry—”
“It’s not your fault, Laura,” Theo tried to console her. “Mary was just doing her job—she’s as entitled to drink coffee as I am.”
A group of people came into the shop looking for candles. Mac quietly put his arm around Theo and turned her away. “We’d better be going,” he said, glancing at the new customers.
Laura nodded. “With all the vigils, we’re running out of candles,” she whispered. “Look after yourself, Theo. I’ll just serve this bunch and then I’ll call the police about that key.”
Theo and Mac walked out of The Gilded Edge and onto Mass Street. Only then did she breathe out properly. Her mind was swirling with everything Laura had said, but part her of her was also exhilarated by the fact that she hadn’t been recognized. Her name had been tainted by Mary’s article, but for now at least, she could still be anonymous.
Mac checked the time. Half past six. “How about we go Mayberger’s for a drink? The crowd there is unlikely to care about anything but whichever game’s on the television. No one will look at you twice in that hoodie, and the police will have had time to make as big a mess as possible before we go back.”
“Sure.” Theo smiled up at him, enjoying the feeling of being among people without being scared. Things were worse than they’d ever been, but this felt like a glimpse of normal. “Look, Mac, I’m so sorry about what’s happening to your house because of me. I wish I could—”
“My house has been searched before, Theo. It’s par for the course in this business.” He leaned down and admitted quietly, “My place gets tossed every time one of my brothers does something stupid…which is regularly. I’m afraid the police know their way around it quite well.”
“Still…”
“I owe Gus Benton a lot, Theo, and I like his little sister. It’s no big deal.”
Theo faltered, unsure how to respond. But Mac didn’t seem to require a response.
