in the heating room.”
“Good.” Judith felt pale and drained. “I’m…glad.”
Renie and Gene rolled the big dry-wet vacuum through
the kitchen and out toward the lobby. Margo eyed Judith
with an inquisitive expression.
“You thought Gene had offed your cousin?”
“Well…” Judith tried to evade the question, but finally
gave in. “It crossed my mind.”
Margo nodded. “Mine, too.”
Judith stared at Margo. “You actually suspect Gene?”
Margo gripped her suede bag. “I suspect everybody. Don’t
you?”
THIRTEEN
AFTER THE GAME hens and the bean dish had been put in
the oven, Judith and Margo returned to the lobby. Ava was
next on her list of people to interrogate, and the easiest way
to get her alone was to ask her to take over for Margo and
help set the dining room table.
Ava balked. “I’m tired,” she complained. “After dinner,
maybe I’ll get my second wind and go on cleanup duty.”
Cleanup of another kind was going on near the entrance.
Renie and Gene had turned on the vacuum, which was
sucking up the water. Killegrew shouted to them, saying that
if they also sucked up some of the snow, maybe they could
get the door closed. It was, he asserted, pretty damned cold.
Interrupting Nadia’s attempts to soothe her CEO, Judith
asked the administrative assistant to help get dinner on the
table. Nadia started to demur, then grudgingly acquiesced.
As Judith and Nadia left the lobby, Renie and Gene were
attacking the encroaching snow. To Judith’s surprise, Killegrew’s suggestion seemed to be working. Bemused, she
wondered if it was a seemingly lame-brained idea like this
one which had sent Frank Killegrew to the top of his profession.
“I cannot think,” Nadia began as she randomly opened
cupboards in the kitchen, “why I’m such a wreck. It isn’t as
if this is the first crisis I’ve faced.”
Judith was startled. “Including multiple murders?”
“No, no, not murder,” Nadia said, still searching in the
cupboards. “But especially at work on Friday afternoons. It
seems as if there’s always a crisis that has to be resolved before five o’clock. You wouldn’t believe how stressful that can
be.”
Judith, who had been setting out silverware, observed
Nadia’s rummaging with curiosity. “Are you looking for
plates? They’re right here, on the counter. I’ve already unloaded the dishwasher.”
“Plates?” Nadia turned, pushing her big glasses up on her
nose. “No. I thought…I wondered if perhaps there was some
cooking sherry in the kitchen. I wouldn’t mind a little pickme-up.”
