rooms.
Ward delivered the bad news, then waited for the cousins
to elaborate. This time, Renie deferred to Judith. “She saw
him first,” Renie declared in a slightly sulky voice.
Judith explained, briefly, if a bit haltingly. The circle of
faces ranged from a distraught Nadia Weiss to a stoic Gene
Jarman. Naturally, Frank Killegrew assumed command.
“Let’s go down to the lobby,” he said, his usually broad
shoulders slumped under a bright blue bathrobe. “Nadia,
call the police. Again.”
“It seems the phone lines are down,” Renie said, not
without a trace of satisfaction. “It’s too bad you don’t have
underground wiring up here.”
Killegrew scowled, then stepped into the elevator, along
with Ward, Gene, and Ava. The others waited. Apparently,
thought Judith, there was a pecking order even when it came
to elevator riding.
“Why the hell would someone kill Leon Mooney?” Max
muttered. “That little guy wouldn’t step on a bug.”
“Mooney’s money,” Margo said softly. “That’s what we’ve
always called the comptroller’s shop, isn’t it? Maybe he was
juggling the books.”
“Not Leon,” Max responded. “What would be the point?
The man had no life outside of the job.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Russell said, on the
defensive. “Some of us love our work. Usually.” He shot Max
a dark glance and rubbed the bump on his head.
Judith hadn’t mentioned anything about the weapon that
had presumably killed Leon. With a sidelong look at Max,
she wondered if he’d used it again, and for a more lethal
purpose. But anyone could have used the carving to deliver
a death blow. The last time Judith had seen the soapstone
Eskimo, it had been in the hands of Margo Chang.
The elevator returned; Russell, Margo, Max, and Nadia
got in. The cousins were left alone in the hallway.
“I guess we know where we fit into the scheme of things,”
Judith remarked. “Dead last.”
Renie elbowed Judith. “Don’t say things like that.”
Judith gave a nod. “Okay. I’ll stick to conjecture, guesswork, and speculation. I take it Leon wasn’t married?”
“I don’t think so,” Renie replied as the elevator doors slid
open. “Somewhere along the line I heard he lived with his
mother until she died a year or so ago.”
The doors were about to close when a frantic voice called
from down the hall. Judith quickly pressed the “open” button.
Andrea dashed inside, still in her robe, but with her hair
swept back up on top of her head.
“I heard all the commotion in the corridor,” she said in a
breathless voice. “I decided I’d better not miss out on what
