Gene was on his feet. “I don’t see how you came to this
conclusion, Ms. Jones.” He turned to Judith. “I assume this
was actually your idea, Ms. Flynn?”
“Well, yes,” Judith admitted as all eyes turned in her direction. With scrupulous attention to detail, she went over her
reasoning. “The pillow is the key,” she said after enumerating
her deductions. “If you turned it over,” Judith said directly
to Gene, “I suspect you’d find traces of lipstick and other
makeup on the pillowcase.”
Nadia blanched at the implied violence. “That’s awful!
Who would do such a thing?”
All eyes avoided Nadia. “We
usual self-confidence slipping a notch.
“Then do it,” Killegrew ordered. “We’ll all go this time.”
He stood up. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
“No!” Nadia cried. “I’m not going back to that room!”
“Neither am I,” Ava declared.
“Dead people make me throw up,” Margo asserted.
“I’m squeamish,” said Russell.
In the end, Killegrew, Gene, Max, and Ward headed upstairs. The others retreated into the library, apparently in
search of a different venue. Judith had tried to prod Renie
into joining the upstairs contingent, but there wasn’t room
for a fifth person in the elevator. Renie suggested that she
and Judith take a look at the room later.
“How do we get in?” Judith asked, putting another log on
the fire.
“Good question,” Renie replied. “Ava said Andrea’s door
wasn’t locked when she and Nadia went up there this
morning. As far as we know, the key is still in Andrea’s room.
I assume someone will look for it now. We’ll have to ask.”
“With Gene on hand, they won’t search the place,” Judith
pointed out. “Which means they’ll have to leave the door
unlocked.”
“Good point,” said Renie, taking a cigarette from her
purse and indicating the bottles on the coffee table. “Dare
we?”
“At ten A.M.?” Judith gave a little shake of her head.
“It’s ten-thirty,” Renie said dryly. “Anyway, who’s counting? This isn’t exactly a typical Saturday morning in January.”
“It sure isn’t,” Judith began, and then stopped. A strange
buzzing noise sounded from somewhere close by. “What is
that? A timer?”
“It sounds like my new oven,” Renie said. “It beeps at me
when the temperature gets up to whatever I’ve set it for.”
The noise stopped. Judith went to the big front windows,
gazing out at the snow. “It’s drifted so that I can hardly see
anything,” she said. “I wonder how much fell during the
night.”
