Dinah followed close behind as I walked in the front door of the building. This time I didn't go upstairs, but headed for the door that led to the courtyard. The building was shaped like a U around it. Along the back there was a one-story building with a jewelry store and another that sold educational toys. Behind that was the back parking lot.
Outside in the courtyard, it looked like just another warm September day. The created creek meandered betweenminihills that were landscaped to death, with bushes and flowers and patches of grass. Around the edge there was a big concrete walkway.
I looked up at the wooden stairway. It led to the balconiesthat ran along each floor that housed offices. I noticedremnants of yellow police tape flapping in the breeze on the fourth floor.
My eyes traveled straight down. I shuddered. Orange cones sectioned off a small area of the concrete, and I realizedthat was where Natalie had landed. When we reached the cones, I shuddered again. The concrete appeared mottled,as if it had been cleaned but everything wouldn't come up.
'We're going to redo the sidewalk there,' a man in a sport jacket and slacks said. He held out his hand and introducedhimself as Derek Sanderson, the leasing agent for the center. 'You ladies are the ones who called about leasingsome space?' He smiled with artificial friendliness.
Dinah and I looked at each other, and I took the lead. Why not take this unexpected opportunity?
'It was just terrible what happened.' I gestured up toward the PSS PR office. 'What's going to happen to their space?'
Derek did the salesman thing of telling me he had something much better to show us, and he pointed to an empty suite on the second floor. 'And what line of work are you ladies in?' He glanced at our clothes, which did look a bit casual for two titans of industry.
'Tutoring. We run a tutoring service,' Dinah said, winkingat me. She explained she was an instructor at Beasley Community College. She started a rant on how unprepared all the students were, explaining that our tutoring service was to catch them while they were still in high school. I watched Derek's eyes glaze over, and he waved his hand and nodded.
'That office will be perfect for you.'
I nodded, then glanced back up toward the fourth floor. 'Is that where it happened?'
Derek tried to avoid the subject. 'We're having the railingredone to make it higher.'
'But that's where she fell?' I said, getting dizzy thinkingabout what it would be like to go over the edge.
'Jumped,' he corrected. 'No matter what anybody says, we're not liable. But, ladies, let's not be morbid,' he said in a cheerful tone. He gestured for us to follow him to the available office.
'We're really interested in that one.' I pointed up towardthe fourth floor. I could hear Derek groaning quietly. 'Is it available?'
'You're not lookie-loo crime-scene groupies, are you?' We both shook our heads vehemently. 'We've seen a lot of those.' He adopted a singsongy voice. 'They want to be part of history. That's what they all say.'
I rolled my eyes at Dinah. We both thought that be-part-of-history business was way overused. Being invited to the presidential inaugural ball counted as being part of history. Seeing a crime scene or making some squares for a charity afghan connected to a dead woman did not.
Derek hesitated, but finally relented. I guess he decided it was better to err on the side of our being what we actuallysaid we were, on the slight chance we were legit. I felt just the smallest smidgen of guilt at misleading him, but, then, I wasn't there like the others with their morbid curiosity.I was investigating.
He took us inside to the elevator. As we rode up, he suddenlygot chatty and said that the public-relations firm was going to be relocating to some talent-management companyin the city. This office wasn't immediately available like the second-floor one, but if we had our hearts set on it, he was sure arrangements could be made.
It felt strange going inside, and I was surprised to hear voices. Derek explained that the office staff was still workingthere. He assured us the office would be recarpeted, pointing to a round stain in the center of the reception area. I bent down to look at it more closely. Derek said they'd shampooed it several times, but the spot wouldn't come out. I touched it, and it felt faintly greasy. Instinctively I sniffed my fingers, but the scent of freshly brewed coffee overpowered any residue.
Leo, the receptionist, was sipping the source of the fragranceat his desk, and I was relieved that he didn't seem to recognize me. Mostly, he just looked stunned.
Derek Sanderson seemed anxious to have us look and leave. But I didn't need to check
I made some excuse about wanting to check the window and wall sizes, saying the office was just what we were looking for. I even got Derek to get me a tape measure.
Dinah picked up on what I was doing and distracted him as I supposedly measured. While supposedly taking notes on the sizes, I kept conveniently dropping my pencil into boxes, which gave me a perfect excuse to ruffle through their contents.
Dinah kept talking at Derek Sanderson, lecturing him on the trickle-down effect of our supposed tutoring center. She was so convincing, I almost believed we were doing it. But she could only hold his attention so long. I needed to move fast and unobtrusively. Luckily, nobody seemed to notice I had to be the klutziest person on earth. Most of the open-top boxes seemed to contain papers and things like press kits and office supplies. I was down to two boxes and beginning to lose hope. I'd gone from dropping my pencil to letting the tape measure slip. I bent down to rummage and felt my heart rate go up. Next to a file of newspaper clippings there was a medium-size leather notebook. I flipped it over, and my breath caught. Its cover said APPOINTMENTSin gold letters. My hands were shaking as I opened it and thumbed through the pages. I was so intent on my mission, I didn't hear the real estate agent's cell phone go off. The pages stuck together as I tried to locate the page for the day Ellen died.
'Hey, what are you doing?' Sanderson yelled, staring at me as he flipped his phone shut. He stepped over, grabbed the book out of my hand and dropped it into the box.
He grasped my arm and then Dinah's and hustled us out the door. 'Not lookie-loos, my foot. I should call the cops.'
As we stepped out into the hall, two women in black power suits approached. He gave us a rough push toward the elevators and turned on a full-beam smile at them.
It wasn't until we were safely ensconced in Starbucks that my heart stopped pounding. 'I can't believe how close I was, again. If only the pages hadn't stuck together, I might have seen the page before he ripped the book out of my hands.'
Dinah tried to make me feel better, saying I had done the best I could. Then she asked me about the last time I'd talked to Natalie.
Having a rapid heart rate hadn't stopped me from gettinga red-eye, and I took a sip as I thought back to the call, wanting to get what Natalie said right. In the process somethingelse surfaced.
'Wow, I'd forgotten. Someone came in the room while we were talking. Natalie sounded surprised and something else. Maybe worried. She'd been telling me about finding Ellen's book and said something that didn't make sense.' I struggled, trying to recall Natalie's exact words. 'It was something about not what was there, but what wasn't.'
Dinah ran a wooden stirrer through her chai latte. 'What do you think she meant?'
I sighed. 'I never got a chance to ask her. She had to get off the phone. I thought I would straighten it out when I saw her. But . . .' I swallowed hard.
Two men with laptops came in and sat down at the small round table next to us. I leaned closer and dropped my voice to keep our conversation private.
'Suppose whoever overheard Natalie understood what she meant, and they realized Natalie knew something about Ellen's death, and they--'
'Faked the suicide,' Dinah said, almost in a whisper.
'And in one move,' I said in a voice so low I could barely hear myself, 'got rid of Natalie and ended the investigationof Ellen's death.'
Dinah wanted to know whether I remembered anything from the call that might give away the person's
