“You might want tae wait,” Edwin said.
“I don’t want to wait.” I shook my head.
Rosie said, “Let her tell us, Edwin. We’d all lie for her anyway.”
The tiny pull of a smile showed briefly at Hamlet’s lips, but he sobered again quickly. Edwin frowned.
“Whatever you’re comfortable with, lass,” Edwin said.
“I’ll let ye know if someone comes back ’round inside,” Rosie said as she scooted her chair to a position where she could better see the door.
I told them about the pub. I even told them what Rena had almost confirmed about Sophie and Dr. Eban. I mentioned her strange, last-minute concern for Sophie if something happened to her. But mostly, I tried to relay Dr. Eban’s curiosity about the warehouse, while mentioning that I hadn’t noticed if Mallory had seemed as curious. Had she? Had someone last night done something in the pub, directed toward Mallory, that should have made me worried for her safety, or suspicious? Replaying the events didn’t shed any new light.
I tried to recall if anyone had been watching us with evil intentions in their eyes, but nothing came to me. Even the as-described “odd” Dr. Eban hadn’t seemed evil, and the sighting of the gray-haired man seemed insignificant—so much so that I was sure my mind had turned the moment into something it really hadn’t been.
I remembered finding Dr. Eban endearing at one point. In my mind, the evening still ended with me getting into my own cab after I’d watched Rena get into hers, my concern for her much greater than for anyone else. We’d both seen Mallory drive off with Sophie in tow, but I had no way of knowing if any of them had made it home or if, like me, hadn’t wanted to go directly home.
I didn’t think Sophie had it in her to kill anyone, but figured maybe the police should look at her and the cabdriver. My concern for Rena was renewed, and I had an urge to call both of the women to ask if they were okay, but Edwin told me to wait.
I hadn’t seen anyone else when Tom and I came into the bookshop, but perhaps one of them could have been lurking in the dark close, and unless we’d heard something we would never have considered looking there. I didn’t turn the light on in the kitchen and didn’t glance even briefly at the window as we passed by it on our way to and from the warehouse. We didn’t hear a window break.
“Mallory didnae seem at all interested when Dr. Eban brought up the warehouse?” Rosie asked.
“No, but I was so focused on Dr. Eban at that moment that I wasn’t paying attention to the others. I was also worried Sophie might do or say something she would later regret, so I had some attention on her, but I didn’t pay much attention to Mallory.”
“You’re certain you’d only met her last night?” Edwin said.
“One hundred percent sure,” I said.
“You don’t remember seeing her in the bookshop?” Edwin asked.
“Never,” I said. “The three of them seemed to be pretty good friends, but Rena and Sophie didn’t mention her to me before. There’s no reason to think they would; our friendship is still new. There was a sense of camaraderie between them all. She was a welcome member of the group last night, but so was I. There was no sense that anyone was unwelcome, except for the doctor, and the women weren’t rude to him.” I took a deep breath. The reality of the murder just kept getting bigger.
“Ye couldnae’ve seen this coming, Delaney,” Rosie said.
“Do you suppose I was followed back to the shop? Tom and I came to look for the scalpels, but we locked the doors. When we left we were both nervous about what we’d found. Tom wanted to call you, Edwin.”
“You think the scalpels are genuine?” Hamlet asked.
“Unless they’re some sort of novelty items—and we’ve seen that sort of thing before. They were in a small hinged case with Dr. Knox’s name engraved on the outside.”
“I didn’t know about them either,” Edwin said. “Rosie, Hamlet?”
“No,” Hamlet said.
“I dinnae think so,” Rosie said. “But there’s so much back there. I’d have tae see them tae be certain.”
“Do you think that Mallory somehow knew they were there, or her killer knew?” Hamlet asked.
“I have no idea. I didn’t sense that Dr. Eban’s questions were frivolous; but he was curious, not certain. Maybe Mallory was just curious enough to come looking,” I said.
“And someone else too,” Rosie said. “Curious enough tae kill her tae get tae them first.”
“But they didn’t get there first, I don’t think,” I said as I looked at Edwin. “The warehouse seemed undisturbed? It’s impossible to know if she was killed because of something in the warehouse or just because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I need to look in the drawer. Should we go do that?”
“No, not until the police tell me it’s clear,” Edwin said. “It seemed undisturbed.”
I nodded and blinked away a swell of tears. I swallowed hard just as the bell above the door jingled way too happily.
A man dressed in the head-to-toe white coveralls came around the corner. He pulled off the hood and down on the face mask, and his eyes landed on me. He wasn’t the same officer I’d seen outside the shop.
“You are?” he asked, with not a hint of a Scottish accent.
“Delaney Nichols,” I said as I stood. “I was here last night, officer.”
“You were?” He lifted his eyebrows. He was a big man, and I guessed he
