“In business since the 1950s, this room since the mid-1960s.”
“Only one attempted break-in, if that’s what happened here, in all that time?” Inspector Pierce said.
“Aye,” Edwin said.
Gaylord lifted his eyebrows in my direction, but didn’t say anything.
I didn’t understand what Inspector Pierce didn’t believe, but it was clear he suspected he wasn’t getting the whole truth somewhere.
“I’m going to talk to the other women you were with, as well as Dr. Eban, today. I need you to call me if you remember anything else that might help.”
“I will,” I said.
“Inspector, do you know about the skull room at the university?” Edwin interjected.
“Yes, and we have confirmed that the skull found next to the victim was from there. The skulls are marked on their insides. That might prove to be the easiest part of the case.”
He’d answered quickly. We all looked at him. I wondered if he regretted sharing that bit of information. He didn’t appear to.
“Lock this place up,” Inspector Pierce said after he’d pulled out his phone and taken pictures of the scalpels in the drawer. “I see no reason to turn it upside down. It looks like no one got in here and the items that were discussed are undisturbed. Let me get some results on the fingerprints and I’ll let you know when you can resume as normal.”
Inspector Pierce watched me closely as I relocked the door. He had us glance into the kitchen. The window was broken, but there was no glass. I assumed it had been cleaned up by the police. Black fingerprint dust decorated the small window frame.
“You can board up the window from the outside if you’d like,” Inspector Pierce said. “I really don’t want you on this side for at least the rest of today, at least until I hear if any of the crime scene folks need to come back. If you just want to leave it, those bars will keep anything out; anything larger than a cat or a rat, I suppose.”
“I’d rather not tempt any animals. I’ll have it taken care of from the other side,” Edwin said.
“Suit yourself.”
The close wasn’t like some alleys I was familiar with back in the States. As with most of them in Edinburgh, it was clean, a space for exploration. It had been named Warden’s Close because a prison warden had once lived on it, back in the day when people were packed together in the city and creatures like rats brought fleas that spread the plague, killing off much of the population. Twice. I hadn’t see a rat since coming to Edinburgh, other than one time when Tom and I took a walk by the ocean and came upon some docks. A rat, cute enough for a children’s book, had peered out at us from under some wooden planks, twitching his whiskers before he disappeared under again.
As cute as that rat had been and despite the fact that I hadn’t ever seen one near the bookshop, I was all for boarding up the window, no matter from which side.
We watched as the remaining officers and then Gaylord left the shop, leaving behind them an unexpected silence and sense of discomfort. I hadn’t realized that though it was weird having them there, their official capacity had also layered in a sense of protection that they took with them.
“I’ll have the shop cleaned,” Edwin said. “Everyone please go home and get some rest. We’ll begin business as usual tomorrow if the police say it’s okay.”
The front door swung open. It was the woman with the blond curly hair. Bridget. It was as if she had been lurking outside and waiting.
Her eyes moved over each of us, but landed on Tom.
“What are you doing here?” she said.
Tom didn’t answer as he gave Edwin and then me a strained, apologetic frown.
“How can we help you, lass?” Edwin said.
Reluctantly, she pulled her attention away from my pub owner. “My name is Bridget Carr. I’m with the Renegade Scot. I heard there was a murder here,” she said. “I’d like tae get the facts straight for an article.”
Love goes by haps; Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
Hello, bookish voice. Hero’s words to Ursula from Much Ado About Nothing might have come to me because of something I sensed in Tom’s attitude toward his old friend. Or maybe she was just so pretty that I wanted to shine some sort of bad light on their previous relationship.
“I’m sorry, we won’t be able tae help you with that today. Perhaps you could give us some time and maybe stop by tomorrow,” Edwin said.
“It’ll be old news by then,” she said with a smile and a shrug. “Was there a murder?”
“Lass, I’m sorry. We’ll have tae ask you tae leave,” Edwin said impatiently.
Unbothered, she stood a moment and stared at Edwin. The strained silence lasted a few beats too long before she sent Tom what might have been a glare, though it was difficult to interpret, and then left the shop.
“A friend of yours?” Edwin asked Tom.
“Used tae be,” Tom said.
“Aye,” Edwin said as he looked out the front window again.
“Aye,” Tom said.
I swallowed the surprise jealousy that blossomed in my chest. I didn’t think I had such a thing in me. I was sure I had no reason to be jealous. Tom gave me another apologetic frown.
But then, just after the frown, I was almost certain that he took a brief but real and curious glance out the front window. That couldn’t have been what I saw. Could it?
No, it must have been my imagination. Hopefully.
SEVEN
Edwin shooed us out of the bookshop. He locked the door and made it clear we weren’t to return until the next day. He would have someone board up the window later in the afternoon, but he didn’t want any of us to join him for the task. Rosie, Hamlet, and I argued that we should be there too, but Edwin wasn’t to
