At first he scowled, but then he seemed genuinely interested.
“Hand-drawn?” he said.
“No computers back then,” I said. I wanted to tell him more about the books, where they came from, but not without Gaylord present. I was probably already talking too much.
“Must be worth a fortune.”
“We’ve had more valuable books in the shop, but this one and its companion volumes are worth at least a few thousand.”
“Sounds pretty valuable to me. What’s the value of this shop’s inventory?”
“It would be impossible tae put a number tae it,” Rosie said.
“That’s what Mr. MacAlister said,” Inspector Pierce said as he looked at the book again. He’d been testing us, or confirming.
I thought about telling him that we kept all the really valuable books locked up in the warehouse, but that wasn’t true. We did keep some back there, but not all of them. We had no alarms, and if someone wanted to break a window and take something from the shelves, they could probably get away with it. I’d pointed those issues out to Edwin more than once, and he’d taken my comments under consideration. But I didn’t think he’d ever secure the shop the way Inspectors Pierce and Winters thought it should be secured.
I cleared my throat. “Did you hear from an Inspector Winters?”
Inspector Pierce blinked at me. “I have a message to call him. Friend of yours?”
“Yes.”
“Delaney, did you tell him something you didn’t tell me because he’s a friend?”
“No, I told him that I wasn’t sure you were making a connection between the legendary reputation of the warehouse, the scalpels, and Dr. Eban’s fooling you. He told me I would be incorrect in my assumption and that the police were used to people attempting to fool them.” It was almost the whole truth.
He blinked again, and shook his head this time. “How do you think he’s fooling me?”
“The skull maybe.”
“Because he has access to the skull room on campus and placing a skull next to the victim would seem too obvious, so someone must have planted it there?”
I nodded.
“I appreciate your concern regarding my methods, but your friend is correct: I’m working hard not to let anyone fool me.”
“Good.”
“Let’s look at the kitchen window from the inside first,” he said.
Rosie and I shared a glance as I followed behind Inspector Pierce. She put her finger up to her lips as if to tell me to remain as mum as I could. She was probably more concerned about Gaylord not being there than I was. I nodded. I could tell she tried not to look doubtful, but she didn’t pull it off.
I was as curious as Inspector Pierce. Would we find something no one had noticed before?
But there was nothing new to see. The window hadn’t been opened from the inside in so many years that Inspector Pierce and I both speculated on the number of paint layers that were keeping the frame from moving even if the security grate hadn’t been in place. From the inside, there was no indication that anyone might have jimmied or tampered with it.
Per my idea, Inspector Pierce carried a chair outside to the close. We both started to hurry when we spied something colorful and unexpected under the window.
“Flowers,” I said as we got closer.
“Don’t touch them,” Inspector Pierce said as he set the chair to the side and then crouched.
“I don’t see any cards or anything that might indicate who left them,” I said.
“They could be from anyone.” Inspector Pierce stood and looked up and down the close. “I already noticed there are no cameras around.”
It wasn’t a question, but I said, “Not that I’m aware of.”
“After all the media coverage, this might turn into some sort of shrine, which is fine, but I’d like to have a look at anyone who wants to pay their respects. I’m going to get in touch with the city and put some closed-circuit cameras around here.”
“You must think I’m innocent, or you wouldn’t have just told me your plan,” I said with a small smile.
“Oh, I don’t think you’re innocent,” he said far too seriously. “But I also don’t think you killed Mallory Clacher.”
“I’m guilty of something else?”
“I don’t know. You’re too involved and I wonder if you’re trying to hide something.”
I wanted to defend myself. But Gaylord would have thought that a bad idea, so I didn’t respond.
Inspector Pierce didn’t seem to care. He moved the chair under the window and climbed atop it. “Still looks like a file was taken to it, but I have a hard time believing anyone would hold out much hope that that would work.” He climbed down and grabbed the chair. “It looks no different down here than when I first saw it, except for the flowers. I don’t think you tampered with anything.”
“Of course not.”
He sent me a stern look, the likes of which I hadn’t seen since my father caught me trying a cigarette when I was fourteen. One cough-riddled puff had been the extent of my bad-girl ways. Dad’s stern look had thwarted that method of rebellion, but not as much as the burn in my chest and throat had.
Inspector Pierce carried the chair as we headed back down the close toward the bookshop.
“Delaney, have you ever heard of Dr. Glenn?” he asked as we came out of the close and into Grassmarket.
“Sounds like a name I’ve heard, but I can’t place when,” I said.
“Okay, so have you ever heard of the murderer Dr. Glenn?”
“No.”
“Look him up. He was friends with Dr. Eban and Dr. Carson. Ten years ago, he was accused of killing some patients at the hospital. He was also a professor at the medical school.” He stopped walking and put the chair down. He pulled out his phone and called up a website. He held the phone toward me. “Have you ever seen this man?”
I looked at the picture a long time because, in fact, he did look familiar, but only slightly.
“I’m
