“My administrative assistant.”

  “And you were doing what exactly?”

  “Talking.”

  “About what?”

  “Business.”

  None of your business, he wanted to add.

  “Was the door open or closed?”

  “Closed,” Ronnie said.

  The inspector looked out the office window into the front of house. “Were the blinds pulled up like they are now?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you could see out into the other room.”

  “Yes, but I didn’t see Jade fall.”

  The inspector stood and looked out the window from near Ronnie’s desk. He sketched something in his notebook and sat back down.

  “So you didn’t see it,” the inspector said. “You must have heard something?”

  “Yes, some kind of crash. I assume that was Jade falling and hitting the floor. Then, I heard screaming.”

  “Screaming?”

  “Someone said something loudly. They shouted ‘Oh no!’ or something close to that. I don’t remember the exact words.”

  “Okay. Then what did you do?”

  “I jumped up from my chair and went to the door.”

  “Did you go out the door?”

  “Not at first. I stood there to see what the problem was, and saw someone on the floor, then realized it was Jade, mostly from what she was wearing. And Tim Clarke, the customer, was kneeling next to her. Scarlett was standing right near her. She called the emergency line.”

  “Did you touch the body?”

  Ronnie winced a little at the inspector’s bluntness. For a high-ranking policeman, he certainly didn’t have much tact. “Jade? No.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not a doctor. Tim was there. He was in uniform, and I assumed he knew first aid, I guess. And I figured he had some kind of battlefield training.”

  “How did you know he knew first aid?”

  “I just assumed,” repeated Ronnie, trying hard not to let his irritation show. “Like I said, Tim was in uniform and he was already next to her. He looked like he was in command, you know, in charge.”

  “So you just stood there.”

  “I think I stepped closer. Yes, I must have, because I was almost standing over her when the police arrived.”

  Inspector Rogerson scribbled quickly, attempting to keep up with the heightened pace of Ronnie’s patter.

  As Ronnie watched the inspector, his thoughts turned to Amanda. He needed to leave soon if he was going to meet her at the train station.

  “Listen, Inspector, how long is this interview going to take exactly?”

  “It takes exactly as long as it takes.” The man fixed Ronnie with a stern look. “Do you have something more important to do?”

  Actually, yes.

  “I’m supposed to meet my girlfriend at Oxford station,” he said. “You mind if I text her and let her know I might be running a little late?”

  “Go ahead,” said the inspector.

  Ronnie grabbed his phone and started typing.

  +++

  Outside Jones’s Estate Agents, Bicester, England

  Tim had his own investigation to worry about, and now he had somehow become a witness in this one. He hadn’t seen what had happened, because he was looking at the property displays when he heard Jade fall to the floor. There wasn’t much he could offer as a witness, but having spent so many years on the other side of a case, he knew the best thing he could do was to cooperate as much as he could and let the police do their jobs.

  He was standing outside with Carla, the administrative assistant, when Ronnie stepped out.

  “You were in there a long time,” Carla said.

  “I can’t stay,” Ronnie said.

  “Why not?” Tim asked.

  “I need to get to the train station.”

  “They said we all have to stay,” Carla reminded him.

  “I did my interview. The inspector said I could go.”

  “Lucky you,” Tim said.

  Ronnie cast a withering look at Tim. “You were standing there. Right next to her.”

  “Sorry?”

  “To Jade. When she fell.”

  “Yes, I was. I’m sorry, but I don’t follow.”

  “You let her just fall to the ground like that.”

  “I didn’t even see it.”

  Ronnie eyes flashed with irritation. “How convenient.”

  “She was behind me,” Tim explained. “I was checking out display photos. It was over before I turned around.”

  “Over for her, but not for us, apparently.”

  Carla started crying. “Don’t say that!”

  “What?”

  “It’s not over for her. She’s gonna be okay. You said Jade was gonna be okay.”

  “Yeah, I did say that,” Ronnie admitted. “But I’m not a doctor, now am I?” Then he held his tongue. He didn’t know if the police inspector wanted to be the one to tell the others Jade didn’t make it. And besides, he had somewhere else he needed to be.

  “You’re the worst,” Carla spat.

  “I’m your boss, Carla. That still counts for something. And maybe I am the worst, but at least I would have caught her before she hit her head on the floor.”

  Tim didn’t dignify the comment with a reply.

  He saw another man approach. The man looked familiar, but Tim couldn’t recall where he’d seen him before.

  Ronnie seemed to know him. “Cliff!”

  “What’s happening?” Cliff asked. “A lot of commotion. Is everything all right?”

  “All right for a disaster,” Ronnie said. “Jade got sick or something. She keeled over, fell to the floor and hit her head, I think.”

  “God, that’s terrible. Is she going to be okay?”

  “She was frothing at the mouth,” Ronnie said. “Didn’t look like she was breathing much, if at all.”

  “Could be a heart attack or stroke,” offered Tim.

  “At her age?” Carla scoffed, sounding skeptical.

  “It’s possible,” Tim replied solemnly. “You’d be surprised how many young people get struck down like that. We had a guy in the garrison die of a heart attack. He was twenty-two and fit as a fiddle. Until he wasn’t.”

  Ronnie shook his head. “When I was inside, giving my statement, I overheard the police saying she was probably poisoned.”

  This made sense to Tim. He’d handled a few poisoning cases before that had presented in a similar way.

  “Could be,” he agreed, “judging from the foaming at the mouth.”

  “Maybe she’ll pull through,” Carla said, her voice filled with hope. “The medics got here quick, and I’m sure they’ve seen this a thousand times, whatever it is.”

  Ronnie couldn’t take it anymore. “She’s dead,” he stated flatly.

  It was kinder to tell them.

  A heavy silence seized the group. Then, Carla whimpered softly and put a hand up to cover her mouth. “Oh my god.”

  She turned her back to the others, putting her face in her hands. A moment later, her shoulders shook with quiet sobs.

  “Are you sure?” Tim asked Ronnie. “Who told you that?”

  “The inspector.”

  “Did they say what kind of poison it was?” Cliff asked.

  Ronnie shook his head. “No. I don’t think they know yet. I’m sure they’ll have to do a bunch of tests. Toxicology. A post-mortem. It could be a while before we find out. If we find out.”

  “We have to find out,” said Tim.

  “It’s probably best to let the professionals handle it,” Cliff said.

  I am a professional, Tim thought. He knew how to run an investigation, and now that he was wrapped up in this, he needed to get to the bottom of it. A woman had died on his watch. Right next to him.

  This one was personal. Even if there was also a hostile on the loose he needed to catch.

  Tim’s mind raced with questions. If it was poison, that might explain the foaming at the mouth. It was also a strong lead that could bring out the truth of what happened, whether it was an intentional crime or an accident.

  Tim turned to face Ronnie directly. “She said something about lunch. She had lunch and she was thirsty.”

  “I didn’t hear that,” Ronnie said. “I was in my office with the door closed.”

  “I know, but I heard it and Scarlett heard it.”

  “So?”

  “Did you see her eat anything?”

  “No, I was in my office. I told you that.”

  “I mean before. You weren’t in your office all day, were you?”

  “No, I usually leave it open, but I had to talk to Carla about something, so I shut the door.”

  “Talk to her about what?”

  “None of your business, that’s what.”

  Tim could see Ronnie starting to become hostile. “No need to get defensive,” he said.

  “I’m not getting defensive,” Ronnie responded. “But if you’re going to go on the attack, maybe I should reconsider.”

  “What was your relationship with her like?”

  “My relationship?” Ronnie’s voice got louder. “I was her boss. She was an employee. That’s the only relationship. What the hell are you getting at?”

  “I’m just trying to figure out what happened here.”

  “What happened here is you let a woman fall to the floor without doing a damn thing about it until she was half-dead.”

  “That’s unfair, and you know it.”

  “You don’t even know her,” Ronnie said. “You don’t even know anything about this place. You’re the client. You walk in here, pretending to buy a property—”

  Tim interrupted him. “I fully intended to buy a property.”

  “Or maybe you were intending to poison her.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “She was standing right next to you. You were the closest one to her. And you did nothing but watch her fall.”

  “I didn’t see her fall,” Tim repeated.

  “Stop it!” Carla shouted. “Just stop it. Bickering isn’t going to bring Jade back.”

  Ronnie put a hand on Carla’s shoulder to comfort her. Carla leaned into him and he wrapped his arms around her as she wept. He stared daggers at Tim.

  “We should just let the investigators handle this,” Cliff said gently.

  “I am an investigator,” Tim said.

  “Maybe,” Ronnie said, “but this isn’t your jurisdiction.”

  “Got something to hide?” Tim pressed.

  “No, but you were with her when she dropped dead.”

  “It wasn’t me who gave her the glass of water.”

  “What glass of water?” Ronnie asked.

  Just then, Scarlett stepped out of the office. “Stop. Just stop. Everyone can hear you arguing from inside. This isn’t helping. We have to stop turning on each other. We have work to do, and we need to do it together.”

  Carla stepped away from Ronnie to stand on her own.

  “What are you talking about?” Cliff asked Scarlett.

  “We need to find out who killed her.”

  “Agreed,” said Tim.

  Scarlett turned to him. “You’re an investigator, right?”

  “For the military, yes.”

  “I know it’s not your jurisdiction, but if it was, what would you do? How would you handle it?”

  Tim glanced around. “The police seem to be doing a reasonable job with evidence collection and interviewing.”

  “I mean in terms of thinking it through,” she said. “What are the reasonable assumptions?”

  “There are no reasonable assumptions,” Tim said. “In the case of a suspected murder you don’t want to assume anything. You can’t afford to. That’s where mistakes get made and killers go free. You have to look at the evidence.”

  “But there are patterns, right?” Ronnie asked.

  “Sure,” Tim agreed. “In a poisoning case, normally your prime suspect would be the person closest to the victim at the time of the poisoning.”

  “That would be you,” Ronnie said curtly.

  “Not necessarily,” Tim pointed out. “She could have been poisoned at lunch, either accidentally or on purpose. To be honest, my money is on the husband.”

  Ronnie looked skeptical. “She told you she was married?”

  “I noticed her ring. We didn’t talk about her husband and I know nothing about her marriage, but you asked about patterns. A wife gets poisoned, it could be the husband. Usually is.”

  “But isn’t poison a woman’s weapon?” Scarlett asked. “I must have read that in a dozen novels.”

  “No, not necessarily.”

  Ronnie scowled. “But why would Frank kill her?”

  “That’s the husband?”

  “Frank Hogarth, yeah. I know him, and I don’t buy it. Why would he do something like that?”

  “Could be a few reasons. If it were rage it probably wouldn’t be poison. I’d rule out the domestic violence angle. A poisoning is a calm, calculated crime. It takes planning.”

  “And a motivation,” Ronnie said. “What’s the motivation?”

  Tim shrugged. “Jade told me about the house she owned. Insurance money is a common motive for spousal murders.”

  The sound of a phone buzzing prompted everyone to check their pockets.

  “It’s mine,” said Ronnie. “Amanda. I’m already running late. I need go pick her up at the train station.”

  Scarlett reached into her purse. “Oh, I still need to give you this.” She handed him an ID.

  “Right, thanks,” Ronnie said.

  “Scarlett Slater.” A booming voice called out from the doorway of the estate agent’s office. The group turned to see the inspector staring intensely at Scarlett.

  “Yes?” she said.

  “Come with us, please.”

  In a matter of seconds, two uniformed officers flanked her, each taking one of her arms. They marched her toward one of three parked police cars.

  “Am I under arrest?” she asked, her voice trembling.

  “We just need to ask you a few more questions,” the inspector said as they helped her into the car.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Police Station, Police House, Queens Ave, Bicester

  The room Scarlett found herself in was the size of a walk-in closet. There was a small metal table pressed up against one wall, leaving three sides of the table open. At two adjacent sides were metal chairs that were so uncomfortable that they could reasonably be classified as torture devices.

  Scarlett sat in the chair with the best view of the door. She was left alone in the room for a while. The constables had brought her in and sat her down telling her to wait. For what, she didn’t know. But given the label “Interrogation 1” on the door, interrogation seemed to be the order of the day.

  A full five minutes passed before she remembered her job.

  Karl!

  She had stepped out for a short afternoon break with the intention of returning in fifteen minutes. She was just going to drop off the ID to Ronnie and head straight back, but then Jade had dropped dead right in front her, and suddenly the world went mad with medics and police and witnesses all pointing fingers at each other. Now she was alone in a sterile metal cage waiting to be questioned.

  I need to text Karl.

  Though she had passed through a metal detector on her way into the police station, they hadn’t taken her phone away from her, for which she was thankful.

  “Sorry, I’m at the police station,” she wrote to Karl. “Someone died in Ronnie’s building and I’m a witness. I’ll be back to work ASAP.”

  The day had already stretched into late afternoon and it was looking like she wouldn’t be able to get back to the shop before closing.

  The door swung open and in walked the detective inspector. It was the same man who had been at Ronnie’s. His name was something Rogerson, she had caught.

  “Thanks for coming down to the station,” he said, closing the door. He took the only other seat.

  “Not that I had much choice,” she said pointedly.

  He opened his notebook and clicked his pen. “Actually, Ms. Slater, you do have choices. Choosing to cooperate, for example, would be a great choice.”

  Scarlett ignored him. “Am I under arrest?”

  “No,” he replied. “If you were, believe me you’d know it.”

  It wasn’t very reassuring, but at least it was an answer.

  “Then I’m free to go?” she asked.

  “The door’s not locked. But you should understand that the government grants significant powers to the police force to investigate crimes. There’s the easy way and the hard way. This is the easy way. Cooperation. Questions and answers. The hard way takes longer and is a much bigger pain for everyone involved, believe me.” He paused. “I need to make sure that you understand your rights. You’re not under arrest. You have the right to a lawyer. Would you like a lawyer at this time?”

  Scarlett knew she hadn’t done anything wrong. She was here as a witness, not a suspect. She wanted to help in any way she could, and as he had said, doing things the hard way would cause pain and delays on all sides. She couldn’t afford a private lawyer even if she needed one, so the prospect of getting a one seemed extravagant and unnecessary.

  Just tell the truth and you’ll be okay, she told herself.

  “No,” she said.

  “I’m going to ask you a few questions. I know we spoke briefly at the crime scene, but I need to be thorough. Please don’t be offended if I repeat some questions. That’s standard. It helps us get to the facts. A woman died today, and we need to make sure we know the truth.”

  Scarlett frowned. “Then she really is dead?”

  “Yes, I’m afraid so. I know she was a friend of yours.”

  Jade had been more a friend of Amanda’s, truth be told. Scarlett had known her, but not well. She wondered now if anyone had told Amanda that Jade was dead. Ronnie would be at the train station soon, so she imagined he would break the news to her.

  Scarlett’s mind was racing. “Someone overheard you thought poison might be involved,” she blurted out.

  “Yes,” he confirmed. “We have reason to believe she may have been poisoned. We’ll know more when the lab results come in.”

 

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