Chapter 13 #2
“Admittedly, Mina isn’t helping sell the concept.” Morrie draws an arrow on his murder board. “We can have a look through her social media accounts, see if anything leaps out. What about the unhoused man, Erin wossisname?”
“Earl Larson. He’s harmless.”
“Now, now, everyone is a suspect where our Mina is concerned,” Morrie adds his name to the legal pad.
“I think he’s our best lead, especially given the smell and the stolen money.
Mina said he was sheltering under the eaves when she arrived last night, before the storm got really bad.
But none of us saw him out there after the murder.
If he moved that book, it means he came into the shop last night.
It could be an opportunistic killing. Now, as for the knife… Jo sent in her report this morning.”
“Isn’t that information supposed to be kept confidential?”
“Sure is.” Morrie whips out his phone and taps away.
“Now, this knife is a bit unusual. It’s an odd shape, almost like an ancient blade from the Middle East, and the handle has these elaborate carvings, but it’s modern.
Jo says she can’t identify it as a replica, but she’s taking it to an ancient weapons expert. ”
“Jo just sent information about an active murder investigation to a friend of the chief suspect?” Mina’s eyebrows shoot up like my heart rate whenever we run out of whisky.
“No, no. Jo is way too moralistic for that. I hacked her phone, obviously. Do you know anything about this knife?”
Morrie holds out his phone, and Mina peers close to the screen. “Yeah. Marcus Ribald did a collection two years ago that was all about the Persian Empire. He had these knives made to go in the goodie bags at the premiere.”
“So only people who attended that show would have got these knives?”
“Yeah, as well as everyone in the office, but half of them would’ve gone straight home and stuck them on eBay.
” She shrugs. “The little-known secret about fashion people is that they’ll all up to their eyeballs in credit card debt to finance their wardrobes.
If other people can’t see you wear it, there’s no point in owning it.
Ashley and I sold our blades the following week.
They paid for three months of rent and partying.
I doubt you could figure out who owns that knife now. ”
“Still, it’s another connection to the fashion industry, so that’s a start.” Morrie jots that down. “I can start with the knife and the eBay sales. Quoth, can you head over to the police station, see if you can find anything else?”
“Sure.” Quoth stands up and jogs upstairs.
Mina raises another questioning eyebrow. I glare at Morrie, who pretends not to notice because he will not admit that he just messed up.
“If we’re trying to keep Quoth away from the police, then why is he going to the police station?”
“You’re going to sell so many books today.
” Morrie tosses down the pad and crosses the room to peer through the blackout windows at the growing crowd outside.
I notice his shoulders tremble as he struggles to think of a way to distract Mina from his blunder.
“Maybe we’ll be able to eat something other than tinned beans or takeaways this week. ”
“Heathcliff doesn’t want to open today,” Mina complains.
“They’re not here to buy books.” I cross the room to my desk and fling the legal pad into a drawer.
“Then make it impossible for them not to. Move the thrillers and true crime books onto the Sociology shelves, and let them have at it.” Morrie claps his hand on my shoulder.
“That’s actually brilliant.” Mina grins. “I could start—”
“The books stay where they are,” I growl. “And if I’m being forced to open the shop, you’re not going to be here when those biddies come in. Go upstairs and hide. Quoth will light the fire for you, and you can read books and drink all the tea until the shop closes.”
“I get to hang out in your private space, putting my girl germs all over your precious stuff?” Mina wiggles her arse as she stands up, which is fucking dangerous given the mood I’m in.
She may have picked Morrie, but I’m not above bending her over this desk.
“I’m going to mess up the arse-groove in your chair so bad. ”
“Don’t you dare sit in that chair,” I snap. “That was a one-time privilege.”
“It’s going to be too weird sitting up there while you guys are down here working. Can’t I at least have something to do?” Mina reaches for Simson’s ledger. “I know, let me balance the books.”
“Hands off.” I yank it away.
She cannot see what’s in this ledger, or she’ll know our secrets.
“Quoth will keep you company. He can go to the police station later on,” Morrie suggests.
“He can guard my chair from interlopers, is what he can do.” I hug the ledger to my chest.
“See, you’re not really selling it to me.” Mina sighs and kicks her boots off my desk. “I’ll go up, provided you pay me time-and-a-half.”
“You drive a hard bargain, woman.”
“Thanks. I learned from my mother.” Mina grabs a book from the shelf on the way past. She flashes the title to me. Wuthering Heights. Of course. She thinks she’s funny.
Morrie cracks up. I toss a book of Prince Edward’s poetry at his head.
“It’s not funny.”
“It’s a little funny. She’s got us pegged.”
“You’re the one who almost gave our secret away by sending Quoth to the police station. She’s going to figure out you meant he’d fly over there in his bird form.”
“Mina is not going to figure out that we’re all infamous fictional villains because I suggested he go to the police station.
She’s going to think I’m an uncaring asshole, which is accurate.
” Morrie squints outside. “What’s that broken thing in the middle of the street? It looks suspiciously like my laptop.”
“I think you’re seeing things.” I open the ledger. “What are we going to do about this murder?”
“We’re going to solve it, obviously. I don’t see that we have a choice. We can’t allow Hayes to bumble his way to arresting Mina or Quoth for it. We know it wasn’t either of them, which means that someone else broke into the shop. If you’d let me put up CCTV, we’d have this thing solved already.”
“Yes, and we’d also have caught Quoth shifting on tape a gazillion times – if those tapes fell into the wrong hands, it would be all over for the birdie.
Do we need to tell Simson?” My fingers trace his handwriting on the early pages of the ledger.
He’d always known exactly what to do. I don’t like that we’d not heard from him in so long.
Morrie stares at the roof, his features pensive.
“I don’t think we need to involve him. Besides, I don’t know how we’d even find him.
Last time we opened the time-travel room, we almost got our heads blown off during the Blitz.
I think this is an old-fashioned, non-supernatural crime, and we’ll solve it, clear Mina’s name, and I’ll finally get to see what delicious secrets she’s hiding in those tight tartan pants. ”
“You shouldn’t talk about her like that. She’s not a trophy to be won.”
“Is that so?” Morrie’s eyebrows do a jaunty little dance. “Spoken like someone who’s afraid he’s not winning. Or maybe you’re starting to care about—”
Morrie’s arse was saved from my boot by Mina’s piercing scream.