Symptoms of Death (Dr. Alexandra Gladstone Book 1) by Paula Paul Page A

Alexandra?”
    “This is a surgery after all,” she said. She had not given him permission to use her Christian name, but she had the sense that it would do no good to protest.
    “Of course, but didn’t we agree that I would report back to you after I’d had a chance to learn something from the other guests?”
    “You do have something to report, then.” An eager excitement had crept into her voice in spite of her attempts to sound cool and detached.
    “Something rather interesting, I think. It seems that Eddie…” Nicholas stopped speaking, and his eyes grew wary as Zack ambled into the room and sniffed his feet, growling.
    Alexandra knew what that growl meant, and she spoke the dog ’s name in a tone that was quiet but urgent. She was too late. Zack had already pounced. His two front paws were on Nicholas’s shoulders. Nicholas fell back against the examination table and might have tried to push the dog away, except that he had to use both hands, placed behind him, to steady himself against the table. Zack, in the meantime, was licking Nicholas’s face enthusiastically with his enormous tongue.
    Zack loved almost everyone, and the only thing intimidating about him was his size and his low growl, which was more like a soft grumbling and was meant to be friendly.
    She spoke the dog’s name again, sharper this time, and the animal turned around and settled himself at her feet, still grumbling. She glanced at Nicholas, who kept his wary eyes on the enormous black and white dog. “I was just about to ask Nancy to bring tea to the parlor,” she said. “Perhaps you’d like to join me.”
    “What? Oh, yes, of course.” Nicholas never took his eyes off of Zack as he spoke, and he made sure Alexandra and Zack left the room ahead of him.
    Nancy, in fact, was waiting just inside the parlor, as if she expected Alexandra to bring her guest there. “Shall I prepare tea, Miss Alex?” Nancy asked before Alexandra could speak.
    “Yes , please.” Alexandra tried to ignore Nancy’s little smile and raised eyebrows as, behind Nicholas’s back, she glanced first at Nicholas and then to Alexandra, as if to say I told you so.
    Only when Zack was comfortably settled once again at Alexandra ’s feet and Nicholas had seated himself a safe distance away did he relax a little. “I say, interesting animal.” He nodded stiffly at Zack. “Rather like a bear, wouldn’t you say?”
    “He ’s large, certainly, but it’s only his appearance that is intimidating.” Alexandra stroked the dog’s head. “Actually, he’s as friendly as a puppy.”
    “Indeed.”
    “He seems to like you. You noticed how he licked your face.”
    “Indeed,” he repeated stiffly.
    “You were about to tell me, Mr —Nicholas, about your conversations with the other guests.”
    “Oh yes, of course.” Nicholas took his eyes off of Zack at last. “Odd thing is, I ’m not certain that everyone is sincerely mourning poor Eddie’s passing.”
    “Oh?”
    “Yes, it seems the chap had his own way of intimidating people.” Nicholas leaned forward eagerly. “Several people, in fact.”
    Alexandra ’s interest was piqued. “What do you mean, exactly?”
    “Eddie was something of a bully when we were in school, but I assumed he ’d outgrown that.” Nicholas settled back into his chair. “Of course I don’t see him as often as I once did, in spite of the fact that we are distant cousins. I was busy reading law for several years, you see, and then as a barrister I find myself quite busy.”
    “Of course.” There was an expectancy to her tone that was an invitation for him to go on speaking.
    “Perhaps bully is not quite the right word.” He frowned, thinking about it. “Eddie was always more of a manipulator. He used people, you might say. And that, apparently, made a few people rather cross with him.”
    “And some of the guests were among those who were cross?”
    “Yes, Isabel Atewater for one. According to some of the other ladies,