Dead is the New Black by Marianne Stillings Page B

afraid she might be misunderstood.”
    I flattened my mouth. “She called me a
troll.” I shrugged. “At least, I thought she did. At first.”
    He appeared more amused than surprised. But
just as quickly, his expression turned serious again.
    “I do have an alibi, Stephanie, but it would
be awkward for the lady in question to come forward. You must trust
me or we’ll never get past your assumption that I killed Usher and
find out who did.”
    So what then? His lover was married? He was
having an affair with a married woman? I was being asked to trust a
man who was lying and cheating with a married woman?
    I felt my blood pressure start to rise. I was
experiencing a reaction to Jon’s explanation that caught me by
surprise. For some reason, I felt a tiny cramp in my heart. I was
disappointed in him. Despite his being a vampire and a possible
murderer, someplace deep inside, I’d wanted him to be a good guy.
But he wasn’t a good guy. He was a user, just like my
ex-husband.
    “Well, if you didn’t do it,” I snapped, “and
if you have an alibi, why aren’t you going to call the police?”
    “For one thing,” he said, leaning back into
his chair. “With this storm, they won’t even be able to get here
until it stops snowing and the roads are cleared. By the time that
happens, whoever did kill Usher could be long gone.”
    “And for another thing?”
    He arched his brows. “I’m a Vampire,
Stephanie. The local yokel cops will automatically assume I did it,
and stop looking for the real killer. And since we don’t know why
Usher was killed, the murderer could have another murder planned.
We have to figure out who it is, gather evidence, identify and
isolate the murderer, and then call the authorities.”
    I studied him for a moment. “Okay. Let’s say,
just for the sake of argument, that you didn’t do it. Who had a
motive to kill him? What was he doing in the study? Was he here to
get a book or was he lured here for the express purpose of killing
him? Was it an argument with someone that turned violent, or—”
    “Hang on,” he interrupted. “The first thing
we have to do is get everyone in the house together and tell them
what happened. Watch their reactions to the news. Since we don’t
know exactly what time Usher was attacked, the best we can do for
now is find out who saw him alive last and nail down that
time.”
    I considered this. “He might have been
attacked hours ago and just lay there, dying. Actually, I think…I think …he may even still have been alive
when I came into the study. As I was waiting for you, I heard a
sound. I thought it was my imagination or that a book had toppled
from a shelf or something, and when I went to check, there he was.
I’d hate to think he was still alive, and that I might have been
able to do something to help him.”
    No question about it, I was still in shock. I
know I felt uncertain and confused. In my wildest dreams, I never
would have believed I’d be involved in a real murder, or working
for a man I wanted to trust, wanted to believe, but couldn’t simply
take it for granted that he was innocent.
    “I’m sorry, Stephanie. Truly. For your sake,
I’m so sorry this happened.”
    “Well,” I muttered, crossing my arms, “I
imagine Percy Usher feels a little more regret than you do.”
    He stood. “I’m going to have Leech assemble
everyone in the parlor in fifteen minutes. I want you there.”
    Rising to my feet, I said, “All right. I’ll
bring my mother and Lucy with me.”
    As I retraced the route back to my room, I
worked hard to stay calm. This has all happened so quickly. What a day . My house in foreclosure, a new
job, a move to a new place, weird people, a Vampire, a murder—and
it wasn’t even midnight yet.
    If, as Jon Van Graf claimed, he hadn’t killed
Percy Usher, who had? And why? Would there be more victims?
    Debby Destiny had never encountered anything like this.
    I stopped dead in my tracks. Hmm , I thought. Maybe she