Leftovers by Chloe Kendrick Page A

involved in this somehow.” My mind went back to the conversation, but I could glean nothing more from it.
    Land walked up to where I was. He took the window and heaved it up. He made it look simple to my usual struggle. “That’s a pretty big leap. He could have just seen it on the news and known about it. Or it could be a joke. Her wallet was missing. Did you take that?”
    I stared at him. I might look at evidence in a murder investigation, but I didn’t take it and hide it from the police. Land must have a pretty low opinion of my character to ask. “No, I didn’t. There was no wallet in the purse.”
    He looked out over the square. “What does that suggest to you?”
    I thought about the question. I didn’t always carry my wallet. In my backpack, I only carried a license and credit card. However, if I was dressed like the dead woman had been, then I would have had a wallet with everything in it. “That she deliberately didn’t want to have any identification on her. Something about her was shady, so she didn’t want people to know about her.”
    Land nodded, but just barely. “Exactly. And it also suggested that she was doing something that she knew might get her killed. If she was going to walk away from this, she would have felt better about having identification on her.”
    “Do you think she came here to kill me rather than talk to me?”
    Land turned to look at me and furrowed his brow. “She didn’t have a weapon on her. People were around. So no, she wasn’t here to kill you. I’m thinking more that she was going to sell you a story about the health inspector’s murder so you would feel the need to drop the case. Then whatever was going on would be safe from prying eyes.”
    “So she was going to lie to me?” Overall, lies seemed like a better option to me than death, but I wondered why I was worth the trouble of impersonating someone. I had no official authority to do anything in regards to Linda Zoz’s death. I had thought perhaps that she was coming to tell me the truth, but I hadn’t even considered the opposite.
    “To get you to stop asking questions, obviously. You were the only one who was interested in the health inspector’s death as a separate crime. As of yesterday, the verdict was in and the case was closed. Now it’s likely to be reopened because of your questions.”
    I bit my lip. “It’s a little ironic that the woman who wanted the questions to end was killed and her death led to the other case being reopened.”
    Land snorted. “That’s great, but this is not a time for humor. You need to be careful. Someone thinks you’re dangerous.”
    I had to agree. If nothing else, I had created a new interest in the murder of Linda Zoz, and at least one person would not be happy about that.
     
    True to habit, Danvers stopped by after the lunch rush. Part of me wanted to believe that he came to see me, but usually he just talked business. It was getting harder to indulge that fantasy. He cleared his throat and looked at me. “How are you today?”
    I gave him a small smile, just to show that I could play along and not ask about the kiss. “Just fine. I got a good night’s sleep,” I added to let him know that I could do this type of work as well.
    “I just thought I’d stop by and give you an update on Mariel Mills. After all, you two are such good friends that you just drop by her house unannounced to talk.” Those last words had an edge to them, and I knew that he was annoyed with my interference on this case. It was very clear that he didn’t want me involved in this matter. It was hard to present Linda Zoz’s murder as a closed case for the press when the people around her are in danger. However, if pressed, I’m sure that he’d admit that I had saved him a lot of paperwork by getting into the house. Now her home was a crime scene, and Danvers had access to anything and everything in the house.
    “How is she?” I asked. “Feeling better?” I didn’t ask what