Thanks to the last investigation I’d ended up involved in, Chief McTavish knew my parents’ reputation. He knew we’d both see through any of the investigative techniques an officer might normally use in a situation where he wasn’t sure if he might be interviewing a suspect or a witness. So he’d decided to play it straight instead—despite his disdain for criminal defense attorneys.
A worm of respect burrowed its way into my mind. I might not like Chief McTavish, but one thing I couldn’t criticize him for was putting his own pride ahead of an investigation. He was a professional.
“Hopefully we won’t need to keep you long, Mrs. Fitzhenry-Dawes,” Chief McTavish said to my mom. “I’m sure you want to make the most of your time here with your daughter.”
My mom smiled her diamond smile—the one that sparkled but still carried a hard edge. “It’s just Fitzhenry. I kept my last name. You may call me Kathleen.”
One corner of Chief McTavish’s mouth twitched, and I could almost see him remembering a similar conversation he and I had.
At least my mom could take credit for teaching me whatever skills as a lawyer I did have.
“Kathleen, then.” He shot a sidelong glance at me. “I’m surprised you’re not staying with your daughter.”
In other words, what were you doing at The Sunburnt Arms last night when you have family here?
“My visit’s a surprise, and I didn’t want to call Nicole right before supper when she’d feel the responsibility to feed me. That would have been rude.”
Chief McTavish took his time opening his notepad and writing something down. “Did you hear anything suspicious last night?”
My mom unbuttoned the lower button of her pantsuit jacket. Watching the two of them was like a study in nonchalance.
“Unfortunately not. But that should at least help you cross off a gun as the murder weapon, and there couldn’t have been a prolonged struggle.”
Chief McTavish’s nose twitched. I’d never seen a nose twitch manage to convey arrogance before. “You didn’t hear anything that sounded like a car backfiring or a cork popping from a bottle?”
“If you’re asking whether a weapon with a silencer might have been used, it wasn’t. I’d recognize the sound. I know as well as you do that a silencer only deadens the sound, and I’m a light sleeper.”
They stared at each other for a second, and then Chief McTavish gave a sharp nod.
Scherwin returned to the room with Mandy in tow. “I don’t know whether it’s human or animal, but it’s definitely blood.”
Chief McTavish gave Scherwin instructions and turned back to us. “I’ll be in touch if I have more questions. You’ll need to find a new place to stay for now. I’ll be closing down the bed-and-breakfast for the time being.”
The same panicked look flashed across Mandy’s face as when she thought someone might take a book away from her before she finished reading it. “My guests have to leave?”
“There’s a pool of blood in one of your rooms,” Scherwin said. “You’d think you’d want us to find out what happened rather than crying about guests leaving.”
His tone was unnecessarily harsh. It seemed Mark’s caricature of the man had actually been an accurate depiction.
My mom tensed beside me. The motion was so slight it had to be involuntary. I felt it against my arm rather than saw it.
I knew my mom well enough to know what the reaction meant. She didn’t like Scherwin’s tone any more than I did, and had Mandy been her client, she wouldn’t have stood for it.
Mandy might not be my client, either, but she was my friend.
I’d have felt more confidence confronting Scherwin if I’d dressed a little more professionally. Always dress as if you expect to be judged, my dad used to say.
I hated it when my parents were right.
I rose to my feet. “The Sunburnt Arms is her livelihood, Officer Scherwin.” I emphasized officer more than was technically necessary. Hopefully it’d remind him to act like he deserved the respect given his position. “It’s no different than if you were suspended without pay through no fault of your own. Wouldn’t you be worried?”
The look Scherwin gave me said the only reason I wasn’t going to a cell on a trumped-up obstruction charge was because the chief was watching it all.
Chief McTavish rose to his feet, ignored us both, and went to Mandy’s side instead. “It’ll only be temporary, but we can’t risk that one of the guests might have been involved and would tamper with evidence. We’ll also need to speak to each of them before they check out.”
Mandy hung her head. “I was afraid of that, too.”
Chief McTavish sent Scherwin out to the car to call in the crime scene techs and another officer and then headed upstairs to start knocking on doors. My mom went to gather her bags. She’d already had them packed. Presumably she’d always intended to stay with me, though she hadn’t said so when she called earlier.
Mandy’s expression had progressed from someone took my book to and they’re ransoming it for my right arm.
I hugged her. “Do you want me to stay?”
She shook her head. She was so much taller than me that her chin didn’t even brush my hair.
“Call me if you need me, okay?”
This time she nodded as if she were afraid that if she tried to speak, she’d cry instead.
It was a good thing I didn’t believe in omens because, if I had, a possible murder on my mom’s first day in Fair Haven wouldn’t have been a good sign of how the rest of the visit was going to go.
“What kind of dogs did you say you had?” my mom shouted over the racket issuing from Velma and Toby in the laundry room.
Her lips had already pursed into a knot shape. My mom hated having to raise her voice. For any reason.
I hurried to the laundry room. I’d finally figured out that my dogs tended to quiet down as soon as introductions were made and they decided the interloper into their home wasn’t a threat.
