Excerpt from Handbags and Homicide
The break room door swung open and in walked Craig and the two detectives. Introductions
were made and the men conversed quietly on the other side of the
room, as if I weren’t there flipping through People. Ty
was doing a lot of murmuring so I figured the cops were chewing him
a new one over the store’s lax security.
Finally Detective
Madison turned to me, the other men fanning out around him, all staring down
at me.
“So
let me get this straight,” he said, sounding really annoyed. “You
were alone when you found the body and no one else was around.”
“It’s
pretty complicated but I think you’ve got it right,” I told him.
I need to
lay off the sugar.
He didn’t
seem troubled by my testy attitude. Guess he was used to it.
“You
were working near the stock room doors, right?” Detective Madison asked. “Back
there in the women’s underwear section? Right?”
“That’s
right.”
“And
you didn’t see anybody go into the stock room?”
“No,
I didn’t,” I said. Unless, of course, someone had gone in while
I was crouched behind the panty hose display hiding from that bra customer.
I didn’t
see any need to mention that.
“So
you saw nobody go in,” Detective Madison said. “See anyone
come out?”
“No.”
“And
when you found the body, you didn’t see anyone in the stock room? Anywhere?”
“I told
you I didn’t see or hear anybody in the stock room,” I said.
“So
it was just you? Back there alone? That whole big stock room and
no one else was around?”
“Yeah,
that’s what I’m … telling … you ….”
My voice trailed
off because even I heard the guilt coming through.
Both detectives
looked ready to slap the cuffs on me. Ty looked suspicious and Craig appeared
relieved that the killer had been found so quickly.
We all stayed
like that for a minute or so, me trying to look innocent – a lot harder
to pull off than an of-course-you-can smile – and all the men glaring down
at me.
Then Detective
Madison turned to Ty. “Let’s get the security tapes from the
stock room, have a look at them. You can point out who’s who on the
tape.”
I froze.
There were
security cameras in the stock room? The police were going to look at the
tape? Along with store personnel?
And they’d
see me lounging on the king-size Laura Ashley bed-in-a-bag sets when I was supposed
to be working?
Oh, crap.
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Copyright © 2008 by Dorothy Howell. |