Dangerous Book - Episode 42

Monday May 31 - continued

Detective Robin wasn’t a large man, but he seemed to fill my living room. When invited, he took a seat on the couch, accepted the sweaty glass of tea and downed it in three healthy swallows. Fascinated, I watched his throat at work. When he finished he handed it to me and grinned.

            “I needed that.”

            “You sure did,” I said and tripped from the room to bring him a refill. When I returned he was busy playing with Juniper. I set the glass on a coaster and sat nervously at the end of the couch.

            “Juniper, come here,” I said, but my faithless mutt ignored me for the next half hour preferring, as usual, the company of a male.

            “Can you tell me if you heard anything unusual this morning?”

            “No. I mean, I can tell you I heard nothing unusual. In fact, it was pretty quiet. But it’s a holiday and I slept late.”

            “When did you wake up?”

            “Around 7, which is usual. On a work day, I’ll walk Juniper a bit, but this morning I just let her pee.”

            “Did you hear your neighbors?”

            “Professor Sergeant lives across the hall. I heard him leave around 8. Oh, and Noah, upstairs, went out around 7.”

            “When you were waking? Did he wake you up?”

            “I don’t think so, though he might have woken Juniper. She jumped on my bed at 7.”

            “I take it you looked at the clock?”

            “I did. Oh! That clock is set 10 minutes fast. So she woke me earlier. Then I went to the bathroom, then the kitchen to start my coffee and let Juniper out the back door. I heard Noah’s kitchen door open and his footsteps on the back stairs.”

            Robin rose and walked to the kitchen. I followed, showing him through the small screened porch. We listened to the sounds of police footsteps on the stairs.

            “It’s pretty audible,” I said.

            “Did you see your neighbor?”

            “No. I was busy with the coffee pot, but it sounded like him.”

            “Did you hear anything from Veronica’s apartment?”
            “No. But I usually don’t. She’s up earlier than me and leaves the front way when she goes out. But she wouldn’t be going to work today, either. It’s a holiday.”

            He nodded.

            “I’m not sure when I took Juniper out for a walk but when we got home Phoebe and Elizabeth were outside Veronica’s apartment, knocking and calling for her to open the door.

            “When I came in they leaned over and asked me if I’d seen her leave, which I hadn’t.”

            We walked back to the living room and I opened the door to my hall, showing Robin where I’d stood.

            “What did they say?”

            “They said they all had appointments at DCH (Druid City Hospital) and were supposed to go to the mall and where was she. Of course, I didn’t know but I looked under the radiator for her spare key, found it and went up and unlocked her front door.”