“Oh, right,” I said. “I was so fixated on the dagger, I forgot she said Jim stole a woman from Leon.”
Tulip snorted. “A man doesn’t steal a woman from another man. Women are not objects. A woman goes where she wishes.”
“Yes. Good point,” Gideon agreed.
Then we moved to the second board. This one was devoted to the chronology surrounding the deaths and any outstanding lines of investigation. The information was all written out in a shaky cursive with, in my opinion, an excess of loops. I had to concentrate to make sense of it.
I started with the information Eugene had compiled about Winston’s death, which was mostly a recap of the festival meeting. Attendees were listed as: Leon, Avery, Henry, Gideon, Az, Lily, Winston, Mei, Rue, Elwood, Declan, and Eugene. He’d noted how construction noise was heard during the meeting until Winston called Jim, and how it started up again sometime after Winston left to talk Jim into staying on the job.
“Right.” I nodded. “Then Mei, Avery, and Az all left at the same time. And Henry and Rue left together, too. So, if any of those five had picked up a crystal, you’d think the others would’ve noticed.”
“So the rest of us are all suspects because we were alone with the crystals.” Gideon raised his eyebrows.
“I’m not saying it’s us,” I said. “I’m just trying to be methodical.”
When Gideon laughed, I finally realized he’d been teasing me. “Okay. What else do we know?”
“Winston died sometime before we found him in the morning.” Then I read the list of attendees again. “Leon does seem like our most likely suspect still. I wonder if Lily saw anything. She might have still been on the street when Leon left.”
“You’d think she’d have said something when we spoke with her earlier.”
“Except we were talking more about Jim and the dagger, not about Winston,” I pointed out. “And she might not even realize if she saw something important.”
“Right,” Gideon said.
We both turned our attention to the timeline for Jim then. It wasn’t as detailed. Eugene had included when Gideon and I had talked with him in the morning, and the approximate time of his death based on Mellgren’s opinion.
Then there were the outstanding questions. Most of the big ones about Jim would be answered after we talked to his crew. Then again, maybe once we confronted Leon, this would all be over and we wouldn’t have to ask any more questions at all.
To Eugene’s list of questions, I added the one for Lily about Leon. I printed my words in block letters. Based on the vibration of Eugene’s shadow, I didn’t think he was impressed with my non-loopy contribution to the board.
Seeing everything all laid out like this, I was still convinced Leon was our best bet. I glanced at my phone. It was still several hours before the festival ended. So now what?
I didn’t want to go back out there. The heat had been stifling when we’d been out there earlier, and it would only be hotter now.
“This is great, but we don’t have much to add.”
“Maybe we need a break for a bit,” Gideon suggested, as if reading my mind.
I nodded. “Do you want to come upstairs while we wait for the festival to finish?”
Gideon stared into my eyes for a long moment, as if he was checking to see what I meant. Oh, did that sound like I was inviting him up for… uh… some alone time? Heat flooded my cheeks, but I didn’t try to take back my invitation. Elwood wouldn’t be home for hours, so we’d have the place to ourselves.
In fact, that sounded like a spectacular idea the more I thought about it. All the sweet kisses over the last few days had felt like they were leading to this point. A very long foreplay. And that kiss last night? That had stayed with me for a long time after I crawled into bed. Just thinking about it now made my skin heat in anticipation of what might come once we were alone.
Tulip sighed. “I guess I’ll go and sit behind the counter again…”
Eugene shook.
“Are you sure?” Tulip asked the shadow. “I thought you were done. But, yes, I’d love to help you some more.”
I think I needed to learn how to read shadow language, because I never would’ve guessed that was what he’d communicated.
Gideon and I slipped from the room as Tulip unraveled more red yarn from a skein. Neither she nor Eugene seemed to notice us leaving. Although who could really tell with Eugene?
As I led Gideon to Elwood’s apartment, my pulse quickened. I licked my lips, remembering all too well the heated kiss we’dshared the night before. I didn’t want to stop at a kiss this time, though.
My attraction to Gideon had been intense from the beginning, but it became a nearly tangible entity when we entered the apartment. My body felt alive with my need for him.
