“Good afternoon, Rachel,” Jaime Mendoza’s smooth voice said.
I could imagine Rachel’s expression.She thinks Mendoza is handsome.So does every other woman in the world.“Good afternoon, Detective.Are you looking for Gina?”
“I’m looking for the dog,” Mendoza said, and dashed my hopes.
“They’re both back there.”Rachel probably waved a hand.“Go ahead.”
A second later, I heard Mendoza’s footsteps along the hallway.A second after that, he appeared in the doorway.
“Mrs.Kelly.”
“Detective,” I said politely, and took my feet off the desk.
He stepped through the opening into the office.“Thinking?”
“It’s the only thing I can do at the moment.Steven’s gone, so I can’t follow him.I don’t know who the blonde is, so I can’t follow her.I could follow Diana, but I don’t know what good that would do, other than give me the impression I’m doing something.”
Mendoza nodded.“May I?”He gestured to the spot on the sofa next to Edwina.
“Of course.Have a seat.”I straightened and watched as he sat down on the opposite end of the sofa from the dog.She opened an eye and contemplated him.Then she did a sort of doggie double-take, and opened the other eye.Both of them stared at him for a few seconds before she uncoiled, picked her way across the sofa, and collapsed again, this time with her head in Mendoza’s lap.She gazed up at him, pop-eyes adoring, and he put a hand on her stomach and rubbed.She wiggled with pleasure.
I wouldn’t mind being in that position myself.To distract myself from it, I said, “I heard you tell Rachel you wanted to see the dog.You’re not taking her away, are you?”
“Not yet,” Mendoza said, while Edwina licked his hand.
“As you can see, she’s fine.I took her out earlier.She’s not suffering.And I let her get on the furniture.She doesn’t have to sleep on the cold, hard floor.”
Mendoza’s lips twitched.“I’m sure you’re doing a fine job.”
And so was he.The dog was practically purring.
“So what can I do for you?”
He stopped rubbing, and Edwina looked up at him with big, doleful eyes.When it became obvious that he wasn’t going to continue to rub, she settled her chin on his thigh with a disappointed sigh.
“I was actually hoping Zachary would be here.”
“Oh.”And here I thought he’d been looking for Edwina.“He went back to the university to have another look around.He left me a report of his adventures this morning and last night.Would you like to see it?”
“I wouldn’t mind,” Mendoza said.I handed over the report, and he sat back in the sofa to read it.I spent the time watching him while he was not watching me do it.
The thing is, he’s just so very easy on the eyes.Great bone structure, perfect skin, thick, black hair.Perfect teeth.Dimples.Nice shoulders, good chest, trim waist, and so on, all the way down to his perfect feet.
Not that I’ve ever seen them, unencased in shoes.If he ever takes his shoes off, it might turn out he has ingrown toenails or hammer toes, but until then, I’ll just imagine them as being as perfect as the rest of him.
And if he ever gets to a point where he’s getting undressed in my presence, I’m pretty sure I’ll have other things to think about than his toes.
The expressions on his face were amusing to watch, too, as he made his way through the report.While I’d found Zachary’s abbreviations and slang faintly annoying, Mendoza seemed to find them humorous.By the time he’d finished both reports, he was grinning, perfect, white teeth and dimples on display.
“There’s nothing there you didn’t already know,” I pointed out.
He nodded.“It’s still good to read it in his own words.I need him to give me a better description of the blonde, though.Maybe even get him to work with a police artist, to see if we can come up with a face for her.”
I leaned forward.“You think she might have had something to do with Mrs.Grimshaw’s murder?”
“She was there,” Mendoza said.“If nothing else, she might have seen or heard something.”
She might.And this was the first time I had considered that possibility.Because I suspected the blonde of having led Steven astray, I had only thought of her as the villainess.I’d been more than happy to wonder whether she’d shot poor, old Mrs.Grimshaw and left Edwina an orphan, but I hadn’t considered that she might be a witness to the crime.
