“Sounds like he’s arrived.”She tilted her head toward the front of the house.
I sharpened my ears, and heard the sound of a car door slamming.She must have heard the car pull up to the curb outside.“Do you want me to go let him in?”She’d filled her plate; she should probably start eating before the food got cold.
“That’s kind of you,” Diana said, “but I’ve got it.”She put her plate down on the counter.“Help yourself.”
She nodded to the food on her way out into the hallway.I started picking up and putting down containers while I kept an ear on the proceedings.The soft scuffs of Diana’s bare feet on the wood in the hallway.The sound of the front door opening.A soft greeting.The sound of—maybe—a kiss on the cheek?
Whose kiss on whose cheek was harder to determine.But either way, there were no squeals of happiness or cries of recrimination, so it wasn’t the wayward husband who had returned.I heard the sound of Mendoza’s hard shoes coming down the hallways, and then he appeared in the doorway.
“Evening, Detective,” I said.
He arched his brows.“Mrs.Kelly.”
“Sorry,” Diana said behind him.“I forgot to tell you that Gina would be here.”She moved past him toward her plate.“Help yourself to food.”
“Don’t mind if I do.”Mendoza gave me a nod as he faced me across the island.“And how was your afternoon?”
“Busy,” I said, and watched as he ladled Lo Mein onto his plate.“Yours?”
“The same.I didn’t get any lunch.”
Good thing I wasn’t that hungry.“Is that an occupational hazard?”
“It happens.Not like you can interrupt a murder investigation to fill your stomach.”
I guess not.Or that you’d be very hungry in the middle of what you had to deal with, either.“Diana told me you found Zachary and had him work with a police artist.”
He nodded.“Just let me shovel some of this in, and I’ll show you the image we came up with.”
“I’m not likely to be any help there,” I said, “but I’d be happy to take a look.You’ll probably have more luck at the university, though.Or with the neighbors.And on that note…”
“After I eat,” Mendoza said.
Fine.I made a face, but carried my plate over to the little table in the alcove, where Diana was sitting.She was trying to keep back a smile, somewhat unsuccessfully.I figured she was laughing at me, but since it was the first time I’d seen her smile today, I didn’t give her a hard time about it.
Mendoza sat down a few seconds later, and for the next couple of minutes, we all focused on eating.Mendoza wasn’t kidding about being hungry.He ate tidily, but fast.Diana mostly picked at her food.I guess it must have sounded good at the time, but when it came to actually chewing and swallowing, she probably felt like there was a big obstacle in her throat.I remembered that feeling.It was only a few months since I’d found out that my husband was cheating on me.
“So how’s the dog?”Mendoza asked after a few minutes, and tore me out of my increasingly angry thoughts about cheating spouses.
I looked at him blankly for a second before I hiked my jaw up.“Oh, my God.I forgot the dog!”
I dove into my purse for my phone.
“Dog?”Diana asked while I scrambled.
“Mrs.Grimshaw,” Mendoza said, “had a small Boston Terrier.”
“The woman who was killed in the house next to the one where Steven was yesterday?”
He nodded, while I was frantically pushing buttons.“I had to do something with the dog while the CSI crew went over the house, so I gave it to Mrs.Kelly.”
Diana turned her attention to me, her eyebrows winging up her forehead.I flapped a hand at her but didn’t speak, since Rachel was just picking up.“It’s Gina.I’m so sorry.I totally forgot the dog!”
“That’s all right,” Rachel said.“I left her with Zachary.He said he’d take care of her.”
“Will his mother be OK with that?”Zachary lived with his mother.I hadn’t met her, and he never said much about her, but there was at least a chance she wouldn’t be thrilled about having a dog dumped on her without warning.
“I didn’t ask,” Rachel said.“Maybe he’s planning to sleep on the sofa in the office tonight.”
