Lori grinned. “I almost was—hurt and arrested, I mean.”
“What happened?” asked Jessica, concerned about her new friend.
“I was in the stairwell where it happened…” Christie rolled her eyes and groaned as Lori flashed her a huge smile and continued, “…and this cop startled me. I almost fell down thestairs like poor Sandy and he threatened to arrest me if I came back. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind being handcuffed by the guy but not fingerprinted and put into a holding cell.”
“How do you know he was a cop?” asked Christie.
“He showed me his badge, and he just had that kind of vibe, you know?”
“Poor Sandy,” said Jessica.
“I didn’t know you two were close,” said Fiona, who took a piece of the warm, artisanal bread the waiter set in the center of the table. After slathering it with herbed butter, she took a bite and moaned in pleasure.
“We weren’t. In fact, we didn’t particularly care for one another. She just always sort of set my teeth on edge.”
“I think a lot of people felt that way about her. She wasn’t a nice person, but we don’t know it was murder. It could have just been an accident,” said Fiona.
Christie shook her head. “I don’t think so. I was in that stairwell. The cement had a kind of texture mixed in which would have made it difficult to just slip. The stairs weren’t very wide and there were substantial hand railings on both sides. If she’d slipped, I think she would have been able to stop her fall. Instead, she ended up bent and broken at the bottom of the stairs. Obviously, I’m not a medical examiner or forensics expert, but…”
“You think she was pushed,” said Jessica.
“I do,” said Christie with a nod, “and that makes it murder.”
“We should try and solve it,” enthused Lori.
Another groan from Christie. “Just what the cops don’t need. Four amateur sleuths involving themselves in their murder investigation.”
“Well, Jess deemed us the Mystery Writers’ Murder Club,” said Lori.
“That was a joke,” said Jess.
“It doesn’t have to be,” said Lori. “There are all kinds of unsolved cold cases…”
“Sandy hasn’t been dead even twelve hours. I hardly think her murder would be a cold case,” Christie said with a little scorn.
“Of course not,” said Fiona, catching Lori’s enthusiasm. “But we were right there. Christie was the first one on the scene. We might be able to help.”
“And we might just be in the way,” said Jessica, hoping to add her voice to the side of reason. She could see Lori was enthusiastic and she suspected solving a real murder wouldn’t hurt Fiona’s flagging career. She and Christie would need to be the ones to curb this notion that they were amateur sleuths and could break the case for the cops.
Christie leaned forward but then sat back as their food was delivered. Leaning forward again, she placed a nondescript thumb drive on the table. “I found this in a tote bag with Sandy’s name on it.”
Jess stared at the thumb drive as if it was a coiled snake ready to strike. So much for Christie being on the side of keeping their noses out of Sandy’s murder.
“Found it?” Jessica asked with a hint of accusation in her voice.
“Well, I saw it and… what can I say, old habits die hard. I picked it up and put it in my pocket. All afternoon I’ve been telling myself I needed to do amea culpaand turn it in…”
“And yet, here it sits,” said Jessica, trying to tamp down her curiosity. It was one thing to joke about trying to solve cold cases; it was another all together to insert themselves in an active murder investigation. Picking up the thumb drive, she looked at Christie. “What’s on it?”
Before Christie could answer the question, a strong, masculine hand reached and plucked the thumb drive fromJessica. “I’ll take that. The security cameras showed Ms. Crofton picking up something from outside the stairwell, but we couldn’t see what it was. I was hoping she’d bring it with her.”
“Hello, Detective Wilder,” said Lori, batting her eyes, “it’s nice to see you again.”
“I thought I was pretty clear that you and your friends needed to stick to writing about murders, not getting involved with one. And honestly, Ms. Crofton, as a veteran of the Baltimore police department, I would have expected better of you.”
Jessica snatched the thumb drive back, surprising the detective. “And you should know you can’t just seize someone’s property. You don’t know what this is. I mean, obviously it’s a thumb drive, but it could be any thumb drive that Christie picked up anywhere.”
“The cameras…”
