That was when the officer interviewing her said she could stop narrating what had happened. Then he’d asked if she’d noticed anything unusual in the apartment.
“Other than the unconscious, bleeding man?”
“Yes.”
Amie had shaken her head. It was true. Not so much because there wasn’t anything unusual to notice, but between worrying that Andrew was dead or that Madeline might pass out, she hadn’t left much time in her schedule for calmly investigating the apartment.
Madeline had been briefly interviewed by the police before being escorted away—to the hospital or the police station, Amie wasn’t sure.
She stared at Benny, who was standing in one corner of the lobby, typing on his phone. Amie hadn’t encountered her landlord since receiving the photos of him entering her apartment the other night. Since she’d convinced herself of his innocence, it had become a tiny mystery that felt like a distraction from the bigger, more important one at hand. She was tempted to just walk up to Benny and ask him about it, but if there was still even a small chance he’d been the one to leave the threatening note, Amie felt safer with him not knowing she suspected him.
Catching sight of a familiar multicolored poncho, Amie raised a hand, attempting to get Elena’s attention. The older woman hurried over as soon as she saw her.
“How’re you holding up, sweetheart?” she asked, brows knit with sympathy.
Amie started to get up, but her neighbor waved her back down as she eased herself onto the floor.
“I’m all right,” Amie said. “Better than Andrew. Or Madeline.” She cast a sideways look at Elena. “Do you know what happened?”
“The police were very adamant about people keeping their distance while they conducted their interviews,” Elena said.
“But …”
Elena straightened her glasses. “I might have overheard a few things.” She leaned in to Amie, who met her halfway. “According to Madeline, Andrew invited her over to ‘talk business.’ Did you know Savannah had just sold the bookshop to Madeline?”
“Yeah, Madeline told me. Did she say that to the police?”
Elena nodded. “But I also had a feeling. The last time Savannah came over to have me read her cards, there was a recurring message about new beginnings that seemed to resonate with her. I sensed that the time might have finally come for her to sell.”
She stretched her legs out, flexing her feet in her sneakers. “So, Madeline thought Andrew wanted to talk about her taking over the store. But when she arrived, he began filming her, and told her to admit that she’d killed Savannah.”
Amie’s stomach dropped. “What?”
Elena seemed pleased by her reaction. “Mhm. Madeline denied it, of course. Wouldn’t you?”
“Sure, I guess,” Amie said. “Mainly because I didn’t kill Savannah, but—”
“Well, I don’t know what Andrew had been expecting.” Elena sniffed, as if unimpressed by Andrew’s approach to his interrogation of Madeline. “Guilty or not, anyone would be an idiot to admit it under those circumstances.”
“So then what happened?”
“Andrew got angrier,” Elena reported. “According to Madeline, she tried running away. For some reason, Andrew had a wire strung out across his front hall. She said he’d had her step over it when she first arrived. Madeline remembered to avoid it, but Andrew tripped and slammed his head on the floor.”
Amie winced. Andrew’s attempt to protect his own life had ended up endangering it.
“Madeline tried to stop the bleeding. She thought he was dead, so she screamed and ran out. It’s all very strange.” Elena folded her hands in her lap to conclude her story. “If Savannah had already sold the store to Madeline, why would Andrew think Madeline had killed her? What reason would she have had to kill Savannah?”
“I lied to the man for nothing. Strange he didn’t know …”
“Andrew still doesn’t know Savannah sold the store to Madeline,” Amie said. She was sitting on the couch in David’s apartment, once again hugging her favorite plastic flamingo while David prepared the leftover lasagna she’d decided she was in fact hungry for.
“Oakland told me and Z—”Ow.“Oakland said he lied and told Andrew that Savannah had been planning on selling the bookstore to him. If Andrew believed him, he might have also believed that Madeline killed Savannah to try to get him to sell the store to her instead.”
“This is assuming Madeline was telling the truth,” David said over the beeping of the oven as he preheated it. “Or, for that matter, Elena.”
“Why would Elena lie?” Amie asked.
“I don’t think she’dlie. I just wouldn’t put it past her to stretch the truth in pursuit of a juicier story.”
