For that matter, they were also clearly thrown by the champagne flutes full of pomegranate juice. It wasn’t exactly the rest of the world’s default choice for social drinking.
Iz was the only one who took it relatively in stride, which made sense, Keith supposed, given her own fondness for making lemonade. She probably thought it was just something Iris liked. She picked up a glass and tilted it in their direction.
“The circumstances of our arrival aside,” she said, graciously papering over the brutal murder, “I for one am delighted to have the chance to get to know you, Iris.”
Evie smiled and joined the toast. “Same.”
Cooper and Simon chimed in too, with Simon adding, “We’ll have to tell you every embarrassing story about Keith we can think of.”
“You really don’t,” Keith said, mildly alarmed.
Simon shrugged. “Agree to disagree.”
Keith really didn’t want to encourage the conversation to go in this direction, so he turned to Cooper and said, “How are things going so far?”
Cooper heaved out a massive and very telling sigh. “They’re going.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Don’t pay any attention to him,” Evie said, flicking Cooper’s arm. “Well, paysomeattention to him, since he’s our boss. But not about this. He’s just frustrated. It’s actually very cute how annoyed he is that this is getting in the way of your wedding.”
Keith had to grin at that. “Seriously?”
“Ireallylike weddings,” Cooper said defensively. “Especially when they involve old friends and their amazing mates.”
Iris sat down beside Keith, her leg enticingly warm against his. “I’m flattered.”
“Anyway,” Evie continued, “like he said, it’s going. One of your doctors here agreed to play medical examiner for us, and she examined the body and confirmed what Iris already told us: your Lady Marianne was killed by a unicorn’s horn. She also put the time of death around 11:00 PM last night.”
11:00. That would be awfully late to make an impromptu complaint about the fact that strangers were going to arrive the next day. If they ruled out their concerned citizen theory, what were they left with?
If someone had wanted to rummage through the Council’s files, that would have been a good time for it. It wasn’t like the village was known for its thriving nightlife. Usually, they rolled up the sidewalks around nine or ten at the latest. By eleven, everything would be dark and deserted. So that was still a possibility.
But if Lady Marianne had actually been working late, then she would have already been in the Council House offices. The would-be thief would have seen that the lights were on, and they would have picked another night for their pilfering. That just left the possibility that she had either heard the intruder or, for whatever reason—insomnia, maybe?—headed into the offices on a whim.
It could have happened. It depended a lot on coincidence, but coincidences happened all the time.
But that answer didn’t satisfy him. It didn’tfeelright.
He and Iris dutifully passed their disgruntled citizen theory on, even though they both admitted that it didn’t seem to square with the time of death.
Iris rested her chin on her hand, thinking. “Maybe Marianne agreed to see someone so late as a special favor?”
“Would she do that? You knew her better than I did.”
“She might. But only for a handful of people, like close friends and other Councilors. Or movers and shakers like Seraphina and Blake, maybe.”
“That’s your sister and her husband, right?” Simon said.
Iris nodded, and she gave Simon their address, which he dutifully took down.
“You’ll probably want to ask them who they told that you were coming,” she said. “They’ll probably give you a straight answer about that, even if the Council doesn’t.”
Simon said, “Then the two of you could tell us if any of the people they talked to are people who might be able to get after-hours access to the Council House.”
“Iris would be better at that than I am,” Keith said. “I’ve been gone for a long time, and even when I was here, I didn’t really ... know a lot of people.”
“Didn’t even get to socialize at the barn-raisings, huh?” Simon said sympathetically.
