She waited at the streetcar stop until Leo was out of sight, then waited a few more minutes just to be sure. As soon as she was confident that he was gone, she took a deep breath and headed across the street. The cop in the blue suit tucked his paper under his arm, watching her through narrow eyes as she walked up to him.
“Having a nice morning, pal?” she asked. She wanted to sound unconcerned, but her hands were shaking, and she was pretty sure her voice was too.
The cop looked her over. He was younger than she expected, with hair slicked back under his hat and the smell of starch clinging to him. But he didn’t look like a kid who was brand new on the job. “Not too bad,” he said. “You heading home now? You could always invite me in for a cup of coffee if you are. It’d be the neighborly thing to do.”
“Shame we aren’t neighbors, then,” Vivian said through a too-sweet smile. “You’re not the only one working today, so you can look forward to running your feet off after me. Or…”
He only waited a few seconds before he demanded, “Or?”
“Or you tell me where I can find your boss on a Saturday morning.”
He snorted. “Not likely, kid. He doesn’t want to talk to you.”
“But I want to talk to him,” Vivian said softly. She didn’t have time for games. Not anymore. “I already know where he lives.”
The cop raised his brows. “I hope that wasn’t a threat.”
“I’m not that dumb,” Vivian said. “I’m just letting you know that I’m heading there either way. So you can go with me and make sure I get to see him, nice and quiet, or I go anyway and make a big scene trying to get in. I can guess which he’d prefer.”
The cop gave her a considering look, and Vivian held her breath, wondering if he would just get annoyed and arrest her right there. But at last he nodded. “Whistle us up a cab, then, kid. We should be able to catch him before he’s done with his coffee.”
“Miss Kelly.”
The commissioner was indeed having his coffee, at the desk in his office while he read through the morning paper. Apparently, he worked on Saturdays too. Vivian rubbed her palms nervously against her skirt, then clasped them in front of her.
“To what do I owe the dubious pleasure?”
The cop in the blue suit hadn’t come in with her. Vivian couldn’t blame him for that. The commissioner terrified her, too. But she was already in his office, doing exactly what Leo had told her not to do. She took the seat across from him without being invited and leaned forward, her hands palm down on the surface of the desk.
“I want to know why you won’t just leave me alone. If you’ve looked into Buchanan’s life at all, you know I never met him before. You’ve got nothing to connect me to him aside from bad timing.”
“It seems that way, yes,” the commissioner agreed, taking a sip from his coffee.
The agreement, stated so simply and quickly, caught Vivian off guard. For a moment she just stared at him, not remembering what she had planned to say next. “If you know it wasn’t me, then why do you still have your guys following me?” she demanded at last.
The commissioner sighed, leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers in front of him. “Dear girl, it’s not that simple. My position is precarious, like that of any other man who’s attained some measure of power in this city. Mr. Buchanan’s death was violent, and ugly, and now it’s not just the press clamoring for a good story. The public want answers. The politicians who control who sits here”—he tapped the arms of his chair—“want answers. It’s my job to make people in this city feelsafe. Which means that, in this instance, it’s my job to give them what they demand.”
“Don’t they demand that you not blame people for crimes they didn’t do?”
“And can you prove you did not commit this one?”
Vivian gritted her teeth. She had no proof, any more than he did, and they both knew it. “You could prove that someoneelsedid it,” she said, struggling to keep her voice calm.
He turned a page of his paper, already looking bored. “Unfortunately, those inquiries have turned up only dead ends. So whether I think you’re telling the truth or not won’t, in the end, matter. Withina few days, I will be required to produce a killer. And at the moment, you are the most satisfying suspect available.”
“But what about the other fella?” Vivian demanded, darting to her feet without really realizing what she was doing. “The one who met with Buchanan that day? Isn’t he more likely to have snuffed Buchanan than someone like me?”
The commissioner sighed; he almost sounded like he was disappointed in her. “Young lady, if you continue to make up stories, it won’t go well for you in court.”
Vivian stared at him. “Make up… What are you talking about? I was sitting right there when the maid came and…” She trailed off as he watched her impassively. “You have no idea who he was, do you? Did you eventryto find him?”
He sighed again, then took another drink of his coffee. The gesture made Vivian think of Buchanan, chatty and a little tipsy, drinking his own coffee as he worried about her being warm enough outside. She bit her cheek hard, forcing the memories to stop there. She didn’t want to picture what had come next.
The commissioner, if he noticed her distress, didn’t comment on it. Instead, he shook his head. His voice, when he spoke again, was sharp. “We looked into your story. It was easy enough to disprove. None of the servants came to summon Buchanan for a business meeting, because no one called at the house during that time.” He took in her disbelief without a flicker of change in his own expression. “I can’t guess what a girl like you might know about a trial, though I imagine you know a criminal or two.” His lip curled a little as he spoke. “But, as I said, making up stories will not help your case when you’re sitting in front of a jury. I suggest you abandon that line of misdirection.”
“It’s not…” Vivian’s breathing was coming faster. “It’s not misdirection. A maid came and told him… and he walked out…” Maybe Leo had been right, and she shouldn’t have come. “Who told you no one came to the house? Whoever it was, they werelying.”
“Are you claiming that everyone in that house is a liar?” His brows rose. “Because they all told the exact same story. You were the only person who arrived from the time Mrs. Buchanan and her son departed until the police got there.”
