"Somebody hit you in that powder room," I said quietly. "If this was really just a woman helping her dying friend die on her own terms, and you were the only other person who knew, why would anyone still need you silenced?"
Hyacinth's face went pale in a way that had nothing to do with blood loss.
"I don't know," she whispered.
"Get some rest," I repeated, and meant it, even though every instinct I had was already halfway out the door and back toward Belle Rêve. "I'm going to find out who was in that powder room with you. And I'm going to find out if Reginald was involved."
"Be careful," she murmured. "Whoever it is knows how to make things look like something they're not. Making everything look perfectly fine until it's already too late."
It occurred to me as I left that whatever Evelyn had done or not done, asking Hyacinth to keep her secret was a lousy thing to do.
If she had forced Hyacinth into assisting her suicide without knowing, well, then that was truly evil.
I texted Hollis.
I need your brain.
I can think of better things for you to need.
That stopped me dead in my tracks.
I was racing to the parking garage, hot on the trail of a potential murderer and Hollis chose to flirt now? In the most heavy handed manner possible?
Your little pumpkin patch isn’t in the mood. Come over when you have time. I need you there when I confront Reginald.
Oh, Jesus.
I could practically hear his sigh through my phone.
Seventeen
Hollis showed up at Midnight House forty minutes later with two coffees, no pastries, and the particular grim energy of a man who'd already seen too much before ten a.m.
“No sweet treat?” I asked.
He grunted and held his arms out. “I’m right here, baby.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of a chocolate pastry.”
“Drink your coffee.”
I had briefed him on what had gone down with Hyacinth at the hospital.
"Belle Rêve's not going to let us into their archive on a Tuesday morning without a reason," he said, handing me a cup. "So I got us a reason."
"What kind of reason?"
"The kind where I'm a homicide detective investigating a death that occurred on their property, and I ask nicely, and if they say no I mention the word warrant in a way that makes it sound like I'm doing them a favor by not using it yet."
"That's a very specific skill."
"It's the only skill. Get Teddy. He's coming."
"Teddy has no legal basis to issue a warrant."
"Teddy has better instincts than half my department. Get the skunk, Harper."
I got the skunk.
