Dead on My Feet by Patricia Broderick

Author:Patricia Broderick [Broderick, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CamCat Publishing

16

It was late afternoon and Wendy’s day off. She had agreed to meet Finn and me at the paper to hash over what we had so far. Cilla was out on a mission, trying to sniff out the mysterious drivers who had delivered the goods for Mitzi’s auction. Finn and I had decided to keep Cilla’s sleuthing under the radar for now. The stakes were high for Wendy and, with her participation on the task force, her allegiances might have shifted. We’d have to tread more carefully until we were sure we could trust her.

We assembled on the deck, not far from where Cap’n Jack was snoozing in his hammock. Wendy seemed unusually subdued.

I asked if she’d had the chance to question Mitzi about the auction heist and those shady drivers.

“I went to her McMansion and hit a stone wall,” Wendy said, glancing over at our slumbering editor in chief. “What’s with him?”

“Cap’n Jack?” Finn said. “Sleeping off his liquid lunch as usual. Don’t mind him. Anyway, what about Mitzi?”

“If she knows anything, she’s not talking. In fact, she said that she doesn’t deal with the ‘hired help’ directly.” Wendy made air quotes. “One of her assistants makes the arrangements for her soirees, but all of her vendors, from the drivers to the caterers and waitstaff, are vetted, she said. As for the ‘unfortunate incident—’” more air quotes “—Mrs. M. assured me that the goods were all insured, and didn’t I have more important work to attend to?”

“Wow, that’s a strange response,” I said. “Aren’t people usually complaining that the cops aren’t doing enough to get their property back?”

Wendy nodded. “Yeah, but it did give me an opening to ask her about Perreau,” she said. “I suspect that he donated some of his stash to her auction, but when I started that line of inquiry, she shut me down. ‘The identity of our donors is confidential, unless they say otherwise,’ she said, and what did the theft have to do with Perreau’s tragic death, anyway?”

Wendy shook her head as though it was filled with seawater. “I wasn’t authorized to discuss the details of the case with her, so I let it go. I figured I’d talk it over with Deputy Chief Sheldon.”

“And?” Finn prompted.

“And nothing,” Wendy said. “When I met with Sheldon last night, she told me to let robbery handle it. When I brought up a possible connection to Milo and Perreau’s murders, she said if robbery turned up anything suspicious, she’d handle it herself.”

Wendy breathed in deeply.

“There’s more, isn’t there?” Finn asked.

She nodded, her dark eyes staring down at the table—angry eyes. “I’m off the task force.”

“What?” I sputtered. “Why?”

Wendy didn’t answer right away and there was nothing but Cap’n Jack’s snores to disturb the silence. Finally, she looked up at us, but there were no tears in her eyes, only fire.

“Why do you think it happened?” Wendy directed the question to us both.

“Are you telling us that Sheldon found out that you were leaking information to us?” I asked.

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