Murder in the Arboretum by Nardi Christa

Author:Nardi, Christa [Nardi, Christa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cozy Mystery
Published: 2014-09-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

As we were leaving, Brett started to say, “I want to stop at the College …” when Priscilla walked up to us and bristled, “So, did your little stunt work for you Sheridan? I heard that your office got trashed. Serves you right for sticking your nose into other people’s business.”

She would have walked off, but Brett stopped her to ask, “What do you mean, ‘you heard’?” Detective demeanor in place, his tone was fierce and demanding. Priscilla obviously agreed.

“Malloy, the campus security man,” she hissed. Then she turned and stormed off in a huff.

Brett looked at me and shook his head. We drove to the College and headed toward the Humanities Building. As I moved toward the door, Brett looked toward the Arboretum. “Hold on. We still have a little light. Show me where you ran into those guys.”

I know “they” say you need to get over your fear. If you fall off a horse, you need to get back on, and all those other sayings. It didn’t help to know that in my brain. I felt my blood pressure rise as we approached the entrance and started down the path. Brett put his arm around me. I took a deep breath as the path turned to the cut out area where they had been.

“It was here. The beady eyed guy was over there, and the other three men, here, and the woman here.” I pointed to the locations and my eyes returned of their own accord to where the leader had stood.

Flashlight out, Brett covered the area carefully. He reached into another pocket and pulled out a baggie. I watched him put a couple of cigarette butts in it. Then the baggie went in his shirt pocket. Not for the first time, I reflected that doing Brett’s laundry could be disastrous if the person didn’t check each and every pocket. He always seemed to pull things out of his pockets, almost reminiscent of a very male version of Mary Poppins’ big bag. He went through the same process of bagging stuff from the ground a couple of more times.

As he stood, back to me, in the same place as the leader, he asked, “Sher, did you notice if these branches were damaged? It almost looks like there was a tussle of sorts and someone landed in the azalea here.” He turned and looked at me, waiting for my answer.

“Sorry, that was where beady eyes stood and I tried real hard not to make eye contact or look around. I just kept looking over there where the path continues,” I said as I shifted my gaze to the path.

Brett walked over toward there, then stopped and picked up something else and put it in a baggie. It looked like a piece of cloth. He shrugged as he turned back to me. “Okay, now let’s check out your office.”

We went back to the Humanities Building. It was somewhat comforting that the door was closed and locked. I used my key and in we went.

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