Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon by Donna Andrews

Author:Donna Andrews [Andrews, Donna]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780312990015
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2004-01-29T06:00:00+00:00

“He wasn’t blackmailing me,” she said. “I mean, he tried, but I told him off. I never paid anything. Why should I -? I’m not having an affair. I’m having a small problem with a patient who has become obsessed with me, true, but I’m working that out.”

“And meeting him here at one A.M. was part of working it out?” I asked, checking my watch.

“I should have known you’d assume the worst,” she said, drawing herself up and turning on her heel.

“Doesn’t much matter what I assume,” I said, to her departing back. “Be interesting to hear what Chief Burke makes of it.”

Maybe it was my imagination, but I think her shoulders fell a little as I said that.

I watched as she crossed the lobby and disappeared down the stairway.

I’d guessed correctly - Ted had tried to blackmail her. Wasn’t there an entry for The Valkyrie on his list of targets? That would fit Dr. Lorelei perfectly. But did this have anything to do with his murder?

Perhaps not, if her reason for showing up here was as innocent as she would like me to think. Then again, maybe even the appearance of an ethics violation would damage her career - especially her brand-new national radio show. And if she really was having an affair -?

Whether or not she was having an affair wasn’t important, though I admit I was curious. What mattered was whether or not she’d kill to protect her professional reputation and her growing fame as the star of Lorelei Listens. And for my money, yes, she was ambitious enough. Not to mention the fact that, given her size and strength, she could probably have strangled Ted even without stunning him first.

Maybe I should be glad she left quietly.

Maybe I should have stayed in hiding instead of confronting her. And speaking of hiding - I checked the box in the coat closet and found it full of pink Affirmation Bears. So Dr. Brown would receive tomorrow’s complaint about people usurping shared space for personal use. Or maybe I should focus on the safety angle - if a fire broke out and I reached into the closet, I wanted to put my hands on the extinguisher, not a fuzzy pink cheering section.

Should I wrestle the box into her office now? No. For now, I was going to make myself a copy of Ted’s blackmail list, so no one would see me doing it in the morning, and leave it at the reception desk, with the keys. And then crawl around with the blick light, studying the mail cart track. The bears could hibernate where they were until morning, when Dr. Brown was available to move them herself.

I strolled through the opening and turned right, rounding a corner and walking down the north hall, which led, eventually, to the copier room.

And then I saw something down the hall and ducked into a nearby cube.

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