Squirrel & Swan Hidden Things by M. D. Archer

Author:M. D. Archer [M. D. ARCHER]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SWARM Publishing
Published: 2022-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

AFTER ADDING THE new information to their notes and indulging in another hour or so of excited speculation, Paige and Sophie took a break and ordered dinner from Satya, the south Indian restaurant just down the road. After rock-paper-scissoring to decide who would go pick it up and drawing three times in a row, they decided they could both do with some fresh air and went together.

They returned to the office with their takeaways. Sophie took a seat on the couch with her bowl of vindaloo chicken with rice, while Paige stood in front of the whiteboard and chewed on a piece of roti. The brief interviews they’d had with The Crew had not yielded much new information, apart from the revelation about Lily herself. But was that an exaggeration on Clarissa’s part? They had an appointment with her at nine o’clock tonight—the only time she could see them, according to her assistant Jenny—so they could find out why two members of The Crew had separately pointed the finger at her. Sophie glanced at the time. She was already feeling tired. How was she going to stay awake for a nine o’clock meeting?

“Hey, no one has heard from Wade yet, have they?” Sophie said, trying to keep her voice casual.

“I checked with Clarissa earlier today and he hasn’t replied to her message.”

“Yeah, he hasn’t replied to mine either.” It had been a reluctant Sophie who had texted and followed up with an actual phone call. He hadn’t replied to either of these or her friend-request, which made Sophie light-headed with embarrassment.

“Which is totally suspicious,” Paige said, straightening, her eyes bright. “Maybe he’s a paid assassin.”

“Who kills by pushing people down the stairs?”

Paige paused. “Yeah. Good point. Not a very professional method. Still, we need to talk to him. And you’re right about the murder method. It’s not at all precise or well thought out, which means it was probably an act of passion, a moment of anger after an argument or something.”

“And no one actually has a solid alibi, really. It would be risky, sure, but anyone of them could have snuck out of their room, confronted Scott, or maybe just run into him on the way to the loo and, for whatever reason, pushed him down the stairs.”

One problem was that they didn’t know for sure they were investigating an actual murder rather than a tragic accident, Sophie thought but didn’t say. She didn’t want to rain on Paige’s parade. Or her own for that matter. For once, Sophie shared Paige’s optimism. And they were getting paid for their time.

“We obviously need to talk to Lily about what Clarissa told us—”

“But also confirm with someone else. Ideally outside The Crew, because Clarissa seems pretty vindictive,” Sophie said. “And while Melanie also thought Lily could be the culprit, she’s friends with Clarissa.”

“And Hamish didn’t remember the diary thing.” Paige raised one eyebrow. “No second thoughts about dumping him?” she added with a grin. “He’s moved on you know, Sophie. You’ve lost your chance.

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