After Tara left, Sam settled back behind his desk. Jo got up to pace the room. Lucy paced behind her.
"So Lynn had an amorous meeting with Noah in the alley," Sam said.
"But Noah was in the bar." Jo stood at the window looking out over the street. O’Malley’s was two doors down from the alley where Tara had indicated she’d seen the romantic meeting between Lynn and Noah. "Then again, Derek and Josh said he was in the bar. They were playing pool, not watching Noah. He could’ve slipped out and met Lynn in the alley."
"But why go to all that trouble? Why the subterfuge? Why wouldn’t Noah just break up with Amber and get back together with Lynn?" Sam asked.
Jo turned and paced back to Sam’s desk, Lucy at her heels. "I have no idea. People do strange things. Maybe it has something to do with her will. Maybe he was trying to be nice to get her to change it. Or maybe they had just realized they still had feelings for each other now. That could explain what Derek saw. Maybe it was Noah sneaking out to meet with Lynn."
"Or Amber sneaking out to kill her so Noah couldn’t meet with her."
"Either way, there’s something off about this," Jo said. "At least that settles the whole business of the appointment."
"Maybe. I’d still like to find out what’s on her cell phone. There could be texts or phone calls that would give us a clue about something."
"Those are always interesting." Jo patted Lucy’s head. "And I think we better have another talk with Noah. He forgot to tell us about his alley meeting with Lynn. But right now, I think we need to take Lucy out to do some business. And get some lunch."
Sam pushed up from his desk and walked to the door with Jo and Lucy. "Maybe we should get a leash for her."
"Why? She seems to stay right with us."
"She does, but it just seems like we should have one just in case." Sam opened the door and gestured for Jo and Lucy to proceed out into the squad room area.
Reese was at her desk. She looked up and smiled at them. Then her eyes drifted out of the window and widened in alarm. "Oh shit! Dupont’s coming."
Jo spun around. Dupont was walking up the street, clutching a manila envelope.
Jo’s first inclination was to shove Lucy back into Sam’s office. But what if Dupont wanted to talk to Sam privately in there? There was an entrance on the other side they never used. It opened to a small parking lot where the mail trucks used to park in back. She rushed over to the door and shoved Lucy outside just as Dupont came in the front.
"Mr. Dupont, how nice to see you." Reese’s voice was light.
Dupont scowled at her. "What’s going on?"
Reese smiled, all wide-eyed and innocent. "Nothing."
Dupont cleared his throat and looked at Sam. "Thank you for visiting the Palmers. It meant a lot to them."
"Of course," Sam said.
"We still need to get this solved right away. The townsfolk don’t like to think of a murderer running around." Dupont’s tone turned hard. "And you need to think about hiring someone. Being shorthanded has impacted this investigation."
"Not really," Sam said. "We’ve been working extra hours, and Kevin has been filling in for the full-time hours to take up the slack."
"And will he be taking the full-time position?"
"No, but I think it’s premature to—"
Dupont shoved the manila envelope into Sam’s hand. "Here are the applicants for the job. I don’t want the townspeople complaining the streets aren’t safe. That could reflect badly on me in the election polls next year. So I expect to be fully staffed by the end of the month." Dupont turned toward the door and shot over his shoulder, "And don’t forget to keep me updated on the Palmer case."
"Man, what a jerk. He couldn’t give a crap if we are understaffed or if there’s crime in town—he just cares about getting reelected." Jo watched him walk away, making sure he wasn’t going to come back before opening the side door to let Lucy in.
Lucy wasn’t sitting on the step as Jo had expected. She looked further, in the shrubs and out into the parking lot, but Lucy was nowhere to be found. She was gone.
The station felt empty without Lucy. They had looked all around the building and into the town but didn’t find her.
They were seated at Jo’s desk, and Sam was eating a pastrami on rye. Jo was moving the chunks of her beef stew around in her bowl, a white bag with one last jelly donut sitting beside her. Reese munched on a salad at her own desk across the lobby. The room was filled with the smell of beef and cheese, but it was mostly silent except for their chewing. An air of sadness had descended upon them.
Kevin had come and gone. It was late afternoon, and nothing else was going on. He seemed eager to leave, so Sam had let him go home. Kevin wasn’t exactly what you’d call a go-getter.
Sam glanced at the applications Dupont had given him. Maybe it was time to start looking through them.
"It might be just as well that she’s gone. Eric said she might not be adoptable. If she makes the shelter circuit and no one claims her, she could be euthanized. Maybe it’s better that she’s out there on her own," Reese said.
Jo looked disturbed by this. She even put down the jelly donut she’d dug out of the bag and brushed off her fingers. You knew it had to be bad when Jo didn’t finish her donut. "But what will she eat? In the winter, where will she sleep?"
"I don’t know. It looks like she’s been on her own for a while. Maybe we can look out for her somehow."
"If she sticks around the area." Sam wadded up the paper from his finished sandwich and tossed it into the trash.
Reese’s computer dinged. "Good news. I ran the password decryption program on Lynn’s Google account, and looks like it worked."
"How did you know she had a Google account?" Sam asked.
Reese shrugged. "It was just a guess. A lot of people have them. You know it’s free. And you can get Google calendar and email. I figured she worked for the company, and they didn’t have a lot of money, so they probably didn’t spend money on fancy apps."
"Did you say calendar?" Jo’s attention was focused on Reese.
Reese smiled. "Yes, I did. The program figured out her password. It runs a bunch of combinations. And guess what. She did have an appointment that day."
Sam and Jo were across the room in a second, looking down at Reese’s laptop screen. "You mean the day they all came to town, she wasn’t just meeting with Noah?"
Reese tapped her finger on the screen. "That was the twelfth, right? Look at where it says, ’meeting 1 PM. R. B.’"
"R. B.?" Jo screwed up her face. "Unless R. B. is code for mauling Noah near the dumpster, it looks like Amber might have been right about Lynn being up to something."
Sam walked up Main Street toward the antiques store. Julie had said she’d seen Lynn heading in that direction and that Lynn collected antique marbles. No marbles have been found in her belongings, but it was possible she didn’t find anything in the store that she wanted to add to her collection.
But while Julie had said that she’d seen Lynn walk up toward the antiques store, Tara had said she’d seen her in the alley next to O’Malley’s. Could she have been in both places? It was possible since they had been downtown for an hour. But what about the appointment with R. B.? Would she have had time for all three?
The bell on the antique oak door of the shop jangled as Sam opened it. Inside, Clara Weatherby looked up at him from behind the counter. She looked the same as she always did, with snow-white hair, a deeply wrinkled face, and a generous smile. Sam guessed Clara to be about eighty. She’d always owned the antique shop, and he’d known her since he was a little boy.