I knew it! Daisy thought when she closed the diary for the night. I knew he would give her something feminine and personal! Definitely a romance brewing.
Jude was in a funk the next morning at work. Daisy hesitated to ask what the problem was, but the more often Jude walked past her office and let out a labored sigh, the more obvious it became that Daisy wasn’t going to get any work done if she didn’t find out what was troubling the senior editor.
“Jude, is everything okay?” she asked when Jude had walked by for the umpteenth time.
“Is it that obvious?” asked Jude, stopping short in the doorway.
Daisy didn’t answer.
“It’s just that the police aren’t making any progress in finding out who killed Fiona,” she said, flopping uncharacteristically into the chair opposite Daisy.
“It’s a murder investigation,” Daisy reminded her dryly. “They can’t hurry stuff like that. They don’t want to get it wrong.”
“But I’m worried about Mark John. He can’t move on with such uncertainty hanging over his head.”
“And by ‘moving on,’ what do you mean, exactly?” Daisy asked.
“Well, obviously, I mean getting on with the rest of his life.”
“And the police haven’t come up with any promising leads?” Daisy asked.
“Not that they’ve shared with Mark John,” Jude replied. “Have you found out anything that could help Mark John? Anything at all?”
“I wish I had good news, but I don’t. I talked to Brian about Melody, Walt’s wife, to see if he could shed any light on her state of mind, but he seemed rather protective of her. He seemed angry when I hinted that Melody might have been capable of murder. He’s the only person involved who knows Melody, so any information about her has to come from him.”
“I wonder how he’s so sure she didn’t do it,” Jude mused.
Daisy shrugged. “I don’t know. Listen, I’ve got a lot of work to do. If I find out anything else, I’ll let you know.”
“Sorry to keep you for so long. It’s just that you can be more objective than the rest of us,” Jude said, smiling at Daisy. “I believe that you’ll be able to figure this whole thing out and get Mark John off the hook.”
Daisy smiled as Jude left. But her smile turned to a frown as soon as Jude was out of sight. It was unlike the senior editor to praise Daisy like that. Was it possible she was just trying to throw Daisy off the scent of the real killer--or killers? Was it possible that Jude had killed both Fiona and Walt, and orchestrated the whole thing to make it look like Melody did it, all to pave her way to a relationship with Mark John?
Or was she protecting Mark John?
Or had Melody become unhinged when she found out about her husband’s affair?
Any one of them could be the killer.