We probably should have just gotten on with our day, Elias going his way and I going mine. But when we didn’t figure out the clue, my mind went back to Darcy.
“What do you think, Elias? Do you think she could possibly be the Monster?”
“I don’t know,” Elias said doubtfully as he started the taxi in the restaurant’s parking lot.
“She’s so tall,” I said.
“Shall we drive back by the Roost?”
“No, that’s okay.”
“Are ye sure, lass?” Elias was going slowly enough along the parking lot to allow me to change my mind.
“No. We can’t very well ask her if she’s the Monster. We can’t even ask to have a look at her coats and hats.”
“Are ye sure, lass?”
Elias knew what my eventual answer would be, so he wasn’t surprised in the least when I gave in and told him to go ahead and “swing by.”
He parked the taxi across the street from the Roost. The snow had started again this late afternoon, and the wind had picked up; it was coming down more heavily now, with bigger flakes.
“Do ye want tae try tae talk with her?” he asked as he had a sip from the takeaway coffee cup Vanessa had handed him as we headed out. She always made sure Elias had extra coffee.
“I don’t know yet. Could we just sit here a minute?”
“Aye.”
We watched students coming and going. When we’d visited that morning, there hadn’t been nearly as much foot traffic. I was intrigued by the students’ fashion priorities of comfort and warmth, which was the same as it had been for me when I’d been in college. I smiled at the memory of my time at the University of Kansas. I’d loved school, loved studying, loved research. There had been a time when I wondered if maybe I would be a student or work in a university setting all my life. I was glad for the way things had turned out, but being on a college campus forever didn’t sound like a bad duty.
“I think that’s her.” Elias gestured with his coffee cup.
It took me only a second to spot the tall person amid the other average-size people walking toward the Roost. The snow and some fog on the inside of the windshield distorted my view. I cleared a spot and watched Darcy walk toward the building.
Not only was she in an older coat, but her head was covered in a scarf too, one ragged at the edges. She didn’t look destitute, more like a student who’d purchased the coat in a thrift shop. Her style didn’t stand out as starkly different from that of the other students around her. Her height did, but not her garb.
I had no sense that this was the same person I’d seen in the parking spot or in Grassmarket. Darcy was tall, yes, but she was thin, with narrow shoulders. There was nothing masculine about her, which I’d been certain the Monster was.
“Lass?” Elias asked.
“I don’t think that’s who I’ve seen,” I said.
“’Tis good news, I think.”
“I think so too. I’m relieved.”
I wasn’t sure that who I’d seen was the same person who’d been committing the crimes—I wished I’d paid more attention that night by Tom’s car. “I don’t think it looks like the person on television either. Do you?”
“I dinnae think so.”
As Darcy approached the Roost, her head down against the wind, someone coming from the other direction stopped her. There was no doubt in my mind that the person was a man. He wasn’t dressed in an old coat, though. His coat was newer and sleeker, but since his back was to us and since he was mostly covered by his clothes, including a hat—the snow messed up our vision—I couldn’t make out what he looked like.
“I wonder who she’s talking to,” I said.
“Doesnae look familiar.” Elias had cleared away a spot on his side of the windshield too and deposited his coffee in a cup holder.
They stood outside the Roost as students filed in and out the doors. From our distance and angle, it remained impossible to see the man’s face, but I could tell that Darcy seemed to be listening intently to him–he was the one doing most of the talking.
I kept trying to see better, but it wasn’t possible. After another few moments, Darcy and the man hugged. Their embrace lasted a beat too long for simple friendship, or so I thought. Again, Hamlet’s love life was the least of my worries, but I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of regret that Darcy might be in a relationship.
They released the hug and the man turned just as a bus stopped in front of the Roost. We couldn’t tell if he boarded, but once the bus was out of our line of vision, we could see Darcy waving at it.
“A boyfriend,” I said.
“Aye,” Elias said doubtfully.
“What?”
“I dinnae ken the lass, but it didn’t seem like that. Perhaps a friend.”
“It’s good to see someone’s there for her.”
“Aye.”
A moment later Darcy went into the Roost.
“She’s not the Monster,” I said. “It doesn’t feel right.”
“I agree,” Elias said. “Pleased we looked?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
I was pleased, but as Elias drove me back to the bookshop, I pondered whether or not to tell Hamlet what we’d seen, and if, in fact, we’d seen anything at all. I felt myself looking for answers in every corner.
At least I was one hundred percent sure Darcy wasn’t the Monster. Okay, maybe only ninety-nine.