“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Cherry Hills’ newest detective,” Andrew said, strolling into Jessie’s Diner later that afternoon.
Behind the counter, Kat froze. It was impossible to miss the sarcasm dripping from his tone.
Still, she wasn’t going to volunteer anything. “CHPD hired another detective?” she asked instead.
Andrew walked up to the counter and sat down. “The word ‘hired’ implies that we’re paying you.”
She quirked her lips as if she didn’t know what he was talking about, praying her guilt wasn’t written all over her face. She should have known word of her visit to Leo’s employer would reach Andrew. Gossip was inevitable in a town the size of Cherry Hills.
Andrew set his elbows on the counter and leaned closer to her. “Imagine my surprise when I showed up at DataRightly earlier and found out you’d already been by to question everyone.”
Kat picked up a towel and started wiping down the counter. “I wasn’t questioning people. I just popped in to pay my respects.”
“Right.” Andrew stared at her down the bridge of his nose. “Stay out of it, Kat.”
Kat squared her shoulders, bristling from the stern look on his face. Her first instinct was to remind him that he was her boyfriend, not her boss.
But she bit her tongue. After all, he was right. Leo’s murder was police business. She should do the smart thing and let the cops figure out who was guilty.
Then again, she hated being told what to do.
“I know you can’t resist butting into things, but in situations like this you really need to mind your own business,” Andrew went on. “Showing up at Leo’s workplace and interrogating his colleagues could put you on the wrong person’s radar if he or she thinks you’re getting close to the truth.”
“I don’t suppose you know who the wrong person is in this case, do you?”
Andrew sagged in his seat, her question seeming to drain him of energy. “No. Nobody saw anything, nobody heard anything, and there wasn’t even a murder weapon left on the scene.”
Kat thought about the rose. “From what I’ve heard, the whole thing sounds like it was premeditated.”
“Anything’s possible at the moment.” Andrew paused, his eyes narrowing. “But that’s for the police to figure out.”
“Right.” She straightened, rubbing the counter with more verve. “So, can I get you a milkshake or something?”
“Sure.” His eyes lit up, and a huge smile brought out the dimples on both sides of his mouth. “Strawberry.”
She tossed the towel into a bucket under the counter and turned around to wash her hands. “Coming right up.”
“Make it to go, will you? I have to get back to the station.”
Kat slid open the metal freezer panel built into the counter. “Okay.”
Andrew watched her scoop ice cream into a metal mixing cup. “I don’t know how you survived without a Jessie’s milkshake for fifteen years,” he said. There was no hint of sarcasm in his voice now. It was as though he had already forgotten about chastising her mere seconds ago. “I wouldn’t last a week without one.”
“Milkshakes are available in other parts of the country, you know.”
“But do they compare to a Jessie’s shake?”
“I haven’t found one quite as good, but some are pretty decent,” she said. “When I lived in Ellensburg, the best place to get them was this ice cream parlor located right next to the technology building on campus. Professor Bluefield used to treat our team there after we had worked particularly hard on something.”
“This is the guy who was mentoring you all?”
“Yes. I learned a lot from him.”
Andrew chuckled. “Like how to wheedle free milkshakes out of your college professors.”
She smiled. “Hey, we were all starving students. Professor Bluefield knew if he rewarded us sometimes, we’d work that much harder for him.”
“As much as I love milkshakes, I wouldn’t consider them adequate compensation for staring at a computer monitor all day long.”
“That’s because you’ve never experienced the amazing feeling that comes from getting a machine to do what you want.”
Andrew cocked his head to one side. “Kind of like what this Professor Bluefield was doing with you?”
She stuck her tongue out at him. “I liked working on that tree database.” She paused. “I wonder how he’s doing.”
“You don’t keep in touch?”
“I emailed him when I started sending out résumés earlier this year, but that was only to let him know he might be contacted for a reference check.” She shrugged. “The emails we used to send each other to say hi petered out a few years after I graduated. I guess life got in the way.”
Andrew drummed his fingers on the counter. “You say he knew Leo, right?”
Kat’s stomach clenched as she recalled Leo’s reaction upon hearing Professor Bluefield’s name. “Yeah.”
“Well, here’s your chance to get back in touch.”
“By letting him know his old friend was murdered?” She shook her head as she tossed a handful of frozen strawberries into the mixing cup. “Besides, I gather they were on the outs after he stole Leo’s high school sweetheart away.”
“Considering that this professor of yours ended up with the girl, he probably doesn’t view Leo in nearly so negative a light as Leo viewed him,” Andrew said. “And either way, he’s bound to find out about Leo soon enough. Why not hear the news from somebody he respects?”
Kat took a milk gallon out of the cooler. She had to admit he made a good point. And she couldn’t deny it would be nice to hear what her old professor was up to nowadays.
“I’ll email him during my next break,” she said. She eyed Andrew. “Of course, it would be nice to have all the case details to give him.”
Andrew scoffed. “Nice try.”
They stopped talking long enough for her to mix the milkshake. She spooned the results into a to-go cup and set it on the counter.
“For you,” she said, affixing the lid and sticking a straw through it.
Andrew was practically drooling as he picked up the cup. “I knew I was dating you for a reason.”
Kat snorted. “You don’t have to date the waitresses to order our milkshakes.”
“Really? And here I was planning to ask a few more of them out.” Andrew grinned as he strode toward the door. “I’ll see you later. Stay out of trouble while I’m gone.”
“Bye,” Kat said with a wave.
A short, balding man entered the restaurant as Andrew was leaving. He sat down at the far end of the counter, placing the manila folder he’d brought in front of him.
“Welcome to Jessie’s,” Kat said, closing the distance between them. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“Not yet.” He swiveled his seat around and surveyed the dining area. “I’m actually here to meet somebody. Have you seen him?”
“What’s his name?”
“Leo Price.”
Kat’s heart stopped beating. “Leo Price?”
The man rotated back around to face her. “You know who I’m talking about, don’t you? He’s about your height, late forties. This town is small enough that I presume everybody around here knows one another.”
Kat didn’t reply, unsure what to say. Although she had met Leo before his untimely death, she couldn’t really claim to have known him.
The man glanced at the clock on the wall. “He was supposed to meet me here half an hour ago. Did he leave when I didn’t show on time? Traffic from Seattle was terrible.”
Kat mustered up some saliva to wet her dry mouth. “I guess you haven’t heard.”
“Heard what?”
“Leo was killed yesterday.”
The man’s mouth dropped open. He gripped the edge of the counter, as though he needed the support before he fell off of the stool. “He’s dead?” he croaked.
“Yes.”
Kat turned around to fill a glass with some water. From the shell-shocked look on his face, she was betting he needed it.
She turned out to be right. The man drank greedily when she handed over the glass.
“How?” he managed to say between gulps. “Why?”
“He was stabbed. I don’t know why.”
The man raked his fingers through what remained of his hair, looking lost.
“How do you know Leo?” Kat asked.
He stared at her, as though he were having trouble processing her words after the blow he had just received.
Kat propped her hip against the counter. “You described what he looked like, so I’m assuming you know him.”
This time, the man responded. “I used to work with him.”
“At DataRightly?”
He shook his head. “We started up a dot-com together. A long time ago.”
Kat’s breath hitched, Imogene’s story from yesterday replaying in her head. “You’re Franklin Delacourt.”
The man jerked back a little. “He mentioned me to you?”
“No. But I heard you two used to be partners, before your company went bankrupt.”
Franklin rubbed two stubby fingers against the outside of the water glass. “I had high hopes for that company.”
“I didn’t know you and Leo still had professional ties,” Kat said.
“I was actually hoping he’d consider hiring me to work for him.” Franklin stopped playing with the water glass and set his hand on the manila folder. “Inside here is my résumé and some other documents he asked me to bring.”
Kat didn’t miss the melancholy look that swept over Franklin’s face. She wondered if he were more disappointed by Leo’s death or the fact that his job lead had literally turned into a dead end.
“I haven’t done well since our venture failed,” he admitted. “But Leo, he bounced back right away. I heard he had a vacancy in his department, so . . .”
“So you asked him to give you the job,” Kat concluded.
Franklin’s cheek twisted. “It took some convincing, but eventually he agreed to at least grant me an interview.”
“You mean you went over to his condo and badgered him.”
Franklin stiffened. “How’d you know that?”
Kat shrugged. It had been pure conjecture on her part that Franklin Delacourt was the man CeeCee had heard yelling outside Leo’s unit earlier this week, but his response had just confirmed it.
Franklin sighed. “He didn’t want to listen to me at first. When he told me to buzz off, I may have become a little heated.”
His flush told Kat he had become more than a little heated. But she didn’t say anything, figuring there was no point in putting him on the defensive.
“But Leo’s always been a stand-up guy,” Franklin continued. “Once I reminded him of how well we had worked together once upon a time, he let me in. I managed to convince him to at least discuss his vacancy with me. He even promised to meet me here when I told him I wouldn’t be able to make it over from Seattle in time for yesterday’s round of interviews.”
“That was nice of him,” Kat said.
Franklin fingered the folder. “It was, especially considering that I haven’t always been the nicest person to him.”
Kat watched him. Although he had acted suitably bereaved upon hearing about Leo’s fate, she couldn’t forget what Imogene had told her. Leo would have had to be a very forgiving person to even consider hiring the man who had once made his life miserable. And if Franklin was so desperate for a job that he was willing to bully his old partner into giving him one, it wasn’t hard to believe he might refuse to take no for an answer.
Except, if Franklin had killed Leo, what would be his motive for hanging around town after the fact? Maybe he figured someone must have seen the fit he’d thrown outside Leo’s condo, and he thought the best way to deflect suspicions was to show up for a so-called ‘interview’ that had never actually existed.
Franklin shot out of his seat and snatched the folder off of the counter. “Well, if Leo’s dead, there’s no point in me sitting here.”
“Wait,” Kat called out, but Franklin was already out the door.