A Great Day for the Deadly(13)

“This man meaning Gregor Demarkian,” Glinda said.

“Exactly. My impression was, the Cardinal got him in front of the microphones very much against his will. But he’s coming here anyway. I don’t think that was against his will. I suppose it might have been.”

“I wish I’d had the radio on in the office,” Glinda said. “I was so wrapped up in things here, so worried I wouldn’t get those terrible people out the door in time—”

“You never have to worry about that,” Sam said. “If they give you any problem, you just call me up. I’ll get them out of here in no time.”

“You’ll get me fired,” Glinda said. She looked down at the book in her hand. It was duly stamped and ready to go, but Sam didn’t seem to have noticed. She closed the cover and pushed it away from her. “I just wish I’d heard it, that’s all,” she told him. “I mean, you read so much about the man. He’s always in the magazines, and the cases he handles—” Glinda shrugged. “I don’t know. I would have liked to hear his voice.”

“Well,” Sam said reasonably, the Scots burr becoming just a little thicker, the way it always did when he thought he was about to utter the obvious, “you’ll find out soon enough, won’t you? He’ll be here any day now. Tomorrow.”

“I know,” Glinda said, “but then he’ll be investigating. He’ll be—someone not to trust.”

Sam looked down at the book, saw that it was closed, and pulled it toward him. Then he looked at the ceiling. He couldn’t look her in the face without blushing. That had been true since the first day he’d come in to talk to her. Glinda found it—endearing.

She opened the center drawer again, checked a lot of things that didn’t need checking, and closed it. Then she got her keys out of her pocket and said, “Well. I guess I’d better be going. Any minute now, somebody’s going to come by and see the lights, and I’m going to be stuck here half the night.”

“You could always refuse to let them in.”

“I could,” Glinda agreed, “but doing that kind of thing makes me feel guilty. Thank you for coming and telling me about Demarkian, though. I think it makes me feel better that he’s coming.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Maybe just because it’s all been so strange, with the way I found her and then all the people in town who keep saying they’ve seen her. It’s been like a UFO incident or something.”

Sam looked surprised. “Have you had more of those people? The ones who say they saw her?”

“Like you?” Glinda asked him.

Sam shrugged. “I came up front the next day and told Pete Donovan everything I saw through my little telescope. It’s been a week now. You’d think that sort of thing would be over.”

“I think it’s a form of mass hysteria.” Glinda sighed. “It’s like those people who write in to The Weekly World News about how they’ve seen JFK or Elvis. I had two today. Don Bollander said he’d seen Brigit in the bank the day she died, and Mrs. Murchison swore she’d seen her down on Diamond Place. What Mrs. Murchison was doing down on Diamond Place, I don’t know.”

“Smoking marijuana?” Sam suggested.

“Mrs. Murchison is sixty-four years old and goes to the funerals of people she doesn’t know. I’m sorry, Sam. I really do have to be getting out of here.”

“Do you have anyplace in particular to go?”

“What?”

“Do you have anyplace in particular to go?”

Glinda had been bent over at the waist, locking the drawers of the check-out desk. She didn’t usually do this, although according to the rules set down by the Town Governing Board, she was supposed to. She was only doing it now to give Sam Harrigan a graceful way to leave. Except that it seemed he didn’t want a graceful way to leave. She stood up and looked at him.

“Excuse me,” she said.

Sam Harrigan had stopped shifting on his feet. “The thing is,” he told her, “I know your car’s out of commission—”

“That’s right, it broke down last night right here in the parking lot. I had to have Earl Forrester come pick it up and give me a ride home. But how did you—”

“It’s a small town,” Sam said vaguely. He was staring at the ceiling again. “Anyway, if you’ve got someplace to go tonight and someone to see that’s one thing, but if you’re just looking to take the bus up the hill, well, it’s a cold night. And it’s dark. And it’s right on my way. Your house is, I mean.”