“Jesus,” Kyle said.
Peggy Smith Kennedy stared at the linoleum cutter. “That was inside her. It was sticking out of her. And I thought, you can’t leave it like that. You can’t leave Emma on the floor with a thing like that in her. So I took it out, and then there was blood everywhere. There was blood all over me. I’m never going to get it out of this dress.”
The ambulance men took the stretcher with Emma Bligh on it out of the room. A few moments later, George Bligh stuck his head through the curtains.
“Is it true? Is she really still alive?”
“She was when I listened to her heartbeat,” Gregor told him. “In spite of how awful it looks, my guess is that the wound isn’t anywhere near as serious as it would have to be to kill her. She—”
“I’m going to follow the ambulance to the hospital,” George said. “If you want to arrest me, you can do it later. I’m going to the hospital now.”
He ducked back out of the curtains, and Kyle shook his head. “It’s not like he’s going anyplace we can’t find him. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.”
“There was blood everywhere even before I took it out of her,” Peggy Smith Kennedy said. “I stepped in it.”
All of a sudden, there were sirens, lots of sirens. Some of them would be the ambulance taking Emma Kenyon Bligh to the hospital. Some of them turned out to be the state police. Gregor heard them as they came up the porch steps, barking orders. Gregor went out into the little room and then beyond it into the bigger one. He watched as one of the state police officers tried to push people back onto the porch. The other officer came up to him.
“Mr. Demarkian,” he said.
“How do you do.” If he’d met the officer by name, Gregor didn’t remember him. “You’d better go on back, through the next room and then through a curtain. There’s another one.”
“Another body?”
“Another woman. The woman the ambulance just took is alive. That’s why she’s gone. Go on back. There’s something I’ve got to do. I’ll be with you in a moment.”
“Is the other woman dead?” the officer asked.
She might as well be, Gregor thought, but he didn’t say it. He watched the officer at the door finally get all the unauthorized people out onto the porch and then lock the door behind him. Then he sat down behind Emma Bligh’s counter and picked up the phone.
2
Bennis Hannaford was not only in but showered and dressed, and just two floors down from Jimmy Card and Elizabeth Toliver.
“Nobody knows we’re here yet, if that’s what you’re worried about,” she said, when she’d heard Gregor out. “Although I don’t expect that’s going to last long. If I recognized the car, somebody else will. I mean Jimmy Card’s car. Didn’t you say you had Elizabeth Toliver’s car? Where is it?”
“At Andy’s garage,” Gregor said. “Do you think you could go up there and ask them if they’ve seen anything at all of Maris Coleman?”
“Who’s Maris Coleman?”
“Somebody who works for Ms. Toliver. It’s a long story. Do you think you could—”
“What, Gregor? Just march upstairs, muscle my way onto their floor and walk up to Elizabeth Toliver and say ‘Hello, Ms. Toliver. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve always enjoyed your work. Where is Maris Coleman?’”
“Bennis, for God’s sake. I don’t have the phone number. I wasn’t even sure where they were until you told me. I was just calling you up to see if you could find out. Since you’re there, go ask them if they’ve seen Maris Coleman at any time this morning. All right? There’s a woman half dead out here and—”
“Another one? Where? At Elizabeth Toliver’s house?”
“No. Nowhere near there. In town. It’s a long story. Now will you please—”
“It’ll take forever. Five minutes. Ten.”
“I’ll wait.”
“But—”
“I’ll wait,” Gregor said. “I’ve got to know if they’ve seen anything of Maris Coleman this morning, all right? Go. It’s only going to take longer if you stand there arguing.”
“Hell,” Bennis said.
Gregor heard a clunk that he supposed must be the phone receiver hitting some kind of surface—the night table, the floor—and sat back to watch the state police help Peggy Smith Kennedy out of the back room and through the front rooms toward the door. There were still dozens of people on the porch outside, but there was also a state police officer.