I fled the room, and he followed.
“Ingenious,” he said. “Of course, it’ll cost money.”
“I will gladly pay for it myself if it shuts them up,” I said.
“On the contrary, it will be my treat, on account of you took this job and kept me from having to deal with all of them.”
“Of course, even once the pocket door is in, they won’t get along,” I said. “They’ll each complain that every time the door opens, the other one’s room will spoil the look of their own.”
“Then I’ll nail the damned door shut if that’s what it takes,” Randall said. We had reached the top of the stairway, right outside the door to Clay’s room. Both of us couldn’t help staring at the door for a few minutes.
“Puts it all in perspective, doesn’t it?” Randall said.
I nodded.
He went downstairs, and I pulled out my notebook to see what other tasks awaited me.
Sammy came up to fetch Vermillion for her interview. As they went downstairs together, Martha came out into the hallway and started after Vermillion.
I decided that if she made another complaint about Vermillion, I’d tell Randall to forget the pocket door and paint the whole damned door black.
But she stopped beside me.
“Why’s he spending so much time interviewing us?” Martha said.
I suspected this was a rhetorical question rather than a real one.
“Because all of us had access to the crime scene,” I said. “And some of us could have a motive to kill Clay, and any of us could have seen something that would give him a clue to who did it.”
“And they took all our fingerprints,” she said. “Took me forever to wash that nasty stuff off. Even those of us with alibis.”
“For exclusionary purposes,” I said. “I expect all of us have been in Clay’s room at one time or another, touching stuff. They need to identify our fingerprints so they’ll know if there are any outsiders’ fingerprints in there.”
“Well, that makes sense,” she said. Her tone implied that few other things the police were doing did. “And I suppose the police will have a better idea who might have done it once they trace the gun.”
“First they’ll have to find the gun,” I said.
“What do you mean, find the gun?” she asked. “Haven’t they searched Clay’s room?”
“Yes, but apparently the killer took the gun with him.”
“Took it with him? Are you sure?”
“Reasonably sure,” I said. “I was there, remember?”
“Sorry,” she said. “Yes, you should know. Well, that stinks.”
“Why?”
“Means the gun is still out there somewhere,” she said. “On the loose.”
“Yes,” I said. “Just like the killer.” Was it just me or was it weird for her to be more focused on the missing gun than the missing killer?
“I felt a lot better thinking the police had the damned gun.”
Did she think it was the only gun in the state of Virginia?
“Great,” she went on. “We’re stuck here in this house, sitting ducks, with an armed killer on the loose—maybe even among us.”
“Well, that’s why the chief is checking out everyone in the house pretty carefully,” I said. “And what makes you think the killer was after anyone other than Clay?”
“Till we know why he killed Clay, we don’t know that he isn’t. Maybe we should ask for police protection.”
I reminded myself, not for the first time, that Martha was a bit of a drama queen.
“I’ll let you take that up with the chief,” I said. “I just plan to be careful until the police catch the killer.”
“With any luck, that will be soon,” she said. “He must be a pretty stupid killer, taking the gun with him like that. If the police catch him with it, that will pretty much prove he’s the one, won’t it?”
“If he—or she—is stupid enough to hang on to it,” I said. “If I were planning to shoot someone, I’d make sure to do it with a gun that couldn’t possibly be traced to me, and then I’d dispose of it afterward someplace where there was almost no chance anyone would ever find it. Like dumping it in the middle of a river. Or down a mineshaft.”
“How do you come up with stuff like that?” She looked at me as if she thought I might be speaking from vast criminal experience.
“My cousin’s a crime scene specialist,” I said. “And my father’s the medical examiner. Sometimes they talk shop.”
“Goodness.” She shuddered slightly. “Well, I’m going to get back to working on my rooms. Got to take my shot at winning the prize for the garden club.”