“Holy cow.” I put both feet on the floor and sat up straight. “I’m going to be indirectly responsible for someone dying?”
“Yep.”
“Well, that sucks ass.”
“Yes, it does.”
“Can you ask them who it is?”
“Who what is?”
“This guardian I’m going to murder indirectly.”
“Oh, of course.” She laughed softly. “But, ask who?”
Perhaps her decision to remain chaste was for the best. “The angels.”
“Oh, right. No.”
“Why not?” I asked, glowering a little.
“I told you. I don’t talk to angels. I just sort of hear them.” She turned to Cookie. “Is she still not sleeping?”
Cookie shook her head.
“How did you—?” I stopped myself. “The angels? Really? They gossip that much?”
“You have no idea.”
* * *
I showed Sister Mary Elizabeth to the door, then turned back to Cookie. “Is it just me, or was that weird?”
“Both.” She eyed me with a wary suspicion. “So, you’re going to off someone.”
“Not directly,” I said defensively. “I mean, who knows how many people I’ve killed indirectly. You, too, for that matter.”
“Me?” she asked, appalled. “Okay, I’m going to find out if a man named Keith Jacoby was in the Cayman Islands around the time of the doctor’s first wife’s death.”
“Perfect. I’ll do a little research on Reyes’s case and the names he gave me.”
“That’s so wild what she said.” Cookie sat behind her desk. “How she actually hears angels.”
But was that really the most important part? “Did you catch the time-of-great-suffering thing?”
Her expression softened. “Can you just make sure I’m not around when it happens?”
“No can do,” I said, strolling back to my office with a negating wave of my hand. “If I have to suffer, then so does everyone else within a ten-mile radius.”
She pursed her lips. “What ever happened to taking one for the team?”
“Was never much of a team player.”
“Sacrificing yourself for the greater good?”
“Not that into human sacrifice.”
“Suffering in silence?”
I stopped and turned back to her, my eyes narrowing accusingly. “If I have to suffer, I’ll be screaming your name at the top of my lungs the whole time. You’ll be able to hear me all the way to Jersey, mark my words.”
“You’re very testy today.”
Fifteen minutes later, I stabbed the intercom thingy on my desk. “Remember that dental assistant at Reyes’s trial? She said Earl Walker was scared of Reyes, and she just happened to work for the same dentist who identified Earl through his dental records?”
“Sure, I remember. Sarah something,” she said.
“Sarah Hadley. And guess where Sarah Hadley is now.”
“Jamaica?”
“Why would she be in Jamaica?”
“You told me to guess.”
“Listen to this—”
“You realize I can hear you without the annoying intercom.”
Cookie and I both leaned forward and looked at each other through the doorway.
“But this is more fun,” I said. “More Star Trekkie.”
“More annoying?” she asked.
When I pressed my lips together and waited, she caved.
“So where is she?”
“Okay, check this out.” I brought up the article. “Sarah Hadley was found dead in her apartment Monday morning by her landlady while responding to complaints that Hadley’s television was too loud.” I looked back at her.
“No way,” she said, leaning forward again.
“Way.”
“Like, this Monday?”
“No, that’s just it. Reyes’s trial ended over ten years ago on a Thursday, right?”
“Right.”
“She was found dead the following Monday right after his trial.”
“Walker killed her. He was tying up loose ends.”
“It would seem so. Not only that, he was a hairsbreadth away from going to prison himself for scamming elderly women out of their money—winner—and was facing a fifteen-year prison sentence.”
“Then he’s conveniently murdered?”
“About five minutes before his case went to trial.”
“Lucky guy.”
“Yeah. Or a conniving one.”
“So, Sarah Hadley switches the dental records, thus proving the man Earl Walker chose to take his place in the afterlife was actually Earl Walker—”
“What? I can’t hear you.” I waved my hand and pointed to my ear and then at the intercom. “You need to speak into the intercom.”
After a loud sigh, she pressed the button. “—then she testifies against Reyes at his trial, and good ole Earl repays her by—”
“Beating her to death with a bookend.”
“I think Earl has issues.”
“And I think he has about a gazillion years of jail time waiting for him.” I jumped up, walked into Cookie’s office to grab my coat, as that was where I’d left it, walked back into my office, then pushed the intercom button again. “Okay, I have addresses on the names Reyes gave me. I’m heading out. And hopefully I won’t kill anyone.”
“You still have days before that happens. Don’t worry about it.”
“True, and thankfully one of the men on the list is already dead, so there’s no killing him again.”
“And the others?”
“One is here in Albuquerque, and one is in Corona.”
“The beer?”
“Sadly, no. The town.”
“We have a town named Corona?”
“I know, right? Who knew? I’m going to interview the guy here first. Wish me luck.”
“Wait!” she said as I walked past her desk.
I turned to her, but her finger was still on the button and she was giving me this impatient glare.
Oh fine. I’d started this. I once again walked into my office and pushed the intercom button.
“So, you’re saying I look like a cupcake?”