Page 35 of Sweet Revenge
“Huh,” she said as she climbed out of the car. He matched her stride across the parking lot to the employee entrance.
“What?” he asked again, holding the door open for her.
She waited until they were beyond the noise of the busy kitchen and in the elevator before replying. “This is where I had lunch the other day.”
“And the food was terrible?”
She laughed, and the sound wrapped around him like a caress. “I should say yes, but no. It was fantastic, and your wine list is excellent. I bought an entire bottle. And on my way out I ran into Helen.”
As if on cue, the doors opened on his assistant, who was waiting with a cup of coffee in one hand and a stack of files in the other. The smile she usually wore when he got off the elevator quickly faded when she noticed Evie standing beside him.
He motioned for Evie to step out ahead of him and had to bite back a smile at the way Helen scurried out of her way.
“Helen,” Evie said, voice dripping with fake politeness. “Lovely to see you again so soon.”
Helen turned back to face him as Evie wandered off to inspect the space, plastering a too-wide smile on her face. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you were bringing someone with you to meet with Reagan. I would have made more coffee.”
He very much doubted that.
“Reagan is already here, so I put her in the conference room. The bakery tenant got back to me, and I scheduled her into your calendar for two weeks from now. I’ll make a review file for you next week.”
He accepted the coffee from her and stopped at the glass door that led into the conference room. Evie had already found her way inside, and she was pacing, hands fidgeting nervously until she shoved them into her back pockets. Neither woman was speaking.
He hadn’t considered how awkward this might be given that Reagan was Maura’s sister and Maura’s reception of Evie had been less than inviting. He thanked Helen and walked into the room. Both women turned to look at him, and he urged Reagan back into her seat as he took his at the head of the table.
He didn’t like the grim look on her face. “Anything?”
She flipped open a thin manila folder as Evie took the seat to his left, directly across the table from Reagan, and shuffled some papers around.
“Nothing forensically when it comes to hair, tissue, fingerprints, anything like that.” She glanced up at him. “But I suspect you knew that already. It looked like the cleaners came through the place.”
He nodded.
“Guess you don’t have to fire anyone after all,” Evie said, and he chuckled.
“You said nothing forensically. Was there something else?”
“The front window looked like it had recently been replaced. You could smell fresh paint.”
“That was me,” Evie admitted. “I broke it to get in.”
“Okay.” Reagan moved a page to the bottom of the stack. “Other than the window, the only thing that really struck me as odd is that there was a knife missing from the butcher block.”
“What’s odd about that? We didn’t find a gun either,” Evie said.
Reagan looked at Declan, who nodded confirmation. “It’s odd because if we’re going with the theory that this was a planned attack, why would you need a weapon of opportunity?”
Evie sat back in her chair with a huff, rubbing at her temple with two fingers, and Declan could see her rolling it around in her brain.
“So you’re saying whoever it was grabbed a knife out of the block because it was there and not because they intended to kill Mary Elizabeth?”
“That’s my theory, but there isn’t a lot to go on once the cleaners make a pass, so it’s not exactly rock solid. It could be nothing. Maybe the knife has always been missing from the block.”
Evie drummed her fingers on the tabletop. “No. That would drive Mom crazy. Reagan?” Evie’s voice was quiet as Reagan got up to leave. “Which knife was it?”
“I don’t think that—”
“Please,” Evie interrupted, eyes sad as she met Reagan’s gaze.
