“I only met him recently. My father owns the shop where he ordered the costumes for his party.”
The blank expression changed and Linda became animated. Surprise. Anger. Outrage. The emotions moved quickly across her previously vacant face. She turned to Black Jack. “Did you invite her?” she asked.
“Honey, your son was an important member of Proper. I told Candy Girls to invite everybody in town. You knew that.”
“Yes, but if you’d shown some common sense I wouldn’t have had to warn off that Ebony woman.”
“What do you mean you warned off Ebony?” he asked.
“The woman was standing over my son’s body with a knife in her hand. Whoever found his body told the police. They hardly have to look any further than her to find the killer.”
I spoke up. “Mrs. Cannon, I found Blitz’s body, and Tak Hoshiyama called the police. And since you very clearly haven’t been told the facts, you should know that the knife Ebony held was pristine. She was about to cut the goose for the partygoers.”
Black Jack and Linda stared at me, as did a few of Blitz’s friends whom I recognized from the party. Tak appeared from out of the crowd and put his arm around me.
“Margo, I’ve been looking for you. We should be going or we’re going to be late,” he said.
I looked at him like he was wearing the two-headed lizard mask that sat in the corner of the costume shop. In the split second that passed, I realized how absolutely inappropriate my outburst had been, even if its motivation had been just. Tak watched me, and as I processed the information his face relaxed. It was like he could read my thoughts and he knew that I knew that he was trying to help me out.
“I lost track of time,” I said to him. I turned back to Black Jack and Linda. “I’m very sorry. For what I said and for what happened to your son.”
“Never you mind,” Black Jack said. His arm was around his wife, but he reached his other hand out and rested it on my forearm. “This past week has shaken all of us up. You go on. And thank you for coming.”
Tak and I turned away from the Cannons. Neither of us spoke until we reached the perimeter of the park.
“Do you want to tell me what that was about back there?” he asked.
“That depends. Are you going to use what I tell you in your investigation against Ebony?”
He looked confused. “What investigation?”
“I already know you and Detective Nichols are, well, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I know you’re dating her, and I know you keep showing up and asking me questions that probably have to do with the investigation. So I figured you’re reporting in to her on everything you’ve found out. I appreciate your help back there, but I don’t like being used.”
“Margo, please get in the car and let me give you a ride home.”
“I came here with Bobbie Kay,” I said.
“And Bobbie had to leave so she asked me to keep an eye on you.”
“Bobbie wouldn’t leave without telling me.”
“It’s possible that she was trying to find you when she saw you talking to Nancy.”
His use of Detective Nichols’s first name confirmed everything I thought I knew. You just don’t go around calling police officers by their first names unless you’re dating them, right?
“And just because I used her first name doesn’t mean I’m dating her,” he said. I was starting to get seriously spooked by the way he could see right through me. “I’d rather not have this conversation on the edge of a public park where most of the residents of Proper City are in a position to watch.”
He was right. Amy Bradshaw, whom I hadn’t seen so far, stood off to the side with Grady. Gina Cassavogli was behind them, holding the silver bowl of water bottles. An unexpected breeze blew the picture of Blitz from the easel. Gina thrust the bowl at Amy and ran across the patches of yellow-green grass to pick it up before anybody else noticed.
“I need to call Bobbie first,” I said.
He bowed his head slightly and held one hand out, palm up, in a gesture that said, Go ahead if you think that’s necessary. I did, so I did.
“Bobbie, where are you?”
“Hi, Margo. Didn’t Tak find you?” she asked. I looked at him and caught a smile. I used my thumb to lower the volume of the phone until I almost couldn’t hear her. “He’s standing right next to me, but I thought I should check with you first before leaving.”
“What did you think? That an employee from the district attorney’s office did away with me at a public gathering?” She giggled. “You’re just as funny as you were in high school.”
I didn’t tell her that humor hadn’t been the driving force behind my accidental comedy routine. “I’m just making sure nobody’s signals got crossed. Yes, I’ll catch a ride home with him.”