“It’s not your fault,” she said.
Wasn’t it? I wondered. It seemed to be my karma to come across dead bodies lately. And I wasn’t even sure I believed in karma. Wasn’t it like payback for something I’d done in a previous life? Whatever it was, finding dead bodies was getting to be a habit with me. And more and more frequently, the people I loved became collateral damage.
After another ten minutes, Lee and Jaglom walked back into the bar. Inspector Jaglom apologized to Savannah for keeping her waiting.
“That’s all right,” she said. “I know you’re busy taking care of Baxter.”
“Thanks for your understanding. Would you mind coming with me now to answer some questions?”
“Are we going to the police station?” she asked again. She was so tired, she sounded like a naive young girl.
“No, no. Let’s just find a quiet table on the other side of the room.”
“Okay.” As she slid off her stool, I noticed her shivering, so I grabbed my coat and handed it to her. “Here, put this on.”
“Oh, thanks, Brooks.” She tossed it over her shoulders, pulled it tight around her, closed her eyes and sighed. “So much better.”
My crazy bald sister could be outspoken, judgmental, and crabby as hell. But right now she looked so vulnerable, it almost broke my heart.
“May I sit with her?” I asked Jaglom. “I promise I’ll be quiet.”
He thought about it for a moment. “Sure.”
I took her hand, and we followed the good-hearted inspector to the far corner of the room. He picked out a table for four and sat down across from us with his notepad open in front of him.
“So you’re a chef,” Jaglom began. “That must be an interesting way to make a living.”
“I love it,” she said. “My specialty is vegetarian cuisine.”
“Ah. Now, I know that’s a healthy way to eat,” he said, patting his round stomach, “but I’m more of a burgers-and-fries man myself. Probably obvious, right?”
Savannah smiled and I wanted to hug him.
“Now, Savannah, can you tell me what happened tonight? After the restaurant closed, who else was here besides you and Mr. Cromwell? Just start wherever you want and I’ll interrupt you if I have a question.”
Savannah recounted everything she’d told me and Derek earlier. Jaglom stopped her often to ask her to repeat something or to clarify something else. She named all the chefs and brought up what Baxter had said about the fish knife. She remembered some details she’d left out of her explanation to me and Derek.
Suddenly the front door was shoved open, causing us both to jolt.
“What the hell?” Inspector Jaglom muttered, then relaxed as two techs wheeled a gurney into the restaurant. “It’s just the team from the medical examiner’s office.”
“Hear we’ve got a pickup,” one of the guys said, and the other one snickered. I could tell they were a regular laugh riot around the morgue. A serious-looking woman walked in behind them and waved to Inspector Jaglom. I figured she must be an assistant medical examiner.
Savannah looked stricken by the lackadaisical attitude of the techs.
“It’s okay,” I murmured, slipping my arm around her. I could feel her shaking.
“But they’ll take him away,” she whispered.
“Right. And they’ll find out exactly how he died and maybe figure out who did it. That’s a good thing. So just relax, okay?”
Easy for me to say. I’d forgotten all about Baxter being taken off to be autopsied. I shuddered at the thought.
Fleischman, the female cop, jogged over to lead the gurney guys to the kitchen. Within seconds they all disappeared around the corner.
Savannah stared at the front door for a full minute before Jaglom coughed tactfully. “Can we continue?”
“Yes,” I said firmly.
Savannah nodded, took a deep breath, and began again. It took her a while to get back up to speed, but as she spoke about Baxter and her chef friends, she grew more animated and began to sound like her regular self.
The inspector took lots of notes and asked questions intermittently. He made Savannah repeat a few more things, assuring her that he just wanted to write the words down exactly as she related them.
He seemed to believe her. If that wasn’t true, then he was definitely better at playing the good cop than his partner was. And as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I worried that Inspector Lee might show up suddenly to play the bad cop. I glanced across the room to check up on her and saw her deeply involved in an intense conversation with Derek. Good. I hoped he would keep her busy until it was time to go.
Some time passed before the assistant ME and her tech guys reappeared with their gurney. This time, though, they had a passenger, Baxter, zipped up inside a black body bag. The guys negotiated the tables and chairs expertly and rolled out the door as quickly as they had come in.