this planning software working like a charm!” There were printout pages heaped around the room like snowdrifts: checklists, budget graphs, pie charts labeled “Bride’s Expenses” and “RSVPs to Date.”
Eddie was at his computer, with my erstwhile Robin Hood standing behind him, puffed up with the praise. He was awfully good-looking. Maybe I should have kissed him back. At least he didn’t smoke.
“Zack!” I said. “I forgot you were coming, after what happened last night.”
“You mean that thing with Corinne? Bummer. She OK?”
“I haven’t told him,” Eddie said quietly, his hands still on the keyboard. “I didn’t know if I should.”
I moved a sheaf of pages and dropped into my desk chair. “Zack, you haven’t seen the news today, have you? Or talked to anyone at the Sentinel?”
“Nah. My TV’s dead anyway. I slept in and, like, dinked around until now. What’s going on?”
“It’s Mercedes Montoya.” How do I say this? “I was walking through the exhibits last night, after everyone left, and… Zack, she’s dead. I don’t know if you knew her very well— Zack? Eddie, catch him!”
Zack had gone white to the lips, as if every last ounce of his blood had been drained away, and then he began to tremble and sway. Eddie leapt from his chair and guided Zack into it, then pushed his head down between his knees.
“Slow breaths,” he said gruffly. Eddie has different degrees of gruff, though, and it stuck out a mile that he liked this youngster. “Carnegie, for God’s sake, get a glass of water.”
Zack had to sip at it for a minute before he could speak. “What happened? Did she drown?”
“I’m not supposed to talk about it until the police say I can. Sorry.” He nodded vaguely. “Listen, maybe you should go home. Eddie can show me what you’ve been working on, and we’ll get back to it later. Did you drive over?”
“I took the bus,” he said hollowly. “Yeah, I think I’ll go home. Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Eddie told him. He walked Zack to the door, then came back to his desk and began to gather the printouts into stacks.
“I wondered if he had worked with the Montoya girl,” he said. All females under fifty were girls to Eddie. “Must have liked her a lot. They’re all in an uproar over at the Sentinel, according to your boyfriend.”
“Eddie, I asked you before. Please don’t call Aaron my boyfriend.”
“Well, then, your ‘acquaintance’ called, to tell you the Campbell girl is all right. He tried to see her at Harborview but she’d already gone home.” He sat at his desk and laid the paperwork aside. “How’s the best man? Sobered up?”
“He’s in a coma, Eddie!” My partner had never met the Sentinel’s sportswriter, so I couldn’t expect any serious sympathy, but still I bridled. “They don’t even know if he’s going to live.”
He winced. “Sorry. Well, there goes the wedding. Shall we divvy up the cancellation calls?”
“Not yet, not till I talk to Elizabeth and Paul. I told you about Paul’s great-aunt, didn’t I? She’s ninety-eight, and apparently she’s been hanging on just to see him get married. I don’t know what they’ll want to do. We have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow, so I assume we’ll decide then.”
“Good enough.” He glanced at his watch, a racy silver affair below his crisply turned-back cuff. Eddie wore a white shirt every day, starched rigid, and you could slice bread with the creases in his khakis. “Well, get going. You’ve still got time to change before dinner. Did you ever eat lunch?”
“I wasn’t hungry. Why should I change for the movies?” Every few weeks Eddie and I went to a big-budget flick and ate junk food. I was looking forward to it tonight, though I planned to insist on a comedy, or even a cartoon—anything without blood.
“Rain check,” said Eddie. “Aaron’s coming for you in half an hour. I told him you needed cheering up.”
“Eddie, who asked you to set up my social life?”
“You’re welcome,” he said. “Now scoot. Put on something pretty.”
“I will not! He just wants an interview.”
“He told me he wouldn’t pester you with any questions.”
I snorted. “Fat chance.”
“Now, don’t get on your high horse. Aaron just didn’t think you should be alone tonight.”
“I wasn’t going to be alone, I was going to be with you!”
“Scoot.”
Boy, do I hate a matchmaker, I thought as I descended the stairs. If Eddie nudged me any harder, I’d fall overboard myself. I wasn’t even sure if he liked Aaron, or if he just