I could see that he really meant it and in the big scheme of things it wasn’t that big a deal, so I told him it was okay. I watched the tension go out of his expression. “Are you going to have tea, again?” Before I could answer he was already taking out a couple of mugs and looking through my tea stash. “How about some Constant Comment?”
“The tea is a good idea,” I said finally. “We need to talk about some things.”
“Uh-oh,” Barry said in a teasing voice. “I said I was sorry. It won’t ever happen again.” This time he made the tea. Not that it took much effort. All he had to do was drop a couple of tea bags in the mugs and fill them with water from the instant hot spigot. Immediately the air filled with the spicy orange scent.
Before I could even suggest we sit outside, he was on his way out the door carrying the mugs. “If what you want to talk about is Heather being here, I’m sorry for that, too. She realized how awkward it was.”
“It’s your life and you can do what you want,” I said setting my mug on the little glass table. The yard was so still, it almost didn’t feel like we were outside. I looked up at the night blue sky and saw some stars twinkling. Then I gathered my strength and turned toward him. “You seem okay and you’re back to work. If you moved back home, whatever you did and with whoever wouldn’t matter. What does your doctor say about you doing stairs?”
“I know you’re probably curious what’s going on with the investigation into your crochet friend’s murder. Heather talked about it a lot.” Barry let it hang in the air for a minute. I knew he was just trying to change the subject by dangling information in front of me. I wish I could say that I was strong and went right back to asking when he was going to leave, but all I could think about was sharing the information with the group the next day, and well, flaunting it in front of Adele. I’m not proud of it, but at least I was being honest.
“Did she say anything about finding the gun?” I said, doing my best not to notice that Barry’s lips had curved into a triumphant little smile. I told myself I could get back to trying to pin down when he was leaving later.
“That’s the problem, she hasn’t found the murder weapon,” Barry said. I didn’t bring up Adele’s golden triangle of guilt, but said I’d heard she’d found Dan Donahue’s gun.
“Oh, that gun,” Barry said. “Heather had it tested, and it hadn’t been fired. Not only that, Dan’s hands were swabbed and his clothing checked and there was no gunpowder residue, which should have been there if he’d fired a weapon. His gun is registered and legal, so she had to give it back to him. Even so, her gut tells her Dan killed his wife.”
Well, at least now I understood why Dan hadn’t been arrested. Adele wouldn’t be happy to hear that her golden triangle had just lost one of its corners. I asked Barry if Heather knew that something was missing from Kelly’s room. He said she had discounted it as being a robbery gone bad from the start. Then it was as if he realized exactly what I’d said.
“Are you saying you know something is missing from the room?” he said, and I nodded. This time it was my turn to have a little triumphant smile. “Well, are you going to tell me or what?” Barry said.
I explained our two trips to Kelly’s before she was killed. “Adele just about knocked over a lamp with a leaded glass shade. But when I went back there today, it was gone. Dan said he didn’t know anything about it.” Barry asked for more details about the lamp and I described what I remembered about the colors of the shade.
“Did Heather talk to Kelly’s brother, Stone?” I was going to mention that Stone thought Dan had done it, too, and might be able to help her, but Barry was already shaking his head.
“The surfer dude wasn’t even in town when it happened. Heather checked out his story about going to Denver to meet someone about his coconut energy drink. She talked to the person he’d met with in Denver and even looked at his