all?"
"No! I didn't dare to. I checked to see if she was breathing but I thought she might have broken her neck or her back. I called 911 and held her hand until they got here. Did I do something wrong?"
"No, that was a very smart decision. You didn't know what injuries she had and if you moved her, you could have caused even more damage."
"I should have done something earlier when I thought I heard the scream. She must have been lying there for a long time."
"I'm going to take a look upstairs," I replied, eager to change the subject. I was pretty certain that no matter what platitude I came up with, Manny couldn't truly banish his guilt for not getting to her sooner.
"Please be careful where you step and stay away from the edge," he said.
I walked up, taking each stair slowly, scanning the tops and risers for any signs of blood. Several of the stairs were dusty and some were strangely clean but I couldn't see any droplets of the blood Austen claimed he saw. When I reached the top, I walked across the landing and dropped to my hands and knees before crawling to the edge. I wasn't ready to take any chance of tumbling over. I inspected the joins of the banister, noting that all the screws were tight, except those that previously held the missing piece in place.
"That banister was badly installed," called Manny. "I told Austen and Sophie it had to be replaced as soon as possible."
"Did you warn both of them it was dangerous?" I asked, looking down at him from my vantage point on my belly. The idea of falling so far made my stomach roil.
Manny shook his head. "It wasn't loose or dangerous, just not up to code. I told them it needed replacing before the whole thing came crashing down."
"Was that a real possibility?"
"All the joins were put in wrong and so were the anchor points. I considered it a real possibility and it's my job as foreman to keep everyone safe, especially when the homeowners choose to remain on the property during renovation."
"Would Sophie have any cause to unscrew this section?"
"None. She liked to know what we were doing and sometimes asked one of the crew to show her how to do something but she wouldn't take on a complicated job like that. For one thing, we need scaffolding in place just to take it out and put in the new one. The new one won’t even arrive for another three weeks."
"Doesn't that strike you as strange?"
"Damn strange," said Manny.
I started to shuffle back from the edge before I looked down. The spot where Manny said he found Sophie seemed a little too far from my current viewpoint. I could imagine Sophie falling directly forwards, maybe even further out than right underneath the landing, but so far out and toward the left? Could the momentum of her fall have possibly carried her that distance? I wasn't sure. I shuffled back until my feet touched the wall and got up, hugging the wall as I walked back down. "I don't see any footprints going up here," I said, realizing I left a trail of my own on the dusty steps.
"We've only been working in the back of the house so far but the dust travels no matter how much we try to contain it. No one went upstairs except Sophie and Austen and their guests. Austen is the only one who has been here in a week."
I stopped a few steps from the bottom and turned around. The clean stairs niggled at me. What was the significance of the occasional clean step? Why not clean all of them? I stooped for a closer look and suddenly caught a scent. It was very faint but it was definitely there. Someone must’ve used bleach.
"Have you or anyone else cleaned these stairs recently?" I asked.
"No, we won't do that until the new banister is installed and the carpet laid. There's no point in cleaning the stairs when they'll only get dirty again tomorrow. Can I ask what you're looking for, Ms... uh... Lexi?"
"Just checking out some things," I told him, evading the question.
"If Austen wants it all cleaned up before he brings Sophie home, I can do that. He told us to stop work for a few days but I can call my whole crew back and get everyone started again, if that's what he wants?"
"I'm sure it's okay to keep