Murder in Waiting - Lynn Cahoon Page 0,14

his uniform; it looked way too clean.

He visibly relaxed. “Oh, that’s what you want? I thought, I mean, I got stains on my shirt. And since I’m pulling a doubleheader, Greg let me come home to change before I start patrolling.”

“Good idea.” I held my hand up to his chest, and he looked nervously down at it. “I only need one more thing.”

I let the statement hang in the air. Toby looked at me suspiciously. “What?”

“Tell me how the investigation is going. Did you find the truck?” I knew I must have looked like a news junkie looking for the next hit.

He stepped around me. “No way, no how. Greg gets testy when I tell you about investigations, and I’m coming up on my annual evaluation. I don’t need things like ‘failure to protect classified information’ showing up and lowering my chance of getting a raise this year. I like my job.”

When he saw the glare, he added, “I like both jobs. You’re putting me in a bad situation here.”

He was right. I shouldn’t have asked. I reached down and petted Emma. “Sorry, it’s just I was there when it happened. It feels closer somehow because of that.”

Toby paused, leaning over his doorframe, watching me. “I know. And from what I heard, you couldn’t have done anything. He was probably dead as soon as the truck hit.”

“Poor Frank. It’s crazy that some random event takes someone out like that. It’s like that Final Destination movie—when it’s your time, it’s your time.” I watched to see how Toby would react to my words. And I wasn’t disappointed.

“Well, yeah, there’s that.” He didn’t meet my eyes; in fact, he turned his head away and climbed into his truck. He started the engine, then leaned out the window. “Look, you can’t tell Greg I told you this, but we don’t think it was random. He had threats on his computer at his office and at home. Nasty ones. And that’s all I’m saying.”

“I don’t know if that’s better than just being unlucky or not.” I waved to Toby as he backed out of the driveway. My phone rang and I glanced at the display. “Hi, Amy. What’s up?”

“Just following up on the table decorations. I know you said next week, but you’ve had the stuff for more than a month. I have the afternoon off. Maybe I should come over and help.”

I groaned. I was in a quandary. If Amy came over, she’d see I hadn’t made any progress on the decorations since the last time she’d come by and set up my kitchen as craft wedding central. But if I said no, I’d have to actually get them done next week. And I wasn’t sure that even I could get these done in a month’s time by myself. I decided to take the bullet. Besides, maybe she’d feel sorry for me because I’d witnessed what had happened to Frank.

“Sure, come on over. I’d appreciate the help. I haven’t gotten as far as I’d hoped.” Which wasn’t a real lie. “Besides, I’ve got questions before I can finish the party planning. When should I expect you?”

I could hear papers being rustled on the other side. “I’m leaving now. Marvin and Tina took off for a long weekend, so I’ll just put the phones on forward.”

Wednesday was kind of early to be leaving for the weekend, but the fact that Marvin was out of town worked in Greg’s favor. He’d have to keep the prosecutor in the loop, but not the mayor. Which meant that maybe he’d even come home for dinner, or at least to sleep. Sometimes I thought Greg took his law enforcement duties just a little too seriously. But I had to admit, he was good at it.

“See you in a few.” I disconnected and went into my office, where I’d stashed the box holding the materials and the almost-empty plastic tub that Amy had given me for the completed items. There weren’t any more completed than when I put the boxes away a couple of months ago. I’m really good at procrastinating when I don’t want to do something. Besides, the wedding was still three months away. I glanced at my wall calendar and turned the page. Okay, make that two months away.

I just hoped we finished this today. I really needed to get at least one thing checked off my list. Too many items were building up. Especially things I wasn’t good at. And housework. Housecleaning—like mopping and cleaning