The Unkindest Cut - By Honor Hartman Page 0,32

so slightly ajar. Plus there was an odd smell coming from the room.’’ For a moment, I could smell it again, but I stuck the mug under my nose and inhaled the aroma of coffee instead.

Ainsworth regarded me sympathetically. ‘‘What did you do next?’’

‘‘I pushed the door open,’’ I said. ‘‘With my shoulder. ’’ I shrugged. ‘‘I sensed something was wrong, and I didn’t want to touch anything.’’

The deputy frowned. I waited for him to comment, but he simply gestured for me to continue.

‘‘I walked into the room, and of course the smell was a lot a stronger there. I started looking around, and then I saw that someone was slumped in the chair in the corner. I took a few steps toward the chair, and I could see flies buzzing around. And the smell.’’ I closed my eyes, and it all came back to me.

I must have looked like I was going to faint, because Ainsworth put a steadying hand on my arm.

‘‘I’m okay,’’ I said, and opened my eyes. The deputy dropped his arm.

‘‘Tell me what you saw.’’

I stared past Ainsworth, focusing on the trees outside. ‘’Avery Trowbridge was in the chair, and there was a knife protruding from his chest. There was also a fair amount of blood.’’ I paused. ‘‘I guess that means he didn’t die for a while. That’s right, isn’t it? The heart had to be beating, pumping blood, because once the heart stopped, so would the flow of blood.’’

Ainsworth’s expression would have been funny under other circumstances.

‘‘I read a lot of mystery novels,’’ I explained, a bit on the defensive. ‘‘You can pick up a lot of interesting information that way.’’

The deputy nodded. ‘‘So I’ve heard.’’ He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. ‘‘What else did you see?’’

‘‘Cards were laid out on the table, as if there was a bridge game in progress,’’ I said. ‘‘And Trowbridge had one card in his hand.’’

‘‘Did you see what it was?’’

‘‘The queen of diamonds,’’ I said.

Ainsworth nodded. He had that odd look on his face again. ‘‘I’m going to ask you not to tell anyone else what you saw. Of course, people will know you found the body, but I’m asking you not to give details of what you saw to anyone.’’

‘‘I understand,’’ I said. ‘‘I won’t say anything.’’ I watched him watching me. The coincidence of my name and the card clutched in the dead man’s hand had disconcerted him somehow. And I knew why.

I had learned from my extensive reading of mystery fiction that the police often suspected the person who found the body. Given that, along with my last name and the card in the corpse’s hand, it was no wonder that Deputy Ainsworth was looking at me with suspicion.

That in turn made me start to wonder whether the card had any significance. Was it simply the card Trowbridge was holding when he was stabbed, and in his death throes he held on to it?

Or did he pick up the card after he had been stabbed, intending to leave some kind of clue to the identity of his killer? I knew already, by the amount of blood I had seen, that he hadn’t died immediately. He could have had time to pick up a card from the table before he died.

It seemed outlandish, and yet I thought it was at least possible.

‘‘What did you do next?’’ Ainsworth’s voice broke into my train of thought.

‘‘I was about to leave the room to call the authorities, ’’ I said. ‘‘But then Mrs. Trowbridge—Paula, that is—came into the room and spoke from behind me. I didn’t want her to see her husband lying there murdered, so I got her out of the room as quickly as I could.’’

‘‘So you don’t think she saw anything?’’

‘‘I’m not completely certain, but I was standing in the way of her view of the body. She resisted me a little, because I’m sure she thought I was acting like a lunatic. But I got her out of the room into the hall, and then into my suite next door.’’ I drained the last of my coffee from the mug and wished I could refill it.

‘‘I notified the hotel staff and told them they needed to call the authorities,’’ I said. ‘‘Then I realized that someone should probably keep an eye on the room. I had left the door wide open when I got Paula out of there, and I didn’t think it would be good for someone else