Part 12 (2/2)

”Can you perform CPR?”

”Yes, I can,” answered Lucy, who'd taken a course soon after her grandson Patrick's birth. ”But there's no point. She's been dead for a while.”

”Are you sure?”

Lucy was losing patience. ”She's covered with chocolate!”

”Like she fell into it?”

”I don't know, but I've got an elderly man here who discovered her and he's in shock and we need some help.”

”That's the thing-because of the sleet we've had a bunch of accidents and I don't have any units available. And if she's already dead, there's really no hurry.”

Lucy couldn't believe what she was hearing. She glanced at Roger, who was breathing heavily, his face pale and waxy. ”I've got an elderly man here in shock, he needs help.”

”Maybe you could drive him to the ER?”

Give me a break, thought Lucy. ”That would mean leaving a crime scene and I don't think I should do that.”

”Are you sure it's a crime? Maybe it was an accident.”

Lucy pictured Tamzin's body in her mind, neatly arranged on the marble table with her hands crossed over her stomach and completely covered with s.h.i.+ny dark chocolate. Her killer must have spent most of the night creating the macabre scene. This was no hit-and-run killing. The murderer wasn't content to simply eliminate Tamzin; he, or maybe she-Lucy conceded the killer could have been a woman-went to a lot of effort to humiliate her. It was on a par with Max's murder, she realized with a start. The two had most likely been killed by the same person. But why? And why did the killer feel the need to arrange the bodies so dramatically? First it was Max, found trussed in fishline with a lure hooked to his lips, and now it was Tamzin, turned into a giant chocolate bar.

”h.e.l.lo? Are you still there?” It was the dispatcher breaking into her thoughts.

”Yeah.”

”You're in luck. I've got an available unit and I'm sending it right over.”

”Good,” said Lucy, noting with alarm that Roger was reaching for the door handle.

”No, Roger. You have to stay here and talk to the police.”

”I'll buy chocolate for Helen another day,” he said, sounding like he'd just happened to find the store closed and needed to adjust his schedule. If he remembered finding Tamzin's body, it seemed he was determined to forget it. ”I want to see Helen.”

”You'll see Helen soon,” said Lucy. ”But first you have to talk to the police and tell them everything you saw.”

Roger was quiet for a few minutes, staring straight ahead at the icy drops plopping onto the winds.h.i.+eld, following their descent down the gla.s.s. ”I was only there a minute or two before you arrived,” he said. ”I could go and you could tell them what you saw.”

”I could do that,” she said, ”but they'd want to talk to you eventually.”

”You wouldn't have to mention me at all. They don't need to know I was here,” said Roger.

”No, Roger. You need to stay here. I think you might need medical attention.”

”I'm fit as a fiddle,” declared Roger, reaching once again for the door handle just as a police cruiser pulled up and parked at an angle, neatly blocking the Subaru.

”We're not going anywhere, Roger,” said Lucy, watching as Officer Todd Kirwan stepped out of the cruiser and approached them; when he was beside the car she lowered the window. Inside the cruiser she could see Barney calling in to headquarters on the radio. At least that's what she thought he was doing.

”What's the problem?” asked Todd, leaning on the door. He was a tall, good-looking kid with a crew cut, one of Dot Kirwan's brood.

”We found a body in the shop,” said Lucy, pointing at Chanticleer Chocolate. ”And I'm a little worried about Roger here, it was a terrible shock for him.”

At that point Roger seemed to pa.s.s out, his head dropped forward and his whole body slumped against the car door. Todd quickly called for an ambulance on his walkie-talkie, then reached across Lucy and felt Roger's neck to check his pulse. ”Strong and steady,” he said, with a shrug. He'd barely finished extracting himself from the car when they heard a siren. Lucy saw Barney get out of the cruiser and make his way to the shop. He went inside at the same moment the ambulance arrived. Her attention turned back to Roger and she was sure she saw his eyelids flicker when the ambulance crew approached the car; for a brief second she wondered if he was faking unconsciousness to avoid being questioned. Then the door opened and the emergency medical technicians began the process of extracting him. Seeing n.o.body was paying attention to her, Lucy joined Barney in the shop.

He was a big man, bulky in official cold-weather blue from head to foot, and was standing with his legs planted far apart and his hands on his hips, studying the situation. Lucy could tell he was thinking hard because he'd drawn his eyebrows together and had lifted one hand to his face to scratch his chin.

”Somebody's got a mean sense of humor,” she said.

Barney scowled at her. ”You shouldn't be here. This is a crime scene.”

”I know,” said Lucy. She heard the doors of the ambulance slam and the wail of the siren as Roger was carried off to the emergency room. The musical chimes on the little door rang and she turned to see Todd Kirwan enter.

Spotting Tamzin's body, he stopped in his tracks and gave a low whistle. ”That's one h.e.l.l of a chocolate tart,” he said.

Barney started to reprove him when the chimes sounded once more and the police chief, Todd's brother, Jim Kirwan, arrived, accompanied by State Police Detective Lieutenant Horowitz.

Horowitz's glance raked the shop, taking in the body and landing on Lucy. ”Did you find the body?” he snapped.

”No. Roger Faircloth found her... .”

”He went into shock,” said Todd. ”The ambulance just left with him.”

”I got here a minute or two after Roger,” said Lucy.

Horowitz c.o.c.ked a pale eyebrow. ”You're losing your touch,” he said.

Lucy had worked with the lieutenant for years but she still never knew if he was joking or serious, whether he liked or disliked her. He never seemed to change; he'd looked gray and tired the day she first met him and that's how he looked today, with his long upper lip, grayish eyes, and sardonic smirk.

”I was supposed to photograph her for an ad,” said Lucy. ”I set it up yesterday; we agreed to meet at eight-thirty this morning, before the shop opened.”

”So what was that other guy, Faircloth, doing here?”

”I think he wanted to buy some chocolate for his wife. He said something like that before he pa.s.sed out.”

Horowitz was writing it all down. The chief, meanwhile, had ordered the other officers to set up crime scene tape across the sidewalk where a small knot of curious townsfolk had gathered.

”So you came here with your camera ... ,” prompted Horowitz.

”Yeah, I'd just got to the door when Roger ran out, all upset. I thought he was having a heart attack so I brought him inside and yelled for Tamzin to call nine-one-one and that's when I saw her body. I took Roger outside to my car and called from there on my cell.”

”Did you know the victim?”

It was the question she'd been dreading. ”It's a small town and I work for the newspaper. I know everybody.”

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