“So do you know who he is yet?” asked Peg quietly when she brought him the food.
“Don’t tell me it’s around already.”
“Fraid so.”
“No identification yet. Have there been many strangers through this week?” Adam asked between bites.
“A few. It’s an in-between time. Most people were families or couples. Early in the week a guy was in here asking about art galleries and antique stores. I sent him across to Erin.”
“What did he look like?” Adam asked as he reached for the catsup for his fries.
“About six feet, brown hair and eyes, small tight ears, straight nose, good teeth. Spoke well but he was pushy.”
“Could be our guy. You don’t remember a name or a vehicle?”
“Didn’t hear a name and I didn’t see him get in a car. He walked over to Erin’s after his lunch.”
“Thanks. How’s your sister?”
Adam knew that Peg’s sister May suffered badly from rheumatoid arthritis.
“Much better. Since we got the money from the trust, you know, we moved to the farm, all one floor and we got her some first-class care.” Last year, as fallout from a murder case, Adam had identified May and Peg as beneficiaries of a local family trust.
“Has the family been decent?”
“Couldn’t have been nicer or more welcoming. We keep a distance but they’ve been good to us.”
“So why are you still here?” Adam asked, suspecting the answer he got.
“I enjoy it, especially the gossip,” Peg said. Adam laughed, paid, and left to visit Erin.
The lights were on upstairs in Erin’s building though the shop was dark. Adam went around the side and rang the bell. The intercom that he had insisted she install crackled a moment before he heard her voice asking who was there.
“It’s me,” he said with that softness that crept into his voice when he spoke to her. The lock snapped open as she told him to come up. He took the stairs two at a time to reach where she stood, silhouetted against the light from her apartment.
Erin was tall enough that her dark hair brushed his chin. Dark brown eyes accentuated the pale complexion of her oval face. Adam kissed her softly, and then they walked together into her apartment. Erin called it her loft although her bed was in a screened alcove and not visible from the living area. The large room took up most of the second floor of the house. One wall held a brick and tile fireplace surrounded by old pine bookshelves. Erin changed the furniture often, swapping pieces with her shop. Today she had a green corduroy overstuffed sofa and chair—his favorites.
“What’s the matter?” she asked as she recognized his worried tension.
“You know Anne’s here to visit?” As she nodded, he continued. “She’s found another body.”
“Oh, no. Who is it?”
“We don’t know. He was naked and nothing was around him to identify him except this.” He showed her the ticket fragment, but she shook her head slowly no.
“Peg said she sent a stranger who was interested in art galleries and antiques over to see you. Tall, she said, brown hair and eyes, pushy?”
“Oh, yes. He was in on Tuesday. I remember him because he demanded to see any paintings that I had stored away. I told him that what I had was in the shop and he was welcome to look. What I really wanted to do was throw him out.”
Adam grinned at the thought of fierce little Erin throwing the guy out. Aloud he said, “Did you get a name?”
“John.”
“Just John?”
“Just John. He didn’t buy anything so I don’t have a check or a credit slip or anything.”
“Will you look at a picture when I get one? It won’t be too nice.”
“Sure.”
Erin’s face had grown paler. Adam put his arm around her and started talking about their upcoming vacation. In a few months Erin and he planned a trip to Bermuda — sun and relaxation and each other.
Their conversation was interrupted by a call telling Adam that the body was being moved from the crime scene to the morgue.
“Back to work,” he said, as he got up from the sofa and stretched. A quick kiss and he was gone.
Also by Virginia Winters
The Deadly Arts Murders
Painting of Sorrow, book 1
Dangerous Journeys
The Facepainter Murders, book 2
No Motive for Murders, book 3
The Child on the Terrace, book 4
The Jewelled Egg Murders, book 5
Other works
A Superior Crime and other stories
All books available at Amazon sites worldwide.
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Murderous Roots Page 19