Page 83 of Feared

Her office felt a shade darker and a bit cooler, and the sun had dropped behind the buildings. Her phone was lying up on her desk, and she pressed the screen to see that it was 6:13. Judy would be winding up her long, sad day, going to pick up William and buy him a suit for the funeral.

Mary felt her mood spiral downward, not only frustration at not being able to connect Machiavelli to the plaintiffs, butthat so much was up in the air about John’s murder. She feared that Judy was still under suspicion, even though the lead on Shanahan was a good one. She picked up the phone and speed-dialed Judy, who picked up after a moment. “Honey, how are you?”

“Hanging in,” Judy answered, her tone cheery, so Mary guessed that William was within earshot.

“Did you get William?”

“Yes.”

“Good. How’s he doing?”

“He’s sad, but he’s okay.”

“Did Shanahan say anything to you?”

“No.”

“Have the police been out there?”

“No. Listen, I’m at the Loew’s hotel. I realized I can’t come back to your house with William.”

“Why not?”

“Your steps are a problem with his wheelchair. Same with my apartment. I should’ve thought about it before. The hotel has handicap access and a bathroom he can use, too.”

“Oh, right.” Mary realized again that the world needed to do better to accommodate the handicapped. Progress was being made, but not nearly fast enough. “Do you want me to come help you?”

“No, and I stopped by your house and got the dog, too. The hotel is dog-friendly.”

“How did you get into my house?”

“I have a key, remember? So we’re going to check in and chill.”

“Order room service,” Mary said, trying to cheer her up, but she knew it was useless. “Isn’t there anything left I can help you with? Did you make the arrangements for the funeral service?”

“I think I got it in control, and Marshall helped. I sent outan email about the memorial service to his friends. His aunt and uncle are flying in tonight and I’m going to book them a room too. And I made a phone call to make sure, and John was, well, um,taken care oftoday.”

“Oh.” Mary knew that Judy meant that John’s body had been cremated. Her heart went out to her best friend, who had to be in agony right now. “You sure you don’t need help?”

“I’m fine. You know, I’m rethinking our theory about Shanahan.” Judy lowered her voice. “It’s hard to believe he did it.”

“You mean killed John? Why?”

“Seeing him out there today, he was helping everybody get dinner ready. And he really did seem genuinely sad for William. Maybe Shanahan’s not the nicest guy, and he may have anger issues, but is he amurderer?”

“Just because he’s nice sometimes doesn’t mean he’s not a murderer.”

“And I don’t know if it’s enough motive. Even if John had filed that complaint with DHS, Shanahan wouldn’t have been severely penalized. There’s no jail time, there’s not even a fine. He’d just get fired.”

“So? Losing your job matters, and he’d be blackballed in the business.”

“I know,” Judy sounded uncertain. “But as a motive formurder?”

“We don’t know what else Shanahan has to hide. Maybe there’s more in his past. Other crimes, maybe under an alias, anything. It could be anything. Killing John would have headed off any investigation into him.”

“I just feel like we’re missing something. Anyway I can’t talk now. Meet me there at nine fifteen tomorrow morning, would you? The service is at ten o’clock. Love you.”

“Sure. Love you too. Call if you need anything.”