Maybe Nick wasn’t the only clueless one. “He was dead.”
“Yes, of course he was. But you couldn’t have known that at the time now, could you?”
His blue, blue eyes were laser-sharp. No, the man wasn’t clueless. She’d better wake up and get her act together before she found herself in handcuffs.
“No,” she admitted. “I couldn’t. So what I did was cough and make little humming sounds.”
“Did you shuffle your feet? That always works with the Vice Questore , my boss, when he’s trying to ignore me.” He smiled that charming Rossi smile. Lou and Nick got away with a lot when they did that smile.
“Yes, I shuffled. I was getting annoyed. Today’s a big day and there’s a lot of work to be done to prepare for the conference. Then I noticed he looked a little…odd.”
“Odd?”
“Well, he seemed grayer than usual. And then I noticed he wasn’t breathing.”
Dante nodded. “That’s a pretty good indication of death right there.”
“Exactly. So I thought maybe he’d had a heart attack because his fist was clenched over his chest.”
“Which fist?”
“The right. He was holding it clenched over his heart, which is why I thought he had had a heart attack. So I tried to pull his hand away and it came away with difficulty, which must mean—” She looked at him closely. “Rigor?”
“Maybe,” he said calmly. “The coroner will tell us. So, Faith, we have you in a cell with a dead man and you pull his hand away from his chest. Yes?”
“Yes.”
“And it came away with difficulty?”
“It came away with a knife. Not a knife so much as a…a stiletto. Very long and sharp.”
“Did you touch the knife?”
Those blue eyes were watching her so carefully.
“I’m afraid I did,” Faith said, and he sighed and made an annotation.
“Pity.”
“Yes. I suppose that makes me suspect number one.”
“No.” His dark head was bent as he wrote. He needed a haircut. “Finding the body makes you suspect number one. Now.” She tried not to squirm as he lifted his head and skewered her with his sharp gaze. “Let me get this straight. You knock on the victim’s door at eight a.m. this morning, the door is open, walk in and observe the victim. It takes you a few moments to realize he is deceased.”
He was making her sound like a moron. “I was very tired,” she said in her defense. “I’d just made an intercontinental trip and I haven’t been sleeping well lately.” Not to mention having wild sex with your cousin the night before , she thought, and turned bright red.
He observed her carefully. “Okay,” he said finally. “You’re tired and it takes you a while to get your bearings, but then you finally see that something is wrong and you…what? Kneel?”
“I—I guess so.” Faith closed her eyes for a moment so she could relive the scene. Closing her eyes felt so good she allowed her mind’s eye to roam right out of the room and into the sky…
“Faith?”
Her eyes popped open. She straightened. “Sorry.” Falling asleep while describing a murder to a police officer was not smart. “I hunkered down, but my knees didn’t touch the floor.” Did knees leave knee prints? she wondered. “Do knees leave knee prints?”
“No. Did you touch anything besides the knife?”
Had she touched anything else? “No. The door, the doorknob, Professor Kane’s hand and the stiletto. That’s about it.”
“What did you do after you picked up the knife?”
“Dropped it. I wasn’t expecting it. I thought he was clutching a pen or something. So when I saw what it was, and that there was blood on it…”
“Recent blood?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Was the blood still dripping, or was it coagulated?”
“Oh, I see.” Personally Faith thought that, like a vampire’s, Kane’s blood couldn’t coagulate. “Well, it didn’t drip blood, if that’s what you mean. So I dropped the knife and went to tell someone that Professor Kane was dead.”
“Murdered, you