Zed snorted. “Hey, man, we’re going to have the third stoplight installed in a couple of weeks.”

“Now, what can I do for you?” asked Rajesh. “You normally don’t call me in the middle of the day.”

“Yeah, I know. I just have a quick question—how often do you get over to India?”

14

Dani

Dani sat alone in Zed’s office, feeling the full weight of her stupidity. She’d been tricked. This woman Maureen fed her a pack of lies and she’d just bought it, without asking. If she’d just said something earlier, instead of being so paranoid about keeping her job that she’d put up an entirely unnecessary front, a lot of this might have been avoided. If she hadn’t been so determined to keep Zed at a distance, he wouldn’t be quite righteously pissed at her. If she had said something to Jillian, the rift wouldn’t be in such bad shape.

And Zed? Instead of yelling or telling her off, he’d been so understanding about the whole thing. Which just made her feel worse. As someone who didn’t suffer this sort of crisis of conscience very often, she told herself this was a feeling she would learn from and never repeat again.

She pushed the sandwich aside, too nauseated to eat, but drank the bottle of water. She tipped her head back against the chair. And it was possible that she’d nodded off because in what felt like no time at all, Zed was marching back into his office with Bael and Jillian in tow.

“Did you find her?” Dani asked. “Did you question her? Tell me it involved a phone book and a hose.”

Bael grimaced and took a step back from her. “Maureen Sherman won’t be answering any questions. She’s dead.”

Dani slumped in her seat. “I immediately regret the phone book comment. Am I a suspect?”

“No, it looks like she had a heart attack in her kitchen. There was a bottle of heart medication on the counter. I think she was trying to get to it. Ivy Portenoy will be able to give us some test results in a few days to help us figure out what happened. The ID in her purse and the label on her meds both said ‘Maureen Sherman,’ but Ivy should be able to confirm that with dental records. Once we figure out cause of death, we’ll know whether this is a murder or if it’s just a weird problem that resolved itself with tachycardia.” Bael shot Zed a wry look. “And that’s why we need a coroner.”

Zed shuddered. “She’s still creepy.”

“Did Maureen ever say anything to you about having a heart condition?” Bael asked.