As I was rinsing my dishes in the sink, Stewart bounced into the kitchen with a cheery “Good morning, Charlie. How’s my favorite landlord today?” He poured himself coffee, then leaned against the counter near me. His eyes sparkled with morning energy, and he grinned broadly between sips of coffee.

He could be annoyingly like Tigger on occasion, a little too perky and awake in the mornings, but I tried not to hold that against him. “Doing fine, I guess. How about you?” I dried my hands on a towel before I faced him.

“Excellent,” he replied. He set his coffee cup down on the counter in order to rub Diesel’s head with both hands. The cat rewarded him with happy chirps, and Stewart talked nonsense to him for a moment. Then he regarded me again as Diesel rubbed against his jean-clad legs. “No Azalea today? If I’d known that, I could have made breakfast for us.”

“No, she won’t be here,” I said. “I couldn’t believe she was here yesterday, after all the stress of the night before. But I guess it finally caught up with her, and she decided she’d better take it easy today.”

Stewart grimaced as he topped up his coffee. “I still can’t believe that someone finally did Vera in. It’s amazing to me that she lasted this long, frankly, but why now? What did she do to push someone over the edge?”

I frowned at his poor choice of words, and he shrugged. “You know what I mean.”

“Unfortunately, I do.” I sighed. “You’re right, though. Whoever pushed Vera down those stairs must have reached the point of desperation. But who was it?”

“I can think of several candidates, but I can’t imagine which of them would actually hit the breaking point and kill.” Stewart set his coffee down and moved to the fridge where he extracted eggs, milk, and cheese. “How about a little more breakfast?”

“Thanks, but I’ve had enough,” I said. “Time to get ready for work. What are you up to today?”

“Not much of anything,” he replied with evident satisfaction. “The semester is over, and Stewart is going to be a bum.”

Diesel and I left him to his breakfast preparations and headed up the stairs.

By the time I was ready to leave for the library, Stewart had disappeared, and no one else had come downstairs. Laura and Justin were probably sleeping in, now that the semester was officially finished. I wondered idly where Sean was, because I’d expected him to be down for breakfast. I had a sneaking suspicion his bed hadn’t been slept in. He was spending more and more time with Alexandra at her house, including a few nights.

The weather had turned colder overnight, but was still bearable. Diesel seemed unaffected by it, though I feared his feet might get too cold. Today was my last in the office, because the library would be closed the next two weeks for the holidays and the semester break. I was looking forward to the time off.