Free Want To Play by P.J. Tracy

tale.’
    ‘Maybe she knew something. Maybe posing her on the statue was a warning,’ Gino said.
    ‘Oh, I think she posed herself on the statue before she was shot,’ Jimmy said. ‘Which is even weirder. Check out the blood splatters. You got drip marks down the statue’s side and a whole lotta daisy-shaped blood splatters on the pedestal, a “crown” effect. Perpendicular impact, high height, high velocity. Which meant that she was probably already on top of the statue when she was shot. If she’d been killed somewhere else and hauled up there, there’d be different kinds of splatters and they wouldn’t be so consistent. And maybe not as much blood, depending on how long she’d been dead. God, I hate this job. I’m gonna take early retirement and start day-trading or something.’
    ‘We’re all just janitors,’ Gino mumbled. ‘Cleaning up somebody else’s messes.’
    ‘They don’t call me “The Grimm Reaper” for nothing,’ Jimmy said cheerlessly.

11
    Mitch had made breakfast, his marital equivalent of half a dozen Hail Marys. He started plating the food when he heard the back door open and close.
    ‘What’s this?’ Diane breezed into the kitchen on a current of fresh air. Her cheeks were pink from her morning run, her blond ponytail damp when she pulled back the Gore-Tex hood. She looked like an ad for a health club.
    He smiled at her. ‘Penance.’
    ‘I didn’t even hear you come in last night.’
    ‘I slept in the den. It was very late. I didn’t want to wake you.’
    ‘Hmm.’ She was trotting in place to cool off, running shoes squeaking on the tile. ‘Do I have time for a shower?’
    ‘Sorry.’
    He carried the plates through the dining room he preferred, out to the glass sun porch, Diane’s favorite room in the house. It was a large space made small by a jungle of ferns and palms and flowering plants that all looked healthier than he felt. The air was heavy and humid and smelled of damp earth. Mitch hated that smell.
    ‘Oh, this is lovely, Mitchell.’ Diane settled at the wrought-iron table and admired her plate. A spinach omelet in fluted puff pastry, iced pears with grated Reggiano, a single fanned strawberry. ‘You must have done something truly awful. Are we going to have sex, too?’
    He must have looked startled, because she smiled a little as she tucked a pear into her mouth and held out her cup. ‘Half, please.’
    ‘How’s the new painting coming along?’
    ‘Badly. If I don’t have any luck today, I may pull it from the show.’
    ‘Oh. Sorry.’
    ‘Don’t be silly. It’s not your fault, now is it? And one painting more or less isn’t going to make any difference to the gallery. This is really extraordinary. Nutmeg?’
    ‘Right.’ He laid his fork upside down on the edge of his plate, cue to a nonexistent waiter. He wasn’t hungry at all; still a little off-balance from her sex remark.
    ‘I can’t place the cheese.’
    ‘Five cheeses, actually.’
    Silver scraped china as she chased down the last bite of her omelet. ‘You are so good at this. You really should come out of the closet and cook for your friends.’
    His cup clattered into the saucer. ‘Why do you do that?’
    She looked up, all innocence. ‘Do what?’
    ‘Call them my friends. They’re our friends, not just mine.’
    ‘Oh. Did I say that? I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just that you spend so much more time with them . . .’ Her voice and gaze drifted until she focused on his plate. ‘You aren’t going to let that go to waste, are you?’
    He stared at her for a moment, almost irritated enough to pursue the issue if it weren’t so damn hot in this room; so damn close . When she glanced at his face, her own crumpled instantly. My God. What had he looked like? What had she seen?
    ‘Please,’ he said quickly. ‘Help yourself. I ate while I was cooking.’ He wanted to run, out of the room, out of the house, but he made himself sit there and smile until her mouth curved in