Free Gone But Knot Forgotten by Mary Marks

will your people be there?”
    â€œProbably a couple of days.”
    â€œSome very valuable items are sitting in her house. I hired private security guards to watch the premises twenty-four/seven. I don’t want to leave the house unprotected.”
    Avila took a wide stance and hooked his thumbs in his belt. “We’ve already talked to Hector Fuentes. He can stay, but he can’t enter the house.”
    I blinked. “Who the heck is Hector Fuentes?”
    â€œMalo,” Crusher said.
    â€œOh.”
    I pulled Harriet’s house key out of my purse and held it up. “I want you to call the minute you’re finished with the house.”
    â€œYes, ma’am, I will.”
    I wasn’t through with him yet. “And good luck with your crime scene, Detective. You’re ten months too late. We’ve been all over the house and our fingerprints are everywhere. But I did save you the job of vacuuming. Your forensics people will find a million dead flies to process in the vacuum cleaner.”
    He handed me his business card. “Can you give me the key now?”
    As Farkas and Avila walked toward their car, Lucy and Birdie arrived at my front door. Lucy pointed to the detectives. “Is one of them the man’s voice I heard over the phone?”
    â€œNo,” said Crusher from the kitchen.
    Lucy and Birdie stepped inside. He stood in his bare feet, chopping potatoes.
    Lucy raised her eyebrows and looked at me. “Okaaaay, then.”
    While Crusher cooked, we drank our coffee and talked at the kitchen table.
    Lucy said, “I’ve been thinking. You know the three of us took one whole day to search the downstairs. We’ll probably spend another day going through the upstairs. If the killer came alone, how many days do you suppose he spent rummaging through Harriet’s house?”
    I put my cup down. “I see where you’re going, Lucy. While the killer searched the house, Harriet’s body lay in her closet. He could’ve hunted for several months after he killed her, returning multiple times.”
    Birdie grabbed her braid. “Mercy. While the body decomposed?”
    Crusher put a large plate of scrambled eggs, cottage fried potatoes, and half a loaf of challah, dotted with little black raisins, in the middle of the table. He took one look at our faces. “Come on, ladies. Forget the gory details for now and have something to eat.”
    My grandmother always used to offer food as comfort. “You remind me of my bubbie.” I smiled. “Thanks for going to all this trouble, Yossi.”
    He bent and kissed me. Right in front of my friends. So much for keeping our relationship on the down low. Crusher had just marked his territory.
    I blushed, Lucy raised her eyebrow, Birdie tittered, and Crusher sat and ate. A lot. So did I, in spite of the disturbing new information that my old friend, Harriet Oliver, had been strangled to death.

C HAPTER 9
    Since Farkas had barred us from returning to Harriet’s, Lucy and Birdie went home.
    When we were alone again, Crusher said, “I like your idea this morning about becoming better acquainted.” He put his hand up the back of my T-shirt and fiddled with the snaps on my 36 DD bra. “Let’s spend the rest of the day getting to know each other a lot better.”
    My body vibrated like a violin string, but duty called. Now that I knew Harriet had been murdered, I wanted to examine her personal papers. I pointed to the cartons of mail on my living-room floor and the stack of papers Birdie had gathered from Harriet’s desk yesterday. “I have to sort through all this.”
    Crusher grunted and withdrew his hand. “Okay, I’ll be back later.” He put on his boots (at least a size sixteen) and a flannel shirt against the cold (a lot of plaid for a man his size).
    I frowned. “How do you know I’ll even be here later? Are you trying to move yourself in? Call