she wasnât suggesting that sheâd be the one to mess up.
âBesides,â she went on, âhe was just a ringer.â
My jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
Elena didnât notice my reaction, however. With another toss of her perfect blond hair, she brushed past me into the backstage room.
It took me several seconds to recover from the shock of my encounter with her. Sure, she was the leader of the first violins and a brilliantly gifted musician, but her personality left something to be desired. I didnât know how she could be so insensitive.
I shook my head, deciding not to waste any more time thinking about her. There were more important things I could be doing. Leaving Elena and the bass players behind, I followed the hallway past the spot where Hans and I had shared our backstage kiss and went upstairs to the main floor. From there, I walked along another hallway to the narthex.
Across from double doors leading to the nave were the two staircases. They were separated by an alcove that housed a long wooden bench with a potted plant at each end. The far staircase was the one where Iâd found Jeremyâs body. The closer one was the route Cindy had taken to get back downstairs after calling the police.
I headed for the latter set of stairs, still wanting to avoid the scene of Jeremyâs death. As I climbed upward, I realized that both stairways led to a shared landing. A single set of stairs then led from the middle of the landing up the rest of the way to the second story.
I paused at the midway point between the two floors. The common landing meant that the killer could easily have fled up one staircase and down the other in a matter of seconds. Even though I found Jeremyâs body less than a minute after hearing the retreating footsteps, his murderer could have escaped more readily than I had previously realized.
I could have given up on my explorations right then and stuck to asking questions to gather information, but I was curious about what I would find upstairs. After all, I didnât know for sure that the killer had escaped down the opposite stairway. There was still a possibility that he or she had fled to the second story.
If there was another way to get down from the churchâs upper floor, I wanted to know. If someone had seen anyone leave through a window or down yet another staircase, maybe that would lead to the identification of a suspect. A suspect who wasnât Hans.
I crept quietly up the second flight of stairs, my footsteps muffled by the worn red carpet. At the top of the stairway a hallway stretched off to my left and right. A total of four doors opened off of it, two on each side. I turned first to my left, peeking through the doors, both of which stood open. The rooms appeared to be small classrooms or meeting rooms, filled with mismatched chairs and scuffed wooden tables. Aside from the furniture, both rooms were empty. There were windows, but none that provided a realistic means of escape, with no rooftop or handy tree in close proximity.
Retracing my steps, I slipped my cell phone out of my pocket and glanced at the display. I still had plenty of time before I had to be back downstairs for the rehearsal. I figured I might as well do some more poking around.
I was about to investigate the remaining two rooms when a phone rang somewhere nearby. I froze. The ringing cut off and I heard a manâs voice say, âHello?â
Clearly, I wasnât alone on the second floor. The ringing and the voice had come from the right-Âhand side of the hallway. Not wanting to get caught sticking my nose where it didnât belong, I decided to give up on my snooping and go back down to the auditorium. Until I heard the manâs voice again.
âIâm sure thereâs nothing to worry about. How would anyone find out?â
During the pause that followed his question, I tiptoed a few steps closer to the open doorway. That turned out to be a
âBesides,â she went on, âhe was just a ringer.â
My jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
Elena didnât notice my reaction, however. With another toss of her perfect blond hair, she brushed past me into the backstage room.
It took me several seconds to recover from the shock of my encounter with her. Sure, she was the leader of the first violins and a brilliantly gifted musician, but her personality left something to be desired. I didnât know how she could be so insensitive.
I shook my head, deciding not to waste any more time thinking about her. There were more important things I could be doing. Leaving Elena and the bass players behind, I followed the hallway past the spot where Hans and I had shared our backstage kiss and went upstairs to the main floor. From there, I walked along another hallway to the narthex.
Across from double doors leading to the nave were the two staircases. They were separated by an alcove that housed a long wooden bench with a potted plant at each end. The far staircase was the one where Iâd found Jeremyâs body. The closer one was the route Cindy had taken to get back downstairs after calling the police.
I headed for the latter set of stairs, still wanting to avoid the scene of Jeremyâs death. As I climbed upward, I realized that both stairways led to a shared landing. A single set of stairs then led from the middle of the landing up the rest of the way to the second story.
I paused at the midway point between the two floors. The common landing meant that the killer could easily have fled up one staircase and down the other in a matter of seconds. Even though I found Jeremyâs body less than a minute after hearing the retreating footsteps, his murderer could have escaped more readily than I had previously realized.
I could have given up on my explorations right then and stuck to asking questions to gather information, but I was curious about what I would find upstairs. After all, I didnât know for sure that the killer had escaped down the opposite stairway. There was still a possibility that he or she had fled to the second story.
If there was another way to get down from the churchâs upper floor, I wanted to know. If someone had seen anyone leave through a window or down yet another staircase, maybe that would lead to the identification of a suspect. A suspect who wasnât Hans.
I crept quietly up the second flight of stairs, my footsteps muffled by the worn red carpet. At the top of the stairway a hallway stretched off to my left and right. A total of four doors opened off of it, two on each side. I turned first to my left, peeking through the doors, both of which stood open. The rooms appeared to be small classrooms or meeting rooms, filled with mismatched chairs and scuffed wooden tables. Aside from the furniture, both rooms were empty. There were windows, but none that provided a realistic means of escape, with no rooftop or handy tree in close proximity.
Retracing my steps, I slipped my cell phone out of my pocket and glanced at the display. I still had plenty of time before I had to be back downstairs for the rehearsal. I figured I might as well do some more poking around.
I was about to investigate the remaining two rooms when a phone rang somewhere nearby. I froze. The ringing cut off and I heard a manâs voice say, âHello?â
Clearly, I wasnât alone on the second floor. The ringing and the voice had come from the right-Âhand side of the hallway. Not wanting to get caught sticking my nose where it didnât belong, I decided to give up on my snooping and go back down to the auditorium. Until I heard the manâs voice again.
âIâm sure thereâs nothing to worry about. How would anyone find out?â
During the pause that followed his question, I tiptoed a few steps closer to the open doorway. That turned out to be a
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