“Don’t pay any attention, Pirate. She thinks the universe revolves around her,” Tucker said.
Harry, her hand on the doorknob, paused. “I’m going to Over the Moon. Need anything?”
“See if Books for Living by Will Schwalbe has come in,” Lisa asked.
“If it has, I’ll set it on the table by the front door.”
The book had come in. After a bracing discussion with Anne, Harry walked back to Nature First, quietly opened the door. They were all on the phone or at their computers. She placed it on the table by the door.
Two hours later, Felipe called to Lisa. “Hey, your book is here.”
“Been there for hours.” Raynell looked up from her computer.
“I’ll take it to her.” Felipe picked it up, placed it on Lisa’s desk, as she had the phone to her ear.
She was bored so she opened the volume, began licking her fingers as she turned the pages. She leafed through it, she knew she needed to work but she couldn’t help peeking into the book she had ordered.
At five, Raynell wrapped her scarf around her neck, pulled on her coat. “Felipe, I’m going home. Lisa’s still working, I think.”
“Okay. I’ll tell her.”
A half hour passed. Felipe didn’t hear any phone conversation. He stuck his head into Lisa’s office, the door was always open. Pirate was licking her hand.
“Something’s wrong,” the handsome fellow cried.
It was. Lisa was dead.
28
January 30, 2017
Monday, 7 PM
Ashen-faced, Felipe stared straight ahead with his hands folded on the table. Raynell kept wiping away tears.
Notebook open, Cooper gently asked questions. “First, I am not assuming this is an unnatural death but, given the ad in the paper, Nature First right now is in the public eye. Did either of you notice any health problems these last few days?”
Both shook their heads. “No.”
“Her mood?”
“Exuberant. Finding the skeleton in Richmond gave us an opening to insist for more involvement in city planning, environmental issues, history stuff.” Felipe took a deep breath. “You know.”
“I think I do. But she didn’t seem stressed?”
“The reverse.” Raynell found her voice. “She was energized.”
Cooper dropped her hand, placing it on the puppy’s head.
“Did I do something wrong?” Pirate asked.
Cooper patted him, turned to Felipe. “Tell me again what you saw.”
Clearing his throat, he replied, “Lisa and I were working late. It had been a crazy day. She’d been giving interviews much of the day on the phone. Also she must have checked in with our state headquarters in Richmond every two hours. She and Kylie Carter, state director, work closely together. Anyway, I looked up from my computer at about five-thirty and realized I hadn’t heard any talk or noise from her office. Of course, I assumed she was working on her computer but something told me to check. That’s when I found her slumped over her desk, computer on. She’d knocked a book she’d just bought onto the floor. Oh, Pirate was pawing at her.”
“No signs of, say, a convulsion? Great pain?”
“No. And no one had been in the office since after lunch. It was just the two of us. Raynell left at five. I walked behind Lisa’s desk, shook her a little, and she didn’t move. I was horrified but I could still think. I took her pulse. No pulse. That’s when I called the sheriff’s department.”
“Did you touch anything?”
“Just Lisa. I didn’t even pick up the book. I brought Pirate back to my office.”
“Who did you call after you called the department?”
“Kylie first. She kept me on the phone asking a million questions, none of which I could really answer. I can give you her phone number.”
“Thanks. Anyone else?”
“Just Raynell. She’d just gotten home. She came back immediately, which took about fifteen minutes.”
“I rent a room in Cascades subdivision,” Raynell offered.
“So when did you arrive here?”
“Maybe one minute before you did.”
“Did you look at the body?”
“Yes.” Raynell’s tears flowed again. “It doesn’t seem real.”
“Did you touch anything?”
“No. I only stood in her doorway.”
“Are either of you aware of any condition she might have had?”
Felipe said, “She had an irregular heartbeat. She’d joke and say if anything ever happened to her make sure emergency services knows.”
Raynell let out a small sob. “Now she doesn’t have any heartbeat at all.”
“I don’t want to disturb you, but what you can recall so close to the event of her death can be very helpful. Did she take drugs?”
“Like recreational drugs?” Raynell asked.
“Anything,” Cooper tersely answered.
“No,” Felipe said. “Once or twice she might tell us she smoked weed at a party, but Lisa wasn’t really a user. Sometimes she’d get a headache and take an aspirin. We keep the aspirin in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom.”
“Drink?”
“A glass of wine. Sometimes at the end of the day we’d go down to Fardowners Restaurant and have a glass. I never saw her tipsy.” Raynell provided that information.
“Have either of you ever been to where she lived?” Cooper continued.
“Once,” Raynell replied.
“Well, I’ve worked here longer than Raynell so I would pick up stuff from her house at times. I don’t know, maybe five or six times a year I’d stop by.” Felipe unfolded his hands, then folded them back again.
“Did you ever go inside?”