Kelly, Sofie - Sleight of Paw

He put his hands on my shoulders and turned me so I was on his left side. “Bend your knees and lean forward,” he said. “Just a little bit.”

Gingerly I followed his instructions, and my legs stopped quaking as I found my balance.

He looped my left hand around his arm, holding it securely with his other hand. “Better?”

I nodded.

“Okay, now lean on me just a little and push out and back with your outside foot.”

We moved forward and I didn’t fall down. I tried another push.

“Keep your blade flat on the ice,” he said. He turned his head. “I’ve got her,” he said to Maggie, who just raised a hand and smiled as she skated away.

I was skating. I pushed with my outside foot, and feeling brave and fancy, did the same with my inside foot. I was definitely skating. Someone had a weird sense of humor to make this happen because of Marcus.

I waited until we made one circuit around the ice before I spoke. “You’re wrong about Ruby,” I said.

He didn’t try to pretend he didn’t know what I was talking about. “You heard.”

“I heard. Ruby didn’t kill Agatha.” I loosened my grip on his arm. “I was there with her, with the body. She was grief-stricken. She wasn’t faking that.”

“I can’t do my job based on feelings,” he said. “I look at the facts, at the evidence.”

I took a breath and let it out. It was important to make my case without sounding like a crackpot. “That she was distraught is a fact. Ruby isn’t a killer. Look at all the work she does with kids. She was inspired to do that by Agatha.”

I took my eyes off the ice for a second to search his face. It was unreadable. I continued. “The piece of glass that I gave to you. Can you prove it came from the headlight of Ruby’s struck? Can you prove how it ended up in that alley? Or when? Or how it got stuck in my pants? Can you even prove Ruby was driving her truck that night?”

I shook my head. “Never mind. I know you can’t tell me any of that,” I said.

Maggie was sitting on the bench now. She waved merrily as we went past her.

“No, I can’t.” His cheeks were red from the cold.

I pictured Agatha in the restaurant, clutching that old brown envelope so fiercely. I hadn’t seen it with her body. “Can you at least tell me if you found an old report-card envelope with Agatha’s body?”

He frowned, then recovered and shook his head. “I can’t—”

“I know. You can’t tell me that, either.” And I didn’t need him to. That frown was as good as a no.

“It’s an open case,” he said.

“I’m guessing Ruby didn’t have an alibi,” I said. “Well, neither did Maggie; neither did I.” I stumbled over a divot in the ice, and his hand automatically tightened its grip on my arm.

“Oh, wait a minute. I do have an alibi. Owen and Hercules.”

He sighed. From the corner of my eye I saw his jaw work like he was grinding his teeth. “This is a complicated case, Kathleen,” he said. “Don’t get involved in it the way you did in Gregor Easton’s death last summer.”

Anger did a slow burn in my stomach and I struggled not to let it into my voice. “You’re the one who got me involved in that, because you thought I was having an affair with the man solely because we both lived in Boston at the same time. You were wrong about that, and you’re wrong about Ruby.”

We were turned away from where Maggie was standing, talking to Rebecca. Anger got the best of me. “You didn’t listen to me then and you’re not listening to me now,” I snapped. I let go of his arm, determined to glide away in melodramatic fashion. Except my glide was off by several feet.

I was heading for a snowbank when Susan grabbed my arm. We spun in a circle, but I managed somehow to keep my balance as Susan stopped me.

“You all right?” she asked. We were face-to-face, Susan holding both my upper arms. “It looked like you were arguing with Detective Gordon about something.”

I couldn’t see him anymore. “Not exactly arguing,” I said. “More like discussing.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Vigorously.”

She almost smiled.

“I was trying to point out that his reasons for arresting Ruby weren’t very good ones.”

The color drained from Susan’s face. “The police arrested Ruby? Why?”

She didn’t know. How could she not know? I looked at the ice for a second, then looked back at her. “Because they think she killed Agatha.”

I thought she couldn’t get any paler.

I was wrong.

Susan’s mouth moved but no sound came out.

“Susan, I’m sorry,” I said. “I thought it was common knowledge by now. I shouldn’t have just blurted it out like that.”

She shook her head “Oh, no, it’s okay. We’re a bit out of touch because we’ve just kind of been staying close to home this weekend. You know, colds and stuff.”

Her face was still sickeningly white. “When did they . . . when did they arrest her?”

“This morning.”

“She didn’t kill Agatha.”

“I know. And the police will figure that out, too.” Susan’s eyes darted around the crowded rink. “I . . . I better go,” she said. “Eric just left for the caf��, and my mom’s on her way to the sliding hill with the boys. I wanted to skate around a couple of times by myself, but I should go help her.” She let go of my arms, holding her hands out for a moment. “You okay?”

“Oh, sure,” I said. “Go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she said, skating away with long strokes. Of course I couldn’t move.

Maggie made her way over to me. “Are you all right?”

“Just get me off the ice, please,” I said.

She pulled me to the edge of the rink. I stepped over the boards and collapsed on the bench.

“Is everything okay with Susan?” Maggie asked, dropping beside me.

I sighed. “I don’t know. She’s been, well, not herself for the past few days. Since Agatha died, really.”

Maggie leaned her folded arms on her thighs. “It has to be hard on Eric, Agatha dying. So that has to be hard on Susan.”

I nodded. “Speaking of Eric, you want to head over to the café for some hot chocolate?”

“Oh, that sounds good,” she said.

I started undoing my skates. I loved Eric’s hot chocolate. It was even better than mine. And maybe I’d get a chance to talk to him. Maybe he’d seen or heard something the night Agatha died. Maybe I could come up with something that would help Ruby.

Maggie had her skates off in half the time it took me, so she watched me, head cocked to one side. “Marcus was a pretty good skating teacher,” she said.

“Marcus is a dip wad,” I said darkly.

“Let me guess. He told you not to play Law & Order with this case.”

“He has tunnel vision,” I said, getting to my feet.

She gave me a hip bump. “He probably says that about you.”

We headed up to the street. As we crossed the parking lot we bumped into Roma. Literally. “We’re going to Eric’s,” Maggie said. “Wanna come?”

“Yes.” Roma pulled off her crocheted red hat. “I can’t feel my toes. I was in that infuriating maze for a half hour. I thought they were going to have to send a scent dog to find me.”

I felt the prickle of goose bumps up my spine.

“We were skating,” Maggie said. “We haven’t tried the maze yet.”

And we are not going to, I added silently.

“Where are you parked?” Roma asked. “Because I’m right here.”

“I walked,” Maggie said.

“Me, too,” I added.

“C’mon, I’ll drive,” Roma said.

I was happy to climb into the backseat of her SUV. My feet hurt. My knees ached. When I moved it sounded like someone deboning a turkey. And when I sat down it was clear I’d bruised my tailbone.