Grace Among Thieves by Julie Hyzy

what.” He stopped, thinking. “Now that I look back, I believe he was pointing toward the stairwell.”
    “This is all good. Keep a mental picture of the guy. It may be our best lead to catch him.”
    Though overwhelmed, John pressed on. “I didn’t even think twice,” he said miserably. “Your staff is friendly. This all looked perfectly normal. Now Lenore is dead. What if Mark doesn’t survive? This is all my fault.”
    I heard a voice cutting through the distant basement chatter, and Frances appeared in one of the far doorways. The annoyance in her expression changed as she swept the area with keen attention. I could tell exactly when her gaze lighted on Lenore. “Oh my,” she said bringing a hand to her mouth. Recovering quickly, she asked, “She fell?”
    “Pushed,” I said. “You know John, the tour guide. Would you please stay here with him until the detectives arrive? They should be here any minute.”
    “Where are you going?”
    “To talk to the man who was shot.”
    Frances’s eyes widened, but she pulled her lips in tightly and gave the briefest of nods.
    To John, I said, “I’ll get back as soon as I can. I’m very sorry.” There wasn’t much more to say and he remained silent. I didn’t expect he really cared whether I returned or not.
    Frances found her voice again as I started away. “How come we never had any murders at Marshfield before you got here?”
    I stopped, but didn’t turn. “You’re slowing down, Frances,” I said over my shoulder. “Took you almost thirty seconds to blame me this time.”
    Halfway out the door, a thought occurred to me. I spun. “Frances,” I said. “This could have been a ruse gone wrong.”
    Understanding registered in her expression. “What do you want me to do?”
    “Call Lois. Order an emergency inventory.”
    “Scope?”
    “The entire mansion.” I’d been fooled into falling for a ruse once before when a crime had been committed elsewhere in the manor. I wasn’t about to let that happen again. “I’ll alert Terrence.”
    I called our head of security on his radio as I ran out. “This may have already occurred to you, but our killer might have another agenda. If he was—”
    “I’m on it,” he said. “The woman might have seen him steal something and he reacted in fear. Problem is, murder is still murder. But, don’t worry, as soon as I heard, I put the house on lockdown. No one gets out without being cleared.”
    After he signed off I realized he’d said, “As soon as I heard.” Which meant that there was a chance our bad guy might have gotten away. I didn’t want to think about that.
    Before I could get far, I was notified via radio that the police had arrived. An alert front desk staffer had already rushed the paramedics up to the second floor so it fell to me to escort the police to the scene.
    Detectives Rodriguez and Flynn had worked the two prior murders here at Marshfield. Rodriguez viewed the world through hooded eyes, analyzing everything with a ponderous demeanor that still drove me crazy sometimes. I’d first judged him slow and plodding, but came to understand that the portly detective absorbed far more than he liked to let on. I trusted him.
    That was more than could be said for his young counterpart. Tall, lanky, and impulsive, Flynn leapt to conclusions before ensuring the evidence supported his claims. I supposed their two personalities balanced each other out, but I was disappointed that this mismatched team was the best Emberstowne had to offer.
    I met them at the front door, where dozens of visitors had been brought to wait. “This way,” I said to the detectives, trying my best to appear unruffled.
    My efforts to avoid frightening people were in vain. All the guests I saw looked plenty shaken. Whether these people knew what had happened or were simply alarmed by the fact that armed guards were preventing their departure, I didn’t know. Nor could I worry about that right now.
    Still trying my best to