Alex Harris 00 - Armed

already.”
    “I’m not the new office manager. I’m a friend helping out during this terrible time. I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name. Can I help you?”
    “I’m Jerry. Factory foreman. I just came by to tell William I’m going to lock up and go home.” Jerry turned and headed for the door.
    “Wait!” I shouted.
    He stopped and looked at me.
    My mind raced trying to think of something to ask this man who ran the factory. The factory. Where I found Mrs. Scott.
    “Did you see Mrs. Scott out there last night?” I blurted.
    Jerry looked at me with a blank stare. I couldn’t blame him.
    “Why would I see her?”
    “Well, everyone, I mean the police, seem to be wondering why she would go into the factory at night. Everyone is gone by what, four-thirty, right?”
    “Yeah.” He shrugged. “That’s the time we close. And no, I didn’t see Elvira last night out in the factory. I left by five-fifteen and I never saw her.”
    “Did she go out there a lot?” I got up and walked around the desk. “I mean, did her job require she spend a lot of time out there?”
    “No,” Jerry shrugged. “But that’s not to say she never came out. She did. Especially if one of the workers had a personnel issues. What’s this all about?” Jerry plopped himself down on a chair and sneered. “Oh, I get it. William wants you to nose around. See what you can find out. Is that it? Well, you look here, miss whatever your name is. I’ve talked to the police. That’s it. Not that I had much to say. I work in the factory, so I don’t come into the office much. And even if I did, why would I want to talk to that snooty old…” Jerry stopped abruptly and stood up. “Tell William I left and I’ll call him later.”
    Jerry walked out and I heard the door to the factory slam. I jotted the message down just as Mr. Poupée returned.
    “A man named Jerry came by,” I told him. “He’s closing up the factory and said he’ll call you later. Also, Emmanuelle would like to see you as well. I found this receipt on Mrs. Scott’s desk. I think it’s the one from the post office. She asked Andy to mail some packages last night. What would you like me to do with it? I can take it to your accounting department if you’d like.”
    Mr. Poupée took the receipt and looked at it. “Andy must have brought it straight in this morning. That’s okay. I’ll take it to accounting.” He started toward his office and then turned. “That’s odd. I gave Elvira four packages to mail; the receipt is for five.”
    “Maybe she included one of her own. Or maybe she had some other things from other people to be mailed.” I glanced at my watch. “Mr. Poupée, all of Mrs. Scott’s things are in this box. If you don’t have anything else for me to do right now, I’ll be off.”
    “Yes, that’s fine.” Mr. Poupée walked to his office and took a seat behind his desk. I followed him and stood in the doorway.
    “Alex, would you be able to come back tomorrow? I’m going to reopen for business because telling these people to stay home doesn’t seem to do any good. Of course, anyone who wishes to take a few days off can do so. But I have a feeling everyone just wants to get back to...” His words trailed off. “I was about to say normal , but I don’t think anything will ever be the same around here. Ever.” He hit his forehead with the palm of his hand. “There I go again. You probably need some time to yourself. Alex, I am sorry. It’s just that I want to clear this up. I want to find out who did this.
    “And I wanted you to start talking with people. Get a feel for things. Elvira always kept me so isolated. I appreciated her handling everything but now I wonder if I put too much responsibility on her. She had her faults. I know not everyone liked her, but not enough that someone would kill her.” He reached into his back pocket and took out a handkerchief. “At any rate,” he wiped his eyes, “I’ve alerted the staff to give you their full cooperation; maybe we can get to the bottom of this before that damned police detective puts me in prison.”
    I felt like going off somewhere and having a good cry but given Mr. Poupée had such faith in me—totally misguided—I didn’t see how I could refuse. My attempt to get some information out of Jerry hadn’t gone well. What if everyone else treated me the same way? I started to say this to Mr. Poupée and then had an image of Detective Van der Burg sitting at his desk with a