Catch a Falling Knife

‘Pull your pants up.’”
    I took another sip of coffee to prove that I could do it without my hands shaking, and swallowed it very carefully.
    “Elise didn’t move; she just looked at me, taunted me with her half-smile. I cracked first. I moved toward her without a clear plan. I guess I was going to try to pull her pants up, myself. When I got close to her she grabbed me and kissed me.”
    “And you pushed her away.”
    “Well, it’s not that simple. Elise was not the kind of girl who was easy to push away.”
    “I’m beginning to find that out.”
    “I’m afraid we…messed around for a minute. And believe me, she was willing. When I finally came to my senses and realized what I was doing, I pushed her away so hard that she fell down because her jeans had trapped her legs. Her head hit the door. That scared me. I apologized several times, but she looked dazed and didn’t respond at first. I wondered whether I should call for help, but then she started to move. After a minute I asked her if she was okay. She said her head hurt, but she would be all right. She pulled up her jeans; then I helped her to stand up and she left.”
    “Did she say—what was it—‘Now you know how I feel about you?’”
    “Yes, she did say that as she left.”
    Tess poked her head in the door and said, “Lil, are you going to pool aerobics this morning?”
    I had forgotten all about that. I stammered for a few seconds and then said, “I don’t think so. Not today, Tess.”
    “You’re letting yourself go.” Tess shook her head, disapprovingly. She said to Mark, “Are you going to let her get away with this?”
    Mark tried to focus on Tess. He said something that wasn’t apropos.
    Tess looked at each of us in turn and said, “You two are a pair this morning. Is there some new calamity I should know about? Or anything I can do to help?”
    “No.” Mark and I said together.
    I tried to soften it by saying, “Thanks for offering, but there are some things we have to do today that I’m afraid you can’t help with.”
    Having been rebuffed, Tess strode toward the door, carrying her large towel. She turned and said, “Let me know when you can use the help of a friend.”
    “Eat dinner with us and we’ll fill you in,” I called after Tess as she went out the door and disappeared. I rose from my chair and said, “First, true confessions and now this. I’ve had about all the talk I can stand for one day. Come on; we’ve got work to do.”
     
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    We stopped first at the Hoffman house in Bethany. Eric Hoffman had become a suspect again in my eyes when we confirmed that Elise was the Shooting Star. If he had known this, that would have given him a possible motive for her murder. But how could I find out whether he had known?
    Mark was acting as my chauffeur, but I didn’t want him to go in with me. He dropped me off at the head of the driveway. I made my way past a couple of vehicles and responded to Monster’s barking with a goody I had brought for him. He recognized my scent and subjected himself to my petting with an eagerness that belied his regal bearing.
    “Somehow I thought that might be you.”
    The voice was that of June Hoffman, not Eric. I said hello and she said, “When Monster stops barking that fast, it’s because he knows whoever is coming. And after reading this morning’s paper, I figured you might drop by.”
    “You know about Elise being the Shooting Star then,” I said, walking up to the front door, where June stood.
    “I can’t say I’m surprised. Come on in and sit a spell. I’ll get some coffee. Eric’s not here. I’m taking a vacation day today. I’m still an emotional wreck.”
    I followed June into the living room and sat in a chair I had occupied before. The comfortable room was beginning to feel like home. June went into the kitchen and returned with the coffee. I repeated her remark about not being surprised to find out that Elise was the Shooting Star, and placed a question mark at the end.
    “No, I wasn’t. Not really. She had an independent streak and the more Eric tried to make her conform to his ideas about how a girl should act, the more she rebelled. She reminded me of me when I was young. I was a rebel too—I did some pretty wild things I won’t go into here—but after I married Eric I had to suppress all that.”
    “Did you have any idea that Elise was…dancing?”
    “Now that you mention