Love Can Be Murder

death and of my life. Faces turned to stare. Only Sarah Finn, Daniel’s assistant, was kind, taking my arm and leading me out of the church into the parking lot where she lent me a tissue purse-pak.
    “Nice performance,” a voice behind us said.
    I turned to see Detective Salyers standing there.
    “Will you excuse us?” she asked Sarah. After Sarah was out of earshot, I steeled myself for the handcuffs. Instead Salyers removed her sunglasses. “Feeling guilty, Miss Greenfield?”
    “Feeling sad.”
    “Sad enough to make a confession?”
    “No. Have you questioned everyone in the office?”
    “Finishing up today.”
    “You might want to ask Leora Painter about the message she told my neighbor she was going to slip under my door as a ruse to find out which apartment was mine.”
    “I will.” Then she angled her head. “The intern at the office, Julie Sun, told me that you and Miss Painter used to be friends.”
    “I thought so. I was wrong.”
    “Has Miss Painter ever been inside your apartment?”
    “No.”
    “So you can’t explain why her fingerprint would be on a bookend in your living room?”
    I felt my mouth open, then close. “She was there. She killed him.”
    “Maybe. Or maybe you brought home something from the office that she touched and planted it. Or maybe you and Miss Painter are still friends, thinking if you point the finger at each other, you’ll both get away with murder.”
    I heard my inner lawyer’s voice whisper to stop talking now.
    “Miss Greenfield, are you still staying with your ex-husband?”
    “I was thinking I might go back to my apartment tonight.”
    “Just so I know where to find you.” Salyers walked away.
    The others were emerging from the church, heads down and hands in pockets as they headed for their vehicles. Julie the red-eyed intern watched me nervously. The partners kept their gazes averted, but their body language told me I should be looking for another job. Leora Painter and Eric North hadn’t sat together during the service but now their bodies converged. I stood there until they passed me. Haughtiness twisted Leora’s face: She was glad Daniel was dead. I wanted to tackle her and press my thumbs against her eyeballs until she confessed. Or had Eric killed Daniel so he could have Daniel’s clients and Leora?
    Crazily, I felt a pang of jealously. What would it feel like to have someone so madly in love with you that they would commit murder? The idea pinged a chord in my subconscious…as if I’d once humored that very thought, the thought of killing someone for love—for lust—but had buried it in a grave of unwanted memories.
    A sudden headache bloomed…foggy sensations of a violent scene unfolding…a dream? A remembered scene from a disturbing movie? Had I heard Daniel being killed?
    Or had I done it?
    I walked to my car on elastic legs and drove to the office, trying on the idea of murdering Daniel like I would a hat, moving it from side to side, and ultimately deciding it was all wrong.
    Still, the possibility rendered me numb. I kept picturing Daniel lying on my couch, blood everywhere, but it was like sorting through childhood memories. Did I remember it because I’d been there when it happened, or did I think I remembered it because I’d seen a picture after the fact?
    Breathless, I called Mrs. Bingham’s cousin. (The Crime Scene Clean Queen, Refer us and Get Some Green!) Cousin Vivian was the chatty sort, with a vivacious voice that had me imagining a woman in white capri pants and a tiara removing blood from my upholstery while she yakked with her kids on her cell phone. She’d been expecting me to call, she said, and went over the options. She could visit the “site” and give me an estimate, or if it was just a matter of blood, she could go ahead and clean it on the spot. My dwellers insurance would pay for it. She would get the key from the superintendent and be finished before I got home. The only question was what kind of free air freshener I wanted.
    I opted for “ocean breeze,” in honor of all the times Daniel had promised to take me somewhere exotic. (Strangely, she didn’t offer “parfum de takeout and sleepover.”)
    I spent the rest of the day walking into corners of furniture and moving papers around on my desk. Detective Salyers moved in and out of my line of vision, talking to everyone who sat in the vicinity of my office, while scrupulously avoiding me. She spent an inordinate amount of time with Julie the