Simmer Down

desk left almost no room for the two of us. I crammed myself into one of the chairs and looked at Josh, who stood in the one square foot of floor space left.
    I said, “Look, the only reason I went to Eclipse last night with Sean was because he called and said he really needed my advice on something, and I didn’t see any reason to say no to him. But more than that, I wanted the chance to poke around in one of the Full Moon Group’s restaurants.”
    “Why? What do you care about that for?” Josh looked totally irritated with me.
    “I found out that Oliver had been harassing female employees, and I wanted to see if I could find out if anyone else was doing the same thing. There’s such a thing as an atmosphere of harassment. I wanted to see whether there was any sign of that. But when I met Sean, he told me that he’d seen Oliver forcing himself on Hannah at the art gallery the other night.”
    “What? That’s horrible.”
    “The thing is, when Hannah was trying to fend off this creep, Oliver, she must have spilled her disgusting snap peas on him. That’s why the police questioned her all night. They must have found the green powder on his body and suspected her of killing him. Sean wanted to know if I thought he should tell the police about what he’d seen.”
    “What did you tell him?” Josh asked.
    “I told him no. And the reason I told him that is because Hannah didn’t kill Oliver. Naomi did.”

SEVENTEEN

    “NO, you’re wrong. Naomi wouldn’t kill anyone.” Josh let out a deep sigh and looked away from me. “Gavin did it.”
    “Gavin? Josh, listen to me. Hannah had been calling the Boston Organization. She wanted help because Oliver had been harassing her on a regular basis, and Hannah was getting desperate. You know how overinvested Naomi gets in her work, so Naomi took it upon herself to solve the problem. She whacked him over the head with your poor Robocoupe. Then, like most criminals supposedly do, she even returned to the scene of the crime on the pretext of taking Eliot a thank-you present. And now she’s going to rot in prison!”
    Josh stared at me confused. “I guess I could see why she’d give Eliot something, but it’s not as if a Full Moon partner needs anything. They’re all loaded,” he scoffed.
    “Barry and Oliver are the partners. Were the partners.” Josh sighed. “Chloe, a group is not just two people. Didn’t you just finish a class on group therapy? Wasn’t Doug out there the teaching assistant in that class?”
    Like I needed yet someone else pointing out my terrible performance in school! “Hey, I tried very hard in that class, but the professor had the personality of a rock, and the textbook was about as scintillating as the fine print that came with my credit card.”
    “Well, anyhow, the Full Moon Group is a group. Eliot stays out of the actual running of the business, but he’s a silent partner, meaning he contributes and makes money. It’s no secret. You just didn’t happen to know it. Probably a lot of people don’t know about it, actually, because he’s pretty low key about being a partner, but he and I were talking about it the other night at his gallery. I don’t think Gavin realizes it either, now that I think about it. Eliot was too polite to say anything when Gavin was bragging about beating them out for this location.” He paused. “Speak of the devil...’’Josh waved at someone.
    I looked out into the dining room to see Eliot and Naomi, who were passing by the office door, hand in hand.
    “Oh, Josh. Nice to see you again.” Eliot stopped and stuck his head in the office. “Wonderful, wonderful meal. Everything was exceptional,” he said. “Gavin invited us in to take a peek at the kitchen. Hope you don’t mind? Naomi said she’s never seen a professional kitchen.”
    “Sure, go ahead. Don’t mind the craziness going on,” Josh said, waving them into the office. “You can cut through here.” Naomi beamed at me. “Hi, Chloe. Happy New Year’s!” She winked at me before sliding past us and through the open door to the kitchen.
    “Josh, do you know what you just did?’ I whispered. “If it’s no secret that Eliot is a Full Moon partner, then Naomi must know about that from Hannah. Josh, she talked to Hannah all the time! And now Naomi is cozying up to Eliot with the intention of murdering him, too!”
    Suddenly panicked, I stood up and spoke softly. “She’s going to kill Eliot. She killed Oliver at the back of