Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon by Donna Andrews

same thing.“
    „And she didn't find anything?“
    „A lot of potential money-saving ideas. She recommended against installing the mail cart, incidentally. Wish I'd had moresuccess talking Rob out of it. And the lousy discount coffee is her fault; we'll be changing that as soon as I can manage it.“
    „But no financial irregularities.“
    „No, more's the pity,“ I said. „Finding and firing a crooked accountant would be a quick, painless fix.“
    „And now you have another mystery to solve,“ Michael said.
    „I'll leave that to Chief Burke,“ I said. „Like I said, all I want to do is give him enough reasons to keep investigating, instead of just latching on to Rob as the guilty party.“
    „Yeah, right,“ Michael said.

Admin
     
    Of course, if I was going to inspire the chief to expand his investigation beyond Rob, first I had to find the chief. Two hours into Tuesday, and he still hadn't returned to our office. Or returned any of my calls. Meanwhile I was stuck at the switchboard again.
    „We're so sorry,“ the lady from the temp agency said, when I called to report that the promised receptionist had not shown up. „It's just that – well, you had a murder there yesterday.“
    „Yes, I know,“ I said. „If your employees are worried about their safety, please reassure them that there's still a strong police presence here.“
    Of course, the last time I looked, the police presence was in one of the conference rooms playing Nude Lawyers from Hell and giggling, but the lady from the temp agency didn't need to know that.
    „Oh, I'm sure it's perfectly safe,“ the woman replied. „But – well, the only person we had available mis morning was Muriel, and she's rather timid – she said the idea of trying to work in a place where they'd just had a murder made her blood run cold.“
    „How long do you think it will take you to find a warm-blooded receptionist?“
    „We're working on it,“ the woman said. There was a pause.
    „Muriel did say that she might reconsider if we offered her double pay for hazardous duty.“
    „We want a receptionist, not an extortionist,“ I answered. „See if you can't find someone who'd love to get a first-hand look at a real crime scene. I'd be happy to give her a guided tour.“
    So I was punching the buttons on the console just a little harder than necessary and answering the phone in the very brittle, polite voice that any reasonable person would recognize as a red flag.
    Of course, why would any reasonable person call Mutant Wizards? I thought as I punched another blinking button.
    „And what did that poor switchboard ever do to you?“
    I glanced up to see Jack leaning against the wall by my desk.
    „Nothing,“ I said, smiling in spite of myself. „But I can't throttle the dozens of friends and relatives who keep calling to ask what's going on. The staff are another matter. If one more of them asks me what's going on…“
    „I'm trying to keep them busy,“ he said. „I realize you don't know any more than the rest of us do.“
    „Not quite true,“ I said. „I can make some deductions, based on reports from friends and relatives. The Caerphilly police are interrogating everyone who knows Rob. Probing them for any information they can get about his financial status, spending habits, college grades, sexual history and orientation, juvenile transgressions – everything.“
    „Maybe they're doing that to everybody,“ Jack said, frowning.
    „Caerphilly doesn't have that many police officers. There's only so much they can do. Of course, they did check on me; I gather it's not just in Dad's mystery books that the police are suspicious of the person who finds the body.“
    „Yeah, but with your injured hand…“
    „And what if I were faking an injury?“ I asked. „At least they did check with the hospital to make sure I was really injured. They looked at the X rays of my hand – Dad found that out from a radiologist he knows.“
    „You're more like