White Colander Crime by Victoria Hamilton

where it is, if I need you,” the detective said.
    Jaymie walked down the slope to where Bill was just finishing talking to the officer. The chatter of police radios and thrum of heavy motors filled the night air. Somewhere in the distance a dog barked, startling a flock of Canada geese that took to flight, unusual at that time of night. They honked in irritation, dark blots against the indigo sky.
    â€œAre you okay, honey?” Bill said, grabbing her shoulders and looking into her eyes. “You don’t look like yourself.”
    She was shivering, shaken to the core, and perhaps her shock showed on her face. “She was so badly hurt, Bill,” she said, wrapping the blanket more tightly around her shoulders, trying to warm up. “I hope she’s going to be okay.”
    His eyes misted and he put his arm around her shoulders. “I knew her when she was just a little thing; drove the school bus for a while, and she and her brother were always going at it hammer and tongs. But just let one of the other kids taunt one of ’em and they’d stick together.”
    â€œAre they Lori’s only kids?”
    â€œNah, she’s got a couple of younger ones from Walt Wozny, her ex.”
    â€œDid you see them tonight? They were all here: Lori, Shelby and I guess her brother?”
    He nodded. “Yup. Lori and I talked for a few minutes. Shelby and Travis were arguing about something, I think it was some boyfriend of hers he didn’t like, and some girl he’d been seeing. Anyway, they were going at it. She screamed at him to mind his own business and leave her love life out of it.”
    Was Shelby defending Cody or Glenn? Or was there another boyfriend? Jaymie prayed that she would recover soon so she could tell the police who had done such an awful thing to her. It would be a long road to recovery, given how bad her injuries had looked to Jaymie, but she had family, and that was the most important relationship of all. “I’m so tired,” Jaymie said. “I have to be up early because I have to get everything ready for the manor house grand opening tomorrow.” She moved from foot to foot. “But I can’t stop thinking about her. The poor girl! She was beaten badly, Bill. Very badly.”
    â€œLet me walk you home. You seem kind of woozy.”
    She was grateful. She had known Bill Waterman for years, but lately, with her work on the historic house, she had the chance to work alongside him. He was dependable, helpful and gracious, a real down-to-earth guy. “I appreciate it.”
    He took her arm and walked her back to her place in silence. Jaymie realized for the first time how close to home this hit for Bill. It was his workshop, and more especially his storeroom, and he’d known Shelby as a child. “How do
you
feel?” she asked, as they turned down her street, one streetlight fluttering and going out as they walked past it.
    â€œI understand now how you felt last spring when that fellow was killed on your back porch. It gets you in your gut, doesn’t it?”
    â€œIt does,” she said feelingly, squeezing his arm to her side. “It feels like . . . oh, how to put it? It feels like it belongs to you somehow, like you need to see it solved.”
    He nodded and sighed as they approached her front door. “Shelby will come through. She’s a strong girl, a real sweetheart at the core of her, though she seems a kinda tough nut.”
    She gave him a quick hug and said, “We’ll keep sending good thoughts her way. And to her mom.” She paused. “Bill, one question. When I came up to the workshop tonight the storage room door was unlocked. I remember now that the padlock was hanging from the hasp, so it wasn’t jimmied with a bolt cutter or anything. Did you leave the padlock undone?”
    â€œI did
not
! It was locked up right and tight when I left it after fixing the speaker.”
    â€œWho