Your Chariot Awaits by Lorena McCourtney Page B

afterthought on his part, or if he was just trying to make me think that. Not an after-thought, I decided as we went down a hallway to a room where the equipment was kept. Detective Sergeant Molino was a man who planned ahead.
    I expected a messy process, with my fingers rolled in ink, because I remembered that from an old detective show I used to like, but the county had recently upgraded to electronic equipment. I just had to fill out a form, scrub my hands with antibacterial soap, and roll my fingertips across a scanner surface.
    I think I’d have preferred the ink. There’s something extra-scary about feeling as if an all-knowing computer is probing your deepest, darkest secrets.
    I had to wait around a few more minutes until my statement was typed up and I could sign it. When I finally staggered out to the car, where Joella was patiently waiting, I felt drained, sucked dry as an old shell on the beach.
    â€œEverything go okay?”
    â€œI’m not under arrest, so I guess that’s about as okay as it gets at the moment. But they took my fingerprints.”
    It wasn’t until we were driving away that another thought hit me. The other woman.
    If she’d killed Jerry, she must also have hit me over the head. Had she done it because I’d interrupted the murder? Or had she been angry enough to kill both of us? Had she perhaps thought she had killed me with the blow?
    Would she try again?

11
    A few days ago the big looming crisis in life was my sixtieth birthday. I should have realized when I was well off. Even dumped and downsized had paled. Now I could worry about whether I was soon to be accused of murder . . . or soon to become the next murder victim.
    I half turned in the seat. “Jo, do you think Jerry was seeing another woman?”
    She didn’t seem surprised by the question. Sounding as if she were choosing her words carefully, she said, “Neil at the bakery sent me over to Olympia one time to pick up some special decorations for a wedding cake, and I saw Jerry coming out of a restaurant with someone. But I don’t know that he was seeing her.”
    â€œAn attractive someone?”
    â€œYes, quite attractive.” She sounded reluctant.
    â€œAttractive how?”
    â€œOh, you know. Tall and slender and graceful.”
    â€œHow old?”
    â€œMaybe twenty-eight or thirty. Long, dark hair. Not messy, but . . .”
    â€œOne of those styles that looks like you just got out of bed?”
    â€œJust kind of . . . tousled.”
    â€œAnd you never told me?”
    â€œAndi, it was lunchtime. They seemed engrossed in each other, but they weren’t pawing or climbing all over each other. I heard him call her Elena, but she could have been a business associate. His stockbroker. His guru.”
    â€œThat’s really what you thought?”
    Joella hesitated. “I thought it looked . . . suspicious. You know how you just kind of get vibes sometimes? But I also thought it wouldn’t be fair for me to jump to conclusions and tattle about something that could be perfectly innocent. You hadn’t been seeing him very long then. He could have been breaking up with her.”
    â€œDid she look as if she could clobber me with a shovel?” I muttered, but I didn’t repeat the question when Joella said, “What?”
    Back at the house, she told me to come over about six for dinner. “We won’t celebrate, considering the circumstances. But a birthday is a birthday. Neil gave me a recipe for a special frosting with pecans and coconut, and the cake’s all ready.”
    I called Sarah before I went over to Joella’s, and she was appropriately horrified by my news.
    â€œMom, I think you should get out of there now . Who knows what kind of psycho nut is running around and might come after you again? Come down here. Just get on a plane and come.”
    â€œI’m not sure I can leave.”
    â€œIf they need you as a witness,