Death of the Office Witch by Marlys Millhiser Read Free Book Online

misbegotten Polo Lounge lunch had seemed trivial after viewing a dead Gloria.)
    She couldn’t imagine what Dr. Podhurst could have against Gloria, or his receptionist, Linda Meyer. Linda had often had lunch with Gloria, though.
    The Congdon and Morse staff had very little contact with the legal beagles and their support staff across the public hall. They had their own private VIP entrance.
    Charlie probably had the weakest alibi, on the face of it. She couldn’t prove she’d been in her car on the road on the way at that time. Unless the valet staff had noticed her come in. And that would be iffy. They saw little else but cars coming in and going out all day. Larry at least would have been seen by whoever sold him the Ding Dongs.
    It had to have been someone from outside. Charlie relaxed. She liked some of these people better than others, but she still didn’t like the thought that the agency could harbor a murderer. Was it the murderer who kept whispering to Charlie? Who else would know where Gloria died?
    Her colleagues were looking to Richard Morse to answer the lieutenant’s question. Richard was looking at the ceiling, choosing some thoughts. The homicide detective was looking at Charlie.
    â€œIt’s not that no one laments Gloria’s death,” Charlie offered. “It’s just that murder is hard to take in right away. I don’t think we’ve quite digested it yet. And joking and fooling around is one way to avoid coming to terms with it.” She couldn’t believe Dalrymple hadn’t seen enough of this behavior to know that.
    â€œShe’s right,” Maurice agreed. “And Richard, I think you should consider getting a counselor or two in here. When this really hits all of us it could be pretty bad.”
    â€œI expect the health insurance would cover it,” Luella said, as if she’d be the first to sign up for counseling. “Wish Irma were back. She’d know.”
    â€œIrma is back,” Tracy spoke for the first time. She was getting used to contact lenses and looked about to cry—her face screwed up, her eyes blinking like strobe lights. “I came in early yesterday morning,” she blinked pointedly at Luella and Dorian, “to get some extra work done. She was at her desk. I don’t know when she left. And you were in your office, Richard, talking to somebody. Gloria came in while I was making coffee. And then Larry.”
    â€œPeople pick up pet names in offices, Lieutenant. Bet they do in yours, too.” Richard had finally selected a thought and ignored the implications of Irma being back in town after all. “Gloria was called Gloria the Witch because she had those god-awful fingernails and a tongue to match—and because she was actually a witch.”
    â€œShe practiced witchcraft?” Dalrymple glanced at Charlie yet again.
    â€œShe practiced everything. She was certifiable. But a receptionist’s job is not going to attract a Ph.D. in physics, you know what I mean?”
    â€œShe was insane?”
    â€œShe was insane.” Richard’s head bobbed in time with his knee and with Tracy’s blinking. “Let me assure you that insanity is not a unique trait in this town.”
    â€œOh Richard,” Luella scolded, “she was not insane. She was odd, that’s all. She was into the occult and astrology—things like that, Lieutenant, and tarot and, yes, witchcraft. But I don’t think Gloria was focused enough to actually be said to practice anything.”
    Charlie wondered who her boss had been talking to in his office and why he’d come in before Gloria, who usually opened up. And why Irma was back from her yearly pilgrimage to Las Vegas, but not back at her desk. Every year for three weeks Irma Vance, Richard’s executive secretary, changed personalities and lived it up in Vegas. And every year some crisis came up while she wasn’t running the office. But it had