Paint the Town Red (Fox & Oakby Murder Mysteries Book II)

The Seduction of the Archeologist

If not for her silly injury, Petra would be pacing the lounge of her cottage. Instead, all she could do was to sit on her sofa, shifting her gaze from her mobile onto her door, and back, as if watching a Wimbledon match between a very short person and an average height person. At the end it almost gave her vertigo, and she closed her eyes and tried to breathe mindfully. Mindfulness never came easy to Petra, since her own mind seemed to operate in the traditions of Peter J. Carroll and Ray Sherwin.

The knock to her door made her jump up and immediately hiss from the pain that shot through her extremity.

"Come in!" she hollered.

The door opened, and she exhaled in relief: the Titan, who followed that decaf police officer Ms. Fox had as an admirer, seemed unscathed.

"Where's Imogen?" Petra exclaimed, pressing her hand into the armrest trying to rise.

"Please, sit down, darling," the Titan rumbled. "She's safe and well, and probably in the middle of explaining her behaviour to my son."

"I think you have quite a distorted picture of modern romantic relationships," Petra mumbled, trying - and failing - to ignore the 'darling.'

For some inconceivable reason, what struck her most attractive about him at the moment was his dishevelled hair. It perhaps had something to do with the fact that the Titan was ever only disheveled when he was being... active in bed. The man hadn't been accepted back! she told herself. Yet, the soppy part of her mind added. Petra reminded all parts of her mind to be strong - and resist. It was proving quite impossible: he was giving her that warm smile of his, and, good Lord, the man was wearing a dinner jacket! She'd been so worried for Imogen that she'd hardly noticed his outfit when he'd sauntered into her lounge with the Homer and the fake expression of repentance on his face.

"Dr. Nenadovich, Mr. Oakby agreed to give me his statement regarding the events of tonight only in your presence," the policeman said sourly, and Petra threw the Titan a sardonic look.

The corners of his lips curled up, and Petra understood it was going to be quite a statement.

***

"And after you saw Ms. Winters with the gun?" Sergeant Stuffy asked.

"I... disarmed her," the Titan answered and nonchalantly brushed off a non-existent piece of lint off his black-trousered knee.

Petra had given up on her attempts to keep her jaw from dropping about ten minutes ago - after the man had announced that he had climbed the fence of Miss Rosa's Tearooms!

"How?" the policeman asked, in an even less enthused tone.

He clearly understood he was simply being a prop in the play Petra tentatively titled in her mind the Seduction of the Archeologist. Petra felt flattered.

"According to Ms. Fox, the object I've used is called a curtain pull rod."

"What's that?" Petra asked greedily.

"It's that long stick they use to open and close curtains, you know, with a hook on—" Sergeant Platitudinous stopped mid-explanation after the Titan's glacial eyes shifted onto him.

The policeman pretended to go back to industriously taking notes. Petra once again felt the Titan's gaze on her cheek, but she remained strong - as if! - and kept an haughty expression on her face.

"And then the other student, the male one came in," the Titan continued his account, in the same bored tone. "It turned out he had a weapon as well, while the girl's gun wasn't loaded, so I had to surrender. And they made me sit down and tied both myself and Ms. Fox to the chairs."