Chapter 28: Touchy, touchy

It isn’t the most fantastic piece of clothing I could wear, but judging from the other coffee stains on my colleagues’ shirts the coffee machines are staging a rebellion against mankind, so I feel find walking into Illy’s cubicle with a suspiciously brown patch on my last clean white shirt.

She is shouting a few words as I walk in and I cringe. Mother always said I was a good little church boy and I still am. I can’t swear and I can’t stand swearing, except when it’s the creator of the profane himself, my boss.

“Are you in a bad mood?” I ask tentatively. From the black face and the grumpy ‘what is it?’ I couldn’t have guessed.

She glares at me.

“Feeling touchy today, I see,” I call after her, my brain working overtime – which is normal time for most others. If she is the murderer, could Denvers have told her? Is that why she’s so grumpy, because everyone knows now?

I go back to the coffee machine and get another cup of coffee. But like I said, the coffee machines are rebelling, and I get squirted in the face with coffee instead.

Wiping everything off as best as I can without touching my nose, I follow Illy to the meeting room with my half empty cup.

“The strand of hair has been stolen,” Chief says, glowering. “No prizes for guessing who was on guard that night.”

Every face in the room turns to look at me, even the cleaner who isn’t supposed to be in here in the first place. Because I can’t intimidate anybody, I look at the cleaner. I can’t do it with him either so I suddenly find the floor very interesting.

“I give you forty eight hours.” I look up to see the boss, his rainbow colors on again. “Find the murderer, or you’re fired.”