Size 14 Is Not Fat Either (Heather Wells 2)

“I’ve suggested,” Tom says, still with that very slight smirk, “that if Dr. Kilgore’s presence is such an aggrievance to Sarah, she take the petty cash vouchers over to Budget for disbursement….”

“It’s like five degrees outside!” Sarah yells.

“I’ll go,” I volunteer sweetly.

Both Sarah and Tom stare at me incredulously.

“Seriously,” I say, setting down my coffee-cocoa and getting up to grab my coat. “I mean, it’s not like I’ll be able to get any work done, with you at my desk, Tom. And I could use some fresh air.”

“It’s like five degrees out!” Sarah shouts again.

“It’s no big deal,” I say. I wind my scarf around my neck. “I’ll be back in a jiff.”

I scoop up the petty cash vouchers sitting on Sarah’s desk, and sail from the office. Out in the lobby, Pete starts laughing when he sees me. Not because I look comical in all my outside layers, but because he’s remembering what I’d said about my dad.

Well? Why can’t he just want to rebuild his relationship with the daughter he barely knows?

Seriously, with friends like Pete, who needs enemies?

Ignoring Pete, I go outside—and almost turn back, it’s so cold. The temperature seems to have plummeted since my walk to work an hour ago. The cold sucks the breath from my chest.

But I’ve made up my mind. There’s no turning back now.

Lowering my head against the wind, I start across the park, ignoring the offers of “smoke, smoke,” from Reggie’s compatriots as I make my way toward the other side of campus—the opposite direction from the Budget Office. Which also happens to be the direction from which the wind is blowing in subarctic blasts.

Which is why, when I hear my name being called out from behind me, I don’t turn around right away. My ears are so numb beneath my knit cap, I think I must be hearing things. Then I feel a hand on my arm and whip around, expecting to see Reggie with his gold-toothed grin.

I don’t think it’s necessarily the wind that sucks away my breath when I see that it’s Cooper Cartwright.

“Oh,” I say, goggling at him. He’s as bundled up as I am. Except for the squirrels (and the drug dealers) we’re the only two living beings stupid—or desperate—enough to be in the park on this frosty morning.

“Cooper,” I say, through wind-chapped lips. “What are you doing here?”

“I stopped by to see you,” Cooper says. He’s breathing slightly heavily. Apparently he’s been running to catch up with me. Running. In this weather. In all those clothes. If it were me, I’d have collapsed into a gelatinous heap. But since it’s Cooper, he’s just breathing slightly harder than usual. “And Sarah and Tom said you were on your way to the Budget Office.” He jerks a gloved thumb over his shoulder. “But isn’t the Budget Office that way?”

“Oh,” I say, thinking fast. “Yeah. It is. But, uh, I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone and just stop by to see this one guy about this thing. Was there something important you needed to see me about?” Please, I’m praying. Please don’t let him have spoken to my dad before I’ve gotten a chance to speak to him about my dad….

“Yeah,” Cooper says. He hasn’t shaved again this morning. His dark razor stubble looks delectably prickly. “My brother. And why he might have left a message asking to speak to me about you. Any idea what that might be about?”

“Oh,” I say, feeling slightly sick with relief. Although possibly that’s from all the whipped cream. “Yeah. He wants me to come to his wedding. You know, to show there’s no hard feelings—”

“In front of the photographers from People,” Cooper finishes for me. “I got it. I should have known it wasn’t anything important. So.” His icy blue gaze focuses on me like a laser. “You’re stopping by to see this one guy about what thing?”

Damn! How does he always know? Always?

“Well,” I say slowly. “See, it turns out Lindsay was seeing a new guy before she died. A Winer.”

“A what?”

“You know.” I spell it. “As in Winer Construction.”

His dark-lashed eyelids narrow. “Heather. Why does this sound to me like you’re investigating that dead girl’s murder?”

“Because I am,” I say, then hold up both gloved hands in protest when he inhales to begin his tirade. “Cooper, think about it! Winer Construction? The Winer Sports Complex? They’re bound to have skeleton keys to locks all over the city. Doug could totally have had access to the caf—”

“Did anyone sign him in that night?” Cooper demands.

Damn. He knows the workings of Fischer Hall almost as well as I do.

“Well, no,” I say. “But there’s a thousand ways he could have snuck in. Chinese food deliverymen do it all the time, to slip menus under the kids’ doors—”

“No.” That’s all Cooper says. He accompanies the word with a single head shake.

“Cooper, listen to me,” I say, even though I know it’s pointless. “Detective Canavan isn’t asking any of the right questions. He doesn’t know how to get information out of these kids. I do. I swear that’s all I’m doing. Gathering information. Which I will fully turn over to him.”

“Do you honestly believe I’m that gullible, Heather?” Cooper demands.

He is glaring down at me. The wind is biting into my face and making my eyes sting, but it doesn’t appear to be bothering him at all. Possibly because he’s got all that razor stubble to protect him.

“You know, it’s very stressful to work in a place people are calling Death Dorm,” I say. “Tom only just started working there, and he already wants to quit. Sarah’s being impossible. I’m just trying to make Fischer Hall a fun place to work again. I’m just trying to do my job.”

“Counseling some kid because she put Nair in her roommate’s shampoo bottle,” Cooper says, mentioning an all-too-frequent form of roommate torture around New York College, “and finding the person responsible for boiling a cheerleader’s head on a cooking range are two entirely different things. One of them is your job. One is not.”

“I just want to talk to the Winer kid,” I say. “What harm can TALKING do?”