One of the medics looked at Emmett. "Where's the dead guy?"

"Down that hallway," Emmett said.

The two medics and the officer headed for the study.

Lydia did not like the dark cloud she sensed gathering over her head. "What are you doing here, Detective?" she asked warily. "This isn't a homicide."

Alice did not take her attention off Emmett. "Actually, I was looking for you, Mr. London. I called Miss Smith's office to see if she knew where you were and was told that both of you were probably at this address. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Miss Smith had just phoned in a report about a dead man."

"Detective," Emmett inclined his head politely.

Lydia got the impression he was not surprised to see Alice Martinez. The cloud overhead got darker and more ominous. There would be rain any minute.

"Why do you want to talk to Emmett?" she asked sharply.

"I need to ask him a few questions," Alice said. "Just a formality."

"What?" Lydia was outraged. "You can't be serious. Surely you don't think that Emmett had anything to do with Professor Maltby's death? I'm the one who found the body. Emmett is not involved in this. He just happened to be here when you arrived."

Alice and Emmett both looked at her. Lydia got a nasty feeling that she had overreacted. Not the smart thing to do around a cop, she told herself.

"I hadn't planned to talk to Mr. London about Maltby's death," Alice said calmly. "Although, I may have to revisit that decision. But we'll let that go for now. The reason I tracked him down this morning was to ask him some questions concerning another problem that I'm handling at the moment."

"Problem?" Lydia glanced from Alice's face to Emmett's and then back again. A fresh wave of dread ruffled her nerve endings. "What problem? What is going on here?"

"Someone tried to kill Mercer Wyatt early this morning," Emmett said quietly.