“Hey, don’t knock the shirtless dudes.”
I laughed. “Barbie stands to get a large life insurance payout and seems obsessed with owning the cupcake shop downtown.”
“True.”
“Two. There’s Diego Viernes, the animal rights guy. He was angry at Gene for destroying his video footage and for being an overall abusive jerk.”
“We should check out his alibi with the grilled cheese restaurant.”
I pointed at Jack. “We should. Hey, do you think Diego stole the footage from the producer?”
“Possibly. Although it would be pretty bold of him to kill Geneandsteal the footage.”
We mulled that in silence for a few seconds. “OK, we also know the bartender, Farah, hated him. But would she kill him?”
“Doubtful, so she’s a weak suspect. We should take another run at her, though.”
“There’s also the most obvious suspects,” I said, lowering my voice in case my sister was lurking.
“Tyler Carr and bald Bruce Doyle?”
I nodded. “I don’t understand why Tyler would want Gene dead. Sure, they went hunting together, but that’s meaningless. Lots of people go hunting together here.”
“We know something happened during the election that Tyler won. That a candidate with the same name as the incumbent ran but had zero presence in any debate, forum, or newspaper article. But we have nothing linking Gene to this except that Hollywood producer’s spotty memory of what was on the footage, which is mysteriously gone.”
I snapped my fingers. “We need to try to talk to that other David Smith. The ghost candidate. See if he can tell us anything about Gene. Can you use your magical research powers to find out where he lives?”
“Of course. When do you want to take a run at him?”
“Tomorrow? I have to run a bunch of errands. The biggie is going to the motor vehicle department to get a new Florida license.” I made a face, sticking out my tongue. “Vera knows that could take all day, so we can head out when I’m finished.”
“Good deal. I’ll find David H. Smith’s address in the meantime. Text me when you’re ready, I’ll be here writing.” Jack stood, as did I.
“Thanks again. You’ve really been helpful. I couldn’t have done this without you.”
There was a long, intense pause while Jack and I stared at each other. The wild part of me wanted to kiss him. The rational part screamed “he’s rebounding!”
The wild part won out.
I scooted close to him. He inched nearer to me.
He closed his eyes. I closed mine.
We continued our slow, lusty path toward a kiss. I could smell his spicy, fresh-scented soap. I’d never been so eager to do this in my life. This was it, the night we’d hook up.
Yessss!
But our journey ended seconds later, not with our mouths fusing, but with our noses and faces colliding.
My eyes flew open, mortified. “Uh...”
His eyes did, too. “Hunh?”
We were close enough to feel each other’s breath. Instead of kissing, we both laughed softly from our awkward attempts at making out.
“Sorry,” I said.
“For what?” he murmured.
