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Twice she’d tried to set him up on dates with former classmates. The first had never returned her calls, and the other had died on her front porch last month. Perhaps Jane should start a new search? But dang it. Curiosity had never been her friend. What was Beau hiding? And did he not understand she could only handle one mystery at a time?
She opened her mouth to ask a follow up question, but he swiveled in his chair and focused on Fiona. “Weren’t you going to tell us what led to your discovery of the body?”
Jane took the bait, flowing with the change of subject. “And in the Valley of Dolls, no less.” Not the location of the fake murder. No, oh, no. That would be too easy. There were no cameras in the Valley. Not that she intended to remind her friends of the lack, considering she insisted on leaving the area as is.
Due to a shortage of funds, she’d refused Beau’s offer to add equipment out there, assuming a single plot of land could never become the stage for two different crimes. Had she shown the slightest interest in agreement, he would’ve spent his own money to do it. Again! That, she couldn’t allow. Or so she’d thought. Her inability to receive a gift from a dear friend had just come with a hefty price tag.
“You weren’t checking in, Beau, and the clock was ticking.” Fiona finished off a waffle and poured batter for the next. “I figured I should search for you before anyone guessed the location of your murder. I hadn’t realized how far I’d walked until I heard a man cursing. I creeped closer, thinking a guest had snuck over to dig up a grave, on the hunt for genuine gold. I’m sure everyone remembers when we dealt withthat.”
“I certainly do,” Jane exploded with a nod. Her exuberance startled Rolex. The world’s most flawless feline hopped from her lap to the table and curled up in his favorite spot—the centerpiece bowl. He closed his eyes, instantly asleep and so cute he should be a catalog model. “But no gravedigger is a match for Team Truth. We stop bad guys but good!”
Fiona nodded, flipping the waffle iron. “So true. Well. By the time I reached Tony, he was already dead and whoever killed him was gone. I’m guessing the culprit had only just run off. I’m pretty sure I heard a patter of footsteps.”
“Beau told me Tony was beaten, too.” Hmm. Tony had an ex-wife. Emma Miller, a local nurse Jane had accused of murder. Someone who had a fiery temperandaccess to drugs. Though Emma hadn’t committed the first or second homicide, she definitely probably could have committed this one.
And a woman scorned certainly fit the narrative. According to Conrad, murders usually occurred for one of two reasons: love or money. The couple had only recently split up due to Emma’s affair with a philandering doctor, the first victim. Maybe the exes had fought over bills, property, or even custody of their dog, Cheddar.
For the record, murder could be an option if anyone attempted to steal Rolex from Jane.
“Am I going to jail, Beau?” Fiona asked without facing him, the slightest quiver in her voice.
Jane clutched her stomach to ward off a sudden ache. How she hated seeing her friend in such a worried state.
“I promise you, you are not,” he said. “I looked into Tony after Jane hired him. He wasn’t a well liked guy. We might be suspects now, but there will be many others, I assure you.”
“How about this?” She purposely added a note of brightness to her tone. “As Fiona finishes preparing tonight’s nibbles, we’ll compare everything we saw Tony do, everyone we noticed speaking with him, and every location we know he visited. If we aren’t too tired, we can watch the security feed afterward. We might notice something the three hotties miss.”
Beau snorted. “Three hotties? Please never call them that again.”
“You’re right,” she said with a nod. “A better description is triple stack snack cake.”
He leaned closer to tweak her nose. “You do know that you are ridiculous, yes?”
“I do.” Conrad told her often. She batted her lashes at her friend. “But I’m always lovable.”
“You two stop being so cute with each other and grab some plates.” Fiona shredded a block of cheese. “I’m ready to get to comparing.”
“This is going to be another all-nighter, isn’t it?” Beau checked his phone, pursed his lips, then stood and strode to the proper cabinet.
Jane’s brain immediately started rolling, of course. “Do you have a midnight appointment?” She propped her elbows on the counter. “Please, share with the rest of the class.”
“How has Conrad not tanned your hide yet?” He handed her a plate before opening the correct drawer to fish out forks. “I’m staying, okay? I’m helping. We’ll figure this out.”
Yes, they would. Allowing her friends—her family!—to be blamed for a murder they didn’t commit wasn’t happening. Not on Jane’s watch. She wasn’t even sure she’d let them be blamed for a murder theydidcommit.
“All right. Here’s my accounting,” Fiona said, battering a chip in different bowls before dropping it into boiling oil. “Before I headed to the Valley of the Dolls, I spotted Tony guzzling alcohol from a flask.”
“I saw him drinking too!” Jane exclaimed.
Fiona nodded. “He stood in a corner, in the shadows of the biggest balloon arch, glaring at someone or something.”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“About ten minutes after the crowd flooded the cemetery,” Beau piped up, “I saw him with Devin Hagger. The two were whispering, and the posture of both suggested those whispers weren’t friendly.”
“Hagger is my attorney,” the older woman said, chewing on her bottom lip. “He and Tony were partners. Raymond thought that might work in my favor, but now I’m wondering…”
First, it was good to know Beau had been on cemetery grounds while in the midst of his mysterious disappearance. Second, who or what had Tony glared at? Maybe later Jane would make a diorama of the tent to figure out his sightline–and the most likely candidate. Third, she wondered about Hagger too. Had the partners disliked each other?
