Footsteps in the Dark
By Josh Lanyon, L.B. Gregg, Nicole Kimberling and
4/5
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About this ebook
he snick of a lock. The squeak of door hinges. The creak of a floorboard.
Are those approaching steps that of a lover or an enemy?
Entrée to Murder. After a steady diet of big city trouble, Chef Drew Allison moved to the island town of Orca’s Slough to get a taste of life in the slow lane. But hometown hospitality goes stale when he finds a dead body in the basement of his own Eelgrass Café.
Lights, Camera, Murder. When PI Rory Byrne goes undercover on the set of a historical drama to find a stolen script, the last thing he anticipates is falling for handsome, talented, and out-and-proud lead actor Marion Roosevelt—or to find himself in the middle of a murder investigation.
Twelve Seconds. A mysterious phone call, a missing executive, and an exploding rocket throw space reporter Justin Harris and Air Force Special Agent Greg Marcotte into an investigation that will change their lives...if it doesn’t kill them first.
Blind Man’s Buff. A game of Capture the Flag turns deadly inside an abandoned shopping mall when Tommy and Jonah stumble into a homicidal maniac’s hunting grounds.
A Country for Old Men. Inspector Calum Macleod has returned to the Western Isles of Scotland to bury a part of himself he can’t accept. But the island has old secrets of its own. When a murderer strikes, Calum finds his past can’t be so easily escaped.
Reality Bites. Detective Cabot Decker is called to the set of hot-shot TV producer Jax Thornburn’s reality-TV show after a contestant is mauled to death by a tiger. Is someone trying to ax Jax’s career—or Jax himself?
Pepper the Crime Lab. When Lonnie Boudreaux’s neighbor is murdered, he must foster the man’s dog, befriend a mysterious former cop, and stop the killer—or else!
Stranger in the House. Miles Tuesday’s memories of Montreal are happy ones, but now that he has inherited the house at 9 Braeside, everything feels different. Was Madame Martel’s fatal fall really an accident?
Authors L.B. Gregg, Nicole Kimberling, Josh Lanyon, Dal Maclean, Z.A. Maxfield, Meg Perry, C.S. Poe, and S.C. Wynne join forces for Footsteps in the Dark, eight sexy and suspenseful novellas of Male/Male Mystery and Romance.
Josh Lanyon
Author of 100+ titles of Gay Mystery and M/M Romance, Josh Lanyon has built a literary legacy on twisty mystery, kickass adventure, and unapologetic man-on-man romance. Her work has been translated into twelve languages. She is an EPIC Award winner, a four-time Lambda Literary Award finalist (twice for Gay Mystery), an Edgar nominee, and the first ever recipient of the Goodreads All Time Favorite M/M Author award.
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Footsteps in the Dark - Josh Lanyon
About Footsteps in the Dark
The snick of a lock. The squeak of door hinges. The creak of a floorboard.
Are those approaching steps that of a lover or an enemy?
Entrée to Murder. After a steady diet of big city trouble, Chef Drew Allison moved to the island town of Orca’s Slough to get a taste of life in the slow lane. But hometown hospitality goes stale when he finds a dead body in the basement of his own Eelgrass Café.
Twelve Seconds. A mysterious phone call, a missing executive, and an exploding rocket throw space reporter Justin Harris and Air Force Special Agent Greg Marcotte into an investigation that will change their lives…if it doesn’t kill them first.
Reality Bites. Detective Cabot Decker is called to the set of hotshot TV producer Jax Thornburn’s reality-TV show after a contestant is mauled to death by a tiger. Is someone trying to ax Jax’s career—or Jax himself?
Blind Man’s Buff. A game of Capture the Flag turns deadly inside an abandoned shopping mall when Tommy and Jonah stumble into a homicidal maniac’s hunting grounds.
A Country for Old Men. Inspector Calum Macleod has returned to the Western Isles of Scotland to bury a part of himself he can’t accept. But the island has old secrets of its own. When a murderer strikes, Calum finds his past can’t be so easily escaped.
Pepper the Crime Lab. When Lonnie Boudreaux’s neighbor is murdered, he must foster the man’s dog, befriend a mysterious former cop, and stop the killer—or else!
Lights, Camera, Murder. When a hotshot television producer hires him to recover a stolen script, NY PI Rory Byrne must go undercover on the set of the ground-breaking historical drama The Bowery—a job complicated by Rory’s unexpected attraction to handsome, talented, and out-and-proud actor Marion Roosevelt.
Stranger in the House. Miles Tuesday’s memories of Montreal are happy ones, but now that he has inherited the mansion at 13 Place Braeside, everything feels different. Was Madame Martel’s fatal fall really an accident? And who is stealing her treasures?
One thing has not changed: Miles still wants handsome and sophisticated art dealer Linley Palmer to have a place in his life.
Authors L.B. Gregg, Nicole Kimberling, Josh Lanyon, Dal Maclean, Z.A. Maxfield, Meg Perry, C.S. Poe, and S.C. Wynne join forces for Footsteps in the Dark, eight sexy and suspenseful novellas of Male/Male Mystery and Romance
.
FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK
An M/M Mystery Romance Anthology
Introduction
Motive.
For me, the most interesting aspect of any mystery or crime story is the Why? What makes people do the things they do? Why are some people driven to commit crimes? Why are some people committed to solving them?
And why do we fall in love with the people we do?
It’s the need to explore that element of unpredictability in human interaction that compels me to write—and guides my reading choices. My favorite M/M stories are those that blend mystery and romance in equal measures, and when I turn that last page I want to be convinced that our sleuth has the right man in handcuffs. On or off the job.
The eight stories in this anthology deliver on the promise to explore that why and wherefore with plenty of spine-tingling mystery and suspense as well as healthy dollops of sweet and spicy romance. But what I love even more about Footsteps in the Dark is the variety and unity of this collection.
Here you’ll find private eyes, police detectives, and unlucky bystanders rubbing shoulders (and other body parts) with artists, actors, chefs, journalists, and other unlucky bystanders. You’ll discover crimes of cold-blooded calculation and crimes of pure and unadulterated crazy. Three stories—Nicole Kimberling’s clever culinary cozy Entrée to Murder,
S.C. Wynne’s smart and sassy take on Hollywood vs. Real Life in Reality Bites,
and Meg Perry’s adroit and original police procedural Twelve Seconds
—kick off brand new series.
The authors gathered between these pages offer a variety of scenes and settings. Dal Maclean’s haunting A Country for Old Men
is set in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Montreal, Canada is the backdrop for my mysterious morsel Stranger in the House.
L.B. Gregg’s heart-stopping Blind Man’s Buff
takes place in an abandoned mall in Anywhere USA.
We have old love and we have new. An ailing chef gets a second chance at love in Z.A. Maxfield’s Pepper the Crime Lab,
and it’s very nearly love at first sight for an idiosyncratic private detective in Lights. Camera. Murder.
by C.S. Poe.
In short, whatever your motive in picking up this anthology, I feel sure you’ll find something here to amuse, entertain, and maybe even enlighten.
—Josh Lanyon
Entrée to Murder by Nicole Kimberling
After a steady diet of big city trouble, Chef Drew Allison moved to the island town of Orca’s Slough to get a taste of life in the slow lane. But hometown hospitality goes stale when he finds a dead body in the basement of his own Eelgrass Café.
Chapter One
When I saw the crumpled tower of waxed corrugated boxes filled with sweating tomatoes and limp romaine slumped on the back stair at eleven a.m., I knew it would be another rough lunch service at the Eelgrass Bistro.
Doubtless, if I were to go around to the front of the building, I would find Evelyn, my favorite octogenarian, peering through the window, wondering what fate had befallen my business partner, Samantha, that would cause her to fail to open our restaurant.
That’s the problem with being unreliable around older people—they’re at a time in life when any failure to appear means the absentee is most likely deceased. Or if not actually dead, the no-show could be lying somewhere injured and alone.
I needed to get in there to make sure Evelyn didn’t do anything rash. Already once this month she’d dialed 911 after she’d spied Sam slumped over in the kitchen. In reality, Sam had just spent the night partying and then fallen asleep on a sack of potatoes in the back.
I sidled past the abandoned produce order to let myself in the back door of the Eelgrass Bistro, only to find it had been unlocked all night. Again.
Perfect.
With the lights off, the restaurant became a long tunnel leading from the service entry where I stood to the ornate doors and large windows up front.
Our restaurant sat mid-block in a row of Victorian brick buildings in the historic heart of downtown Orca’s Slough, a six-block town on Camas Island in the middle of Puget Sound. The building’s sandstone facade formed an almost perfect square: twenty feet high and twenty feet wide and stretched back nearly one hundred feet from sidewalk to alley—though the turn-of-the-century basement stretched much farther underground.
I squinted through the gloom of the kitchen and dining room to see Evelyn pressing her cupped hands against the plate-glass window to peer inside. Despite being in her mid-eighties, her loose-fitting jeans and sweatshirt lent her the look of a spindly kid. Her shock of short gray hair bristled atop her head like a raccoon skin cap. I hurried through the kitchen, flipped on the lights, and waved at her. I made it a big, theatrical, flagging-down-a-passing-ship motion so that she could see me through the haze of the cataracts she regularly claimed kept her from reading various CLOSED signs and KEEP OUT postings around town.
She waved back and went to stand in front of the door, waiting, like a cranky old cat, to be let inside and fed.
As I sidestepped the concrete stairs leading into the basement, my eyes adjusted to the gloom.
The Eelgrass was a wreck. Floors unswept, the steel prep tables in the kitchen strewn with debris. Dank, fetid water stood in the three-compartment sink. Empty, unwashed beer glasses on every surface. Party detritus.
I wondered if Sam had left any money in the till or if that too had fallen victim to poor impulse control.
I took a breath.
Getting angry would do me no good. First, there was no one here to be angry with, and second, mentally raging at Sam would only force a confrontation that would end in tears. Her remorseful tears. And I had no defense against that kind of emotional blackmail.
I could do nothing but give myself up to the ridiculousness of this day and try to enjoy it like some kind of tragicomedy I was watching from afar.
How much longer could my pride take it? I didn’t know. For as long as I could turn my anger at her inward to fester as shame for consenting to enter this business venture at all? Six months, perhaps? Assuming I had enough nostalgia to sustain me.
Sam and I hadn’t always been this way. Years ago I had adored her freewheeling spirit and sincerity. Back then, I and my then-boyfriend had hung out with her and her then-husband. Together we’d manned a high-end hipster restaurant in Seattle and spent three boozy years feeling impressed with ourselves and the newness of being adults.
But that had been before her husband started having his ongoing series of affairs and all of Sam’s enthusiasm had devolved into personal makeovers and increasingly potent bouts of self-medication. My own private life had mirrored Sam’s, with my boyfriend declaring that he needed the support of a less opinionated lover to truly feel appreciated. By that time, the restaurant started losing money, and my paychecks began to bounce like pinballs ricocheting off every possible overdraft fee imaginable.
So when Sam announced that she’d inherited a restaurant space from a distant cousin, I agreed to pull up stakes, empty what was left of my bank account, and venture into a partnership with her far from Seattle.
Well, not that far. Twenty-five miles and a ferry ride. But still: I’d left town. That was the important thing.
We’d been determined to put the bad times behind us.
Now the dining room at the Eelgrass looked like old times: the tables and chairs stood huddled together in one corner as though ordered to stand aside to make floor space for an impromptu after-hours dance party, which is most likely exactly what had happened.
Probably half the people in the local restaurant industry had been here getting loaded last night.
I walked behind the bar, hoping to find nothing alarming, and stopped dead in my tracks.
Lying prone and snoring on the floor was the seventeen-year-old dishwasher, Lionel.
He was half-Black and half-Korean and had yet to decide if he wanted to talk like a cartoon character or a member of N.W.A. Most of the time he just sounded like a dork. But he was a smart dork and a quick learner.
I nudged Lionel with my toe. Time to wake up, kid.
Lionel lifted his face to squint at me. His cheek was marked with a hexagonal impression from the rubber fatigue mat he’d spent the night on. He had a slim build—more or less a replica of his Asian mother’s. His skin was the color of dark mahogany. The combination ensured that no member of either race ever immediately recognized him as one of their own, which had caused Lionel to develop the bad habit of making gratuitously racist comments that, when challenged, allowed him to clarify his identity.
Quit kicking me, chief,
he mumbled.
Quit sleeping on the job, and I will,
I said. Now get up and open the door. Evelyn wants her breakfast.
Why can’t you let her in?
"’Cause I told you to. Why the hell are you sleeping here anyway?"
Sam said I could sleep here since I had to open in four hours.
He pushed himself up to all fours, then rose, hunched and wobbly as if this was his first-ever attempt at walking on two feet.
You all were here till six a.m.?
Lionel nodded.
If you’re going to puke, do it in the trash can. Not the sink,
I advised.
Jeez, chief, I’m sick—not an idiot.
It’s weird how if someone calls you something enough, you can start acting like it’s true. I suppose that’s the magic of terms like champ or Dad. Once Lionel started calling me chief, I started feeling invested in his professional development. I began teaching him what I knew about being a cook. It also triggered in me a steady trickle of unsolicited guidance that made me sound and feel way older than thirty-one.
You want to play with the grown-ups, you’ve got to get up and work like one,
I said. Then, glancing at his hangdog expression, I added, If you make yourself useful to me, I’ll fix you an omelette.
Okay.
Lionel dragged himself to the front door, flipped the lock, and turned the sign to OPEN. Evelyn walked in immediately, heading toward her usual seat at the end of the bar.
I managed to find a towel and wipe down her place before she got onto the sleek steel barstool. She took her Wall Street Journal out of a plastic grocery bag and laid it out next to her place.
I’m sorry to be opening late,
I said. Sam had an emergency.
What was Lionel doing on the floor back there?
Evelyn asked.
He was looking for something,
I ad-libbed.
He looks like he’s drunk.
I wouldn’t know anything about that.
I met her watery blue eyes. I knew she didn’t believe me, but I wasn’t prepared to admit to knowledge of any of the county statutes concerning alcohol that had been broken the previous night. Anyway, coffee isn’t brewing yet, but can I get you an espresso?
Evelyn wrinkled her nose. I don’t need anything fancy.
It’ll take twenty minutes for the coffee pour-over to heat up.
I can wait.
Evelyn unfurled her paper and put on her reading glasses.
The espresso would be on the house,
I said.
I said,
—she paused meaningfully and skewered me with a look—that I can wait.
Behind her, I saw Lionel roll his eyes as he arranged the tables and chairs into their usual order.
So what would you like for breakfast today?
I asked Evelyn. One egg and one piece of toast?
The Eelgrass didn’t serve breakfast, but that didn’t stop Evelyn from ordering it anyway.
One piece of bacon today too. Crispy.
She spoke without glancing up.
Splurging on the cholesterol count, huh? Is it your birthday?
People my age don’t celebrate birthdays anymore,
Evelyn informed me. I just feel like eating bacon.
Can I tempt you into a slice of tomato? I can brûlée some sugar onto it.
As far as I knew, Evelyn rarely ate any sort of vegetable except asparagus.
I suppose.
I saw a hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth. So long as you don’t charge me an arm and a leg for it.
Behind me, the coffeepot began to gurgle. I found some clean flatware for Evelyn and was just setting it down when I heard a colossal bang from the basement.
What the hell—
Sounds like a pressure cooker exploding.
Evelyn had worked in the restaurant industry for nearly fifty years and had apparently endured every possible form of catastrophe. That happened once at a place I worked in New Orleans. Blew a hole right through the roof.
I better check it out.
I headed into the kitchen. To my surprise, Lionel followed me and cut me off right as I reached the concrete steps leading into the musty underground.
I can go down there for you.
His eyes darted from side to side, showing incipient panic. Probably some junk way in the back just fell over.
It wasn’t impossible that a cache of abandoned rubbish had collapsed somewhere in the basement. The space was cavernous and poorly lit. Dug in the mid-eighteen hundreds, it had once been a part of a much larger network that catacombed the entire downtown. Supposedly, gold miners and bootleggers had left a variety of mementos behind in the numerous tunnels beneath the city—though moldering rat traps and empty oilcans made up the bulk of what I’d encountered.
Why don’t you want me down here?
I took the steps down two at a time, ducking as I entered the low space. Something wasn’t right about the air. A new tang seeped into the normally musty smell.
It’s nothing really bad—
Why does it smell like putrid garlic?
I peered down into the darkness. A single bare bulb illuminated a few feet—enough for me to make out the five shelves of dry storage we used for Eelgrass. But beyond that, the light faded away. I knew from experience that after another ten feet, the poured concrete of the floor gave way to fine, silty dirt.
You know how I was talking about how I wanted to reconnect with my Korean roots?
Lionel came hot on my heels, practically running into my back.
Yes.
I vaguely recollected that Lionel’s grandmother had refused to teach him to cook because his wife would take care of that for him,
while his busy single mother possessed neither the time nor the inclination. While Lionel worked up the courage to tell me the rest of his story, I took a quick inventory of the dry goods on the shelves. Aside from a can of garbanzo beans standing among the canned tomatoes, all appeared in order.
I decided to teach myself how to make traditional pickles,
Lionel confessed. And Dorian said the basement would be the perfect place to ferment them, so long as I didn’t mess with any of the stuff he stashed down there.
The kind of stuff
our sleazy, drug-dealing bartender Dorian might be hiding in my business alarmed me far more than any pickle Lionel could concoct or even the threat of a tunnel-collapse in the basement.
Just outside the circle of light, close to the edge of the concrete, a small red light blinked. And it seemed to me that the darkness around the blinking light was denser and more solid than the deep gloom surrounding it.
And you think that noise was pickles?
I asked.
What was that blinking light anyway? I took a step closer. The pungent smell of garlic, fish, and fermentation gone foul did seem to be coming from the far wall.
I think my kimchee blew up. I’ll clean it up, I swear.
That would explain the bang and the stink. Fermentation in the wrong hands could produce all the wrong gasses and literally weaponize cabbage. That still didn’t explain the blinking light, nor the dark shape behind it.
Sam kept a flashlight down here, but the batteries had run down around New Year. I pulled out my phone and approached by the harsh blue-white light of the flashlight app.
Lionel continued, I used the space at the back of the cellar to mature my first batch. But I don’t know… Maybe it got too warm?
Possibly.
I knelt down. The blinking light turned out to be the message alert on an old slider-style cell phone. It lay in the dirt next to a hand. The hand emerged from the sleeve of a white-and-red hoodie that clothed the body of a man.
What are you looking—
Lionel stopped speaking and froze.
I’m not sure what makes it so obvious at only a glance that a person is dead. There’s the flat, unblinking eye, sure. But also the blood streaking from multiple stab wounds helps fix the idea that the man one is eyeballing has shuffled off this mortal coil.
For a second, I could not move or even breathe. Everything stopped, including my ability to feel—like someone flipped a giant toggle switch shutting down all nonessential functions.
Was this shock?
It occurred to me then that the hoodie wasn’t red and white at all—just white and stained with red—and that it belonged to my least favorite employee: Dorian Gamble.
And the knife still jutting from his back belonged to me.
Chapter Two
Orca’s Slough boasted a sheriff and two deputies, all named Mackenzie. The deputy who arrived at the Eelgrass was a fit young bison known as Big Mac. Evelyn said he’d been given the nickname because he held the record for the biggest baby ever born on the island. Even among the Mackenzie clan (widely rumored to be half Bigfoot) Big Mac’s brutal muscularity stood out. He had thighs like tree trunks (which he displayed year-round in shorts) and biceps big as grapefruits.
I worked out when I had the free time, but compared to Big Mac I felt scrawny and sallow. My blond hair probably looked stringy and unkempt; it was hard to care about manscaping while witnessing my business fall apart.
I was pleased to note that I was just slightly taller than him.
And, I suspected, a whole lot smarter. Big Mac spoke in a slow, quiet way that gave the impression he might have repeated third grade a couple of times.
He ate dinner at the Eelgrass every Wednesday, always ordering the special, no matter what. He had dark hair, heavy brows, and the kind of perma-stubble that indicated his capacity to grow a prize-winning beard if only the sheriff’s department had allowed it.
During the tourist season, he often manned the police kiosk at the ferry terminal and, as far as I could tell, spent most of his on-duty hours giving driving directions to the island’s three hot-springs resorts.
After he had a look at Dorian, he returned to the dining room and joined me at the bar. Lionel sat at a table in the corner, slumped over and mumbling into his phone, most likely to his mother, who worked as a nurse at the local medical center.
Evelyn had been exiled to the sidewalk but continued to lurk, monitoring the interactions inside with a fierce, stricken expression.
Big Mac seemed to make a point of learning the name of every single person living in Orca’s Slough, so it didn’t surprise me when he remembered mine.
So, Mr. Allison, quite the smell down there.
That’s the kimchee, I think.
At least I hoped so.
And that was what made you look in the basement?
He glanced at his notebook, probably checking to make sure I’d kept my story straight.
No, we heard a bang, which we think was the crock exploding,
I said.
Mr. Allison, can you tell me when was the last time you saw Mr. Gamble alive?
Just Drew is fine,
I said.
Okay, Drew, when did you last see Mr. Gamble?
I worked with him the day before yesterday—Wednesday. You would have seen him.
Big Mac nodded and looked slowly up from his cop notebook. What color were his eyes anyway? Blue? Green? It was hard to tell.
You know, that steamer-clam special was so good. Where did you get the idea for it?
It’s a classic dish. Moules marinière,
I spluttered.
But you made it original.
Big Mac spoke as if savoring the clams once more in his memory. Don’t suppose you can tell me how, though. Secret recipe.
Actually, legally I’m required to disclose all the ingredients in anything I serve. And I have to have all the processes vetted by the health department, so it’s only the proportions of a recipe that could ever be secret.
That I did not know,
Big Mac said.
I think the whole secret-recipe thing is an advertising ploy.
Oh, I don’t know. Evelyn out there has kept the recipes for her preserves secret since she won her first ribbon at the fair. And she’s been the Island County Pickle Queen for as long as anybody can remember.
Despite the grim circumstances, the words pickle queen brought a smirk to my face. So sue me. I’m juvenile.
Big Mac smiled back—an action that dramatically improved the quality of his face. So what’s the secret to your clams, then?
Lemongrass-infused vodka,
I said.
See, I didn’t even know that existed.
It’s house-made here by Dorian. He’s very oriented toward signature cocktails. Or he was…
Did you speak with Mr. Gamble or see him between Wednesday and now?
Big Mac asked.
The swift return to the subject of murder startled me. How easily this cop had lulled me into complacency with his soft, complimentary voice.
Dorian and I haven’t really been on speaking terms for a while.
Why is that?
Big Mac asked.
I didn’t think he was a good influence on Sam.
Really? How so?
Some lingering vestige of loyalty prevented me from mentioning that Dorian’s alternative revenue stream was generated through sales of cocaine, largely to other members of the restaurant industry, so I just said, He encouraged her to make poor financial decisions.
Such as?
Big Mac held my gaze for a long moment, and I fought not to look away before he did.
Ordering too much of expensive ingredients he wanted for his infusions. A lot ended up going bad before he got around to making anything. And half of what he did make was pretentious and terrible. Nobody is going to pay eighteen dollars to drink salmon-infused vodka. Nobody.
Big Mac nodded.
So to recap your previous statement, only Mr. Fogle was in the building when you arrived, and he was unconscious.
It took me a minute to register who he was talking about. You mean Lionel? Yes.
And can you think of any reason why Lionel—or anyone—would feel like they needed to kill Mr. Gamble?
I haven’t heard of anyone specifically out to get him. Especially not Lionel. He was always asking Dorian for advice about women.
I’ve heard that Mr. Gamble was quite the ladies’ man and that he could be insistent.
I almost asked where he’d heard that, but Evelyn had frequently made her opinion of Dorian’s womanizing known.
I’ve never known him to be the kind of person you’d have to use lethal force to escape, if that’s what you mean,
I said, offended on Dorian’s behalf. Then again, now that the kernel of doubt had been sown, I began to wonder.
It wasn’t like Dorian led a blameless life in any respect. Had he tried to force himself on some girl at the party, and she or her boyfriend had decided to take him out?
It didn’t seem his style, though. He dealt coke, and he was smarmy, but a lot of women seemed to find him attractive and charming. On a couple of occasions I’d even overheard him complain about so many female clients pulling him into their beds that he was shooting dust.
Clearly, he wasn’t hurting for action.
Do you know what Mr. Gamble was doing here last night?
I don’t know, but obviously, there was a party.
You didn’t attend?
No, I wasn’t invited.
Saying that somehow stung even after discovering a body. I was at my apartment all night.
Were you with anyone?
Big Mac had an expression on his face that told me he already had his own theory on my relationship status, probably based on my argumentative personality.
No one. I live alone.
Big Mac made a special note of this. I watched him underline the word alone.
And besides you and your business partner, who has a key to the building?
I have no idea,
I said, shrugging.
What about Lionel?
We both turned our attention to the dishwasher. Lionel looked up in wide-eyed alarm. I hoped that Big Mac hadn’t immediately decided that Lionel was guilty because he’d been passed out in the same building. Or because he was Black.
No. Lionel doesn’t have a key, and he didn’t do this.
You know that for a fact?
Listen.
I lowered my voice. Lionel’s the kind of kid who can’t bring himself to lie about setting up a secret pickle crock. And even if he did somehow get caught up in something like this, he would have called me and his mom right away to ask what to do with the body.
Only after I’d spoken did I realize I shouldn’t have even made the joke. Big Mac’s lips moved, but I cut him off. Plus Lionel didn’t have any blood on him, which…he would have.
And he didn’t have a key.
Big Mac paused to write something in his notebook. Belatedly I recalled that this had started with who had keys to the restaurant.
Sam and I.
Who did or didn’t have a key wouldn’t matter,
I said, because the back door was unlocked when I arrived this morning.
Big Mac’s smile faded, and he paused, seeming reluctant to continue before saying, What can you tell me about the knife found in Mr. Gamble’s body?
It’s mine.
There was no point in denying it. That would just make me look guilty. But I don’t know how it got downstairs. I keep it in my knife case, and I keep that locked in the office when I’m not here.
Big Mac made another note in his book, then asked, Would you mind if I had a look at your hands?
I did mind, but I silently held them out anyway, palms down. Big Mac reached out and caught hold of my fingers in a professional manner, firm yet gentle, like a doctor might. He took some time scrutinizing them, as if memorizing every scar, before turning them palm up.
What’s this here?
he pointed to a mark on my wrist.
A grease burn.
I squirmed a little, embarrassed to still be getting amateur injuries at my age.
Big Mac held my hands for about thirty seconds longer, then released me.
I think that’s all for now. Here’s my card. Text me anytime.
He stood and turned toward Lionel.
The thought of Lionel being interrogated scared me. I could easily picture him getting frustrated and saying something like, Fine, okay, I did it. Will you just shut up now?
as if he were arguing about dirty laundry with his mom. But Big Mac only said that they would wait till Lionel’s mother arrived to have their conversation.
I relaxed enough to take a paper cup of coffee out to Evelyn in lieu of breakfast.
As I stepped outside the front door, the ambulance (Orca’s Slough only had one) was just pulling up.
Evelyn stopped eyeballing the interior proceedings long enough to ask, Dorian…is he really dead?
In a town so small, all locals knew each other. And I vaguely recalled a waitress remarking that Dorian and Evelyn were related.
Yeah,
I replied, at a loss.
We stood together watching the medics. Evelyn sniffed and then took a swig of her coffee. The town’s second Deputy Mackenzie arrived: a sleepy, doughier version of Big Mac.
Clerks and patrons from the surrounding businesses gathered outside, staring at the scene. Two trim middle-aged women from the yoga studio across the street edged toward the restaurant. Then they caught sight of Troy Lindgren as he scowled from the doorway of his high-end sportswear shop.
Fit and fortyish, Troy was Sam’s only non-deceased cousin and the owner of the beautifully restored historic building that abutted Eelgrass Bistro. Local fishermen called him a rich snob, but he exemplified the conservative taste that many yacht-owning tourists appreciated. I had never seen him without cuff links and a tie.
I missed most of what passed between the three of them, except the mention of Sam’s name. Troy shook his head.
Probably just another grease fire,
he told them, then offered me a tight, forced smile before retreating into his shop.
Prick,
Evelyn muttered. She glanced to me. Where is Samantha, anyway? She wasn’t down there too?
No!
Just the suggestion rattled me. Frustrated as I was, I would never have wanted to see her like that. She’s probably just passed out somewhere. I’m going to try and find her.
Pacing the sidewalk, I tried Sam’s number and got no reply.
The slanting autumn sun shone down on the fallen maple leaves that carpeted the sidewalk. I kicked at them, stirring them up as I went. The numb fog of shock began to wear thin enough that I started to feel. Not horror over seeing Dorian dead—that remained a void in my consciousness, still too terrible to be experienced—but worry about Sam’s safety.
Her various social-media feeds showed no activity after she’d put up a bleary selfie captioned: happy after a night with good friends
at four a.m. In the photo, she wore a silver spaghetti-strap tank top and a lot of red lipstick. She’d dyed her hair again and now sported a black bob with a bright-red streak. In the background I could see Lionel and Sam’s plump, pink-haired friend Danielle trying to push their way into the frame.
So now I knew at least one other person who had been present, but a text to Danielle yielded no response either.
I sat down on the sky-blue powder-coat sidewalk bench across the street from the Eelgrass and stared hard at my phone. It had 213 contacts in it. I started going down the list, texting everyone I knew to see if anybody could tell me Sam’s location.
Sixteen people replied with more or less the same story—they had been at the party but left before it was over.
Time passed. The sheriff arrived, spoke with the doughy deputy through the window of his police car, and then drove away. More onlookers gathered to gawk at the spectacle.
Andrew, where is Samantha?
I glanced up to see Troy frowning down at me. They’re saying there’s a dead body in her basement. Dorian Gamble.
I don’t know if I can talk about it,
I replied. You’ll have to ask Big Mac.
Troy gave me a quizzical once-over.
You look terrible,
he said.
Well, I’m having kind of a challenging day, Troy.
He didn’t seem to know what to say to that and so made a little show of adjusting his jacket. At last he said, I don’t know who’s going to eat there now.
Like I didn’t have enough to worry about.
You’ll probably have to sell up,
he continued.
I felt sure Troy would have gone on to give me some lowball offer, but thankfully the doughy Deputy Mackenzie called Troy over. Muttering his disbelief that any of this terrible mess could have anything to do with him, Troy left me.
Time to get provocative.
I texted Sam: I found Dorian’s dead body in the cellar about an hour ago.
Within ten minutes the woman herself sat down on the bench next to me.
She smelled like men’s soap, wore an oversize blue hoodie that didn’t belong to her, and sported dark sunglasses despite the autumn day’s gloom. Behind her stood a burly, handsome surfer-looking guy. Maybe Sam’s pickup from the night before? He looked kind of young for her, but I had enough to worry about at this moment without also bothering to card Sam’s one-night stand.
Leaning close to me, Sam whispered, Is this for real?
Yes,
I said. For extra real.
Sam stared at me in total shock, mouth agape, color draining from her already pasty cheeks. Her lip quivered as she whispered, What happened? Did he OD?
Sam’s date shrugged like he thought the question was addressed to him.
I shook my head, and seeing tears forming in her eyes, the icy grip of shock receded. My throat tightened. Dorian hadn’t always been the best person, but we’d all worked together for nearly two years. It hadn’t all been bad times.
He was stabbed.
I could barely voice my response.
Oh Jesus.
Sam threw her arms around me in a tight hug.
Out of reflex, I returned her embrace. This attracted the attention of Evelyn, who leaned in through the door of Eelgrass and called something to Big Mac.
Sam’s date just stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking bored. Then he asked, Are you guys all right?
Look, we’re obviously not all right,
I snapped. Who are you anyway?
That’s Freddy.
Sam dragged the back of her hand across her nose.
I prefer Alfred,
the date said.
Sam rolled her eyes. He’s Danielle’s brother.
I took a moment to process this, recollecting Danielle’s jokes about her dorky kid brother and his recent high-school graduation. You hooked up with Danielle’s little brother?
Don’t judge me,
Sam mumbled.
Never mind. Listen,
I said. The cops want to speak with you.
As if on cue, Big Mac emerged from the front door of the Eelgrass Bistro and jogged across the street calling, Ms. Eider?
That’s me.
Sam pushed herself up to her feet and went to meet him.
I found myself sitting awkwardly alone with Alfred.
It’s crazy that Dorian is dead,
Alfred finally said. We were just partying together last night. I mean, we could have been still drinking when he was lying down there.
Alfred’s expression turned bleak and sick.
It occurred to me then that I didn’t have to sit waiting for the cops to tell me what happened at the party. I could ask this guy and know. Or at least know his version.
Why do you think he was down there bleeding when you were all still drinking?
I asked.
Because me and Sam were the last people to leave. I mean, except for Lionel, but he was already passed out on the floor. I asked Sam if we should move him or bring him back with us, but she seemed to think he’d be okay.
Alfred shrugged. I didn’t fight too hard because she was already touching me a lot, you know, so…
Gotcha. When was the last time you saw Dorian?
Alfred paused, head and shoulders drawn back in suspicion. Why are you asking this?
Because that’s my restaurant too, and I want to know what happened in it,
I said, flushing, unable now to keep the anger out of my voice.
Oh, right.
Alfred relaxed again and sat down next to me. Well, I’ll tell you what I can, but I was pretty drunk the whole time.
That’s okay; just do your best.
I just came into town on the eight o’clock ferry. Danielle came to pick me up, and then we went to meet Sam and Dorian at the Anchor for drinks. At first it was just the four of us. Then some other girls joined us—about six of them, I can’t remember all their names, but Dorian knew them. After that some guys from the kayak shop showed up.
Naturally.
And then there were maybe twenty of us, and the girls all decided they wanted to go dancing, except there was nowhere to dance ’cause it was Thursday.
So the Eelgrass dining room was the next logical step,
I said. How did Lionel end up with you guys?
Sam saw him walking home alone and invited him.
Alfred trailed off, staring into space.
Anyway, after you got to the Eelgrass?
Right, right. Dorian went behind the bar to line up the drinks, and a couple of the girls from the fish-and-chips place went back to the kitchen to make something to eat. The girls came back to get Sam because they couldn’t find any knives, and Sam went to the office and brought a couple out for them. Nice ones.
The surge of anger that burst red behind my eyes was only partially mitigated by the tiny pleasure of solving the mystery of how my knife got out of the office.
I must have flushed because Alfred again asked, Are you all right, man? Your neck veins just popped up.
I’m fine. I just don’t like it when other people lend out my things.
Oh, I hear that.
Alfred gave a nod. Sam loaned my lighter to Dorian, and that’s the last I saw of it. It’s a Zippo too, monogrammed. Did you see it there? When you found him?
It’s not like I went through his pockets.
Right. And there were a lot of people going in and out the back door to smoke, so I guess he could have loaned it to anybody.
Why didn’t you just smoke out front by the ashtray?
We couldn’t. That big cop was sitting in his patrol car down the way. Speaking of smoking, though
—Alfred pulled a joint out of his pocket—do you have a lighter I can borrow?
Chapter Three
Orca’s Slough’s lone diner, the Prospector, sat about four blocks from the Eelgrass physically but resided in another dimension temporally.
It wasn’t old-fashioned so much as old. The late-seventies decor did not qualify as retro, as it had genuinely been installed forty years prior. Duct-tape repairs striped the vinyl booth seats silver and blue.
It served breakfast all day and hard liquor well into the night, and it was where Big Mac went after leaving the Eelgrass.
When I walked through the door, the waitress gave me a nervous, shifty look, which told me she knew who I was and what had happened.
Excuse me, Deputy.
I rushed up behind him before he sat down at the bar. Can I speak with you?
Sure thing. But please, call me Mac.
He turned from the bar with clear reluctance and gestured to a booth. He took off his mirror shades and his hat and raked his fingers through his hair, which improved his visual aesthetic. If I could somehow have removed the cop badge from my field of vision, he might have even been attractive.
The waitress automatically brought Mac coffee with cream and gave me an even shiftier look than before. I ordered two fried eggs and a Bloody Mary.
Come here a lot?
I asked.
Closest thing to a donut shop in town.
He shrugged out of his jacket before taking a seat opposite me. Once again he’d defaulted to that deceptively quiet manner of talking. He took a drink of his coffee, stirred in a spoon of sugar, then tasted it again, all with agonizing slowness.
Don’t you want to know what I have to say?
I asked, unable to wait any longer.
Mac turned his full attention to me. A hint of a smile creased his cheek.
I’m sorry. I was just getting comfortable. I’ve been on duty since six this morning. Please go ahead and tell me whatever it is.
He retrieved his notebook from the pocket of his jacket. His pen looked small in his hand and somewhat awkward. The face of his watch also seemed like it had been owned by a smaller guy—his grandfather maybe?—and I could just see the tip of a thick scar protruding from his right shirtsleeve just above his elbow.
I related my conversation with Alfred. Mac listened, nodding occasionally and jotting down notes.
Alfred Tomkins,
Big Mac clarified.
Yeah, Danielle Tomkins’ brother.
He specifically told you that Dorian had taken his monogrammed Zippo lighter?
He didn’t go out of his way to tell me. Just mentioned it in passing.
Mac must have found the lighter. Maybe he’d hoped it would be the clue that busted the case open. When I found out he had been at the party, I asked him if he knew what had happened to Dorian.
What time did this conversation take place?
Right after I finished talking to you. Two o’clock maybe.
I’m curious why you waited until five p.m. to contact me.
What do you mean?
You had my number, you could have easily texted me right then, and I could have spoken to Alfred myself.
Mac sat back to allow the waitress to set a plate containing a pretty good-looking Rueben sandwich down in front of him. She delivered my food without making eye contact.
You seemed busy with the investigation, and I didn’t want to interrupt you. Plus I didn’t want to seem weird.
I slurped my Bloody Mary.
Weird in what way?
Because I was asking people about the murder. Isn’t that one of the giveaways of a guilty person—inserting yourself into the investigation?
That does sometimes occur, yes,
Mac said. If I were you, I would be more worried about my personal safety in questioning potential murderers than relating information to a member of law enforcement.
Alfred is a suspect?
Everyone is a suspect,
Mac intoned.
And that includes you then, right? Because you were there too, sitting in a patrol car down the block.
Mac went quite still. Did Alfred tell you that?
I’m not saying you killed Dorian.
I put myself into full backpedal mode. I mean, why would you?
Why would anybody?
Are you serious?
I leaned forward, lowering my voice to a whisper. Who knows what he might have done to you? He’s slept with practically every woman in this town. I mean, if you have a girlfriend, Dorian probably tried to bird-dog her at some point or other.
Mac also leaned forward, close enough for me to smell his aftershave.
I don’t have a girlfriend.
He took his time having another drink of coffee before saying, Drew, I’m going to ask you straight out: did you kill Dorian?
No,
I spluttered, then childishly countered with, "Did you kill Dorian?"
Mac laughed then, a full, unexpectedly melodious laugh. You really are quite a comedian.
I’m not trying to be funny.
That’s what makes it perfect.
Mac flipped his pocket notebook to an empty page. I’d like you to do me a favor. Write down the names of all the women you know Mr. Gamble had intimate relations with in the last year.
It’s going to be more than one page,
I said.
Take as many as you need.
Mac engaged his sandwich while I tried to put Dorian’s conquests into a timeline. But as I mentally scrolled through the women I’d seen sitting at the bar talking to him, I kept getting distracted by the fact that Big Mac hadn’t actually ordered a sandwich but one arrived anyway. He must be such a regular here that the staff started making his food when they saw him walk in.
Normally, when a person is a regular like that, their order never changes. Those kind of customers like their food to be just so, resist variation, and complain bitterly when their plates are even the slightest bit different. But when he dined at the Eelgrass, Big Mac ordered the daily special, which was always different.
I set down the pen and asked, How’s the sandwich?
Good,
he replied. Slaw’s a little soggy today, but still good.
Oh yeah?
Yeah.
Mac glanced back to the kitchen. Juan must have the day off. He’s usually here on Friday.
You keep track of who’s cooking at the places you eat?
Don’t you?
He seemed genuinely surprised.
Not unless I know them,
I replied.
Well, I eat out a lot,
Mac said. Actually, I don’t cook at all. Except spaghetti.
So what’s best in this town?
I asked. Is it the sandwich you’re having now?
It did look quite well made, and it smelled great.
It’s the best thing they serve here. But I’d say the best food in town is whatever you’re cooking Wednesday night.
I am not immune to flattery. Also fishing for compliments is a persistent vice. Just Wednesday?
Your Friday and Saturday night specials are good, but not as unique as Wednesday.
Mac took another bite of his Reuben. Actually, I have no idea where I’m going to eat my Wednesday supper now…
Fish-and-chips place?
I’d rather get a burrito from the gas station hot case.
Ouch.
For a split second I almost offered to make him dinner, just for being a valued customer. Then I came to my senses. I did not want him to think I was coming on to him, get scared, question his sexuality, and beat me up to prove he was straight. I went back to eating my eggs.
Mac finished his sandwich, then folded his hands in front of him.
Okay, so what you’re saying is that there is a witness who saw both Sam and the fish-shop girls handling your knives on Thursday evening.
Right.
And you think that puts me closer to finding the killer because…
Because now we know how the knives got out of the office?
I felt lame even uttering that sentence. He was right. Just knowing how the knives got out of the office didn’t prove any single person’s guilt or innocence.
Ms. Eider mentioned that you and Dorian had fought earlier in the week. Can you tell me what the argument was about?
Business.
Ms. Eider said the argument was about cocaine.
I felt my eyes go wide. How could she put our personal business out there like that? I clenched my jaw and nodded.
What exactly were you angry about?
Mac asked.
I hesitated, feeling like a snitch. But Dorian was dead and Sam had already exposed herself, so it hardly mattered now.
I didn’t want him using our place to make drug deals, and I didn’t want him selling to Sam.
You weren’t one of his customers?
No. I came here to get away from that scene, and I’ve stayed away from it. So I can’t tell you much about Dorian’s sideline business. I’m more of a hard-liquor guy.
I rattled my ice cubes at him. This finally attracted the attention of the waitress, who asked me if I’d like the same again.
I decided to go for coffee.
Was there a reason why you didn’t want him to procure drugs for Ms. Eider in particular?
Would you? You saw how she partied. Would you want a bunch of random moochers coming into your business after-hours to drink for free, disrespect your belongings, and fuck up your kitchen?
I felt my cheeks flushing.
He nodded, then said, I couldn’t help but notice when I looked up your particulars that you have a criminal record. Malicious mischief and obstructing a law-enforcement officer.
I was drunk and fell into the window of a bar and broke it. It wasn’t malicious or even mischief, just clumsiness. I spent the night in the drunk tank and paid a fine.
What about the other charge?
I tried to keep the cops from coming into a house where we were having a drag party. There was some swearing, and I was perhaps somewhat rude.
You’ve got a temper, in other words.
People have said that, yes.
I didn’t cross my arms in front of my chest, but it took all my willpower not to.
Did your argument with Mr. Gamble turn violent?
Not even a little bit. He never even stopped smiling. He was that kind of guy. He never took other people’s feelings very seriously.
You know, Drew, my problem is that I want to believe you—that you had nothing to do with this—because I want to have my Wednesday night dinner back. But you are currently the only person who is known to have had a significant conflict with Mr. Gamble. So I want you to think hard whether anybody could have seen you after you left work last night.
I don’t remember seeing anyone.
Did you text or…or log in to any websites from your home computer or pass by any ATMs or places likely to have security cameras?
I don’t think so. I went home and went to bed by myself.
Mac sighed. In that case I’m afraid you can’t be ruled out right away so…best not to leave the island for the time being.
For how long?
Mac shrugged. I guess until we find out whether or not you did it.
He stood and started to pull on his jacket. Thank you for contacting me. I’ll be in touch.
Chapter Four
Saturday morning started off well. Still half in my dreams, I fantasized about creating a scallop special for Wednesday. Something classic like angels on horseback but paired with avocado and heirloom tomato… Could it be a sandwich? Or should it be more of a main-course salad with bruschetta? Mac would be there for sure.
Then my phone buzzed, and I sat up, coming to full consciousness. It was Mac, telling me the Eelgrass would remain closed today. I forwarded his message to Sam.
Six o’clock. I fell back onto my dank pillowcase.
Because housing on Camas Island was scarce and expensive, I’d taken the first place I could get: an elderly mobile home about half a mile from town. Originally, Sam had lived in the second bedroom here, but she’d moved in with Danielle after she realized that her booming social life often left her too bleary to make the trip back to her bed without ending up in a ditch.
Wan yellow light glowed through my bedroom curtains, indicating sunny skies ahead. I lay there for some time, trying to figure out how I would occupy myself for an entire day without work.
Pathetic, I know. Better people would walk down to the beach, or take a hike, or binge-watch some TV show all day, but that’s not the way I’m built. I needed to get up and move. And in addition to that, I had no food in the house.
I dressed and headed down to the Prospector. My route took me past the Eelgrass, where I spied Evelyn standing outside on the sidewalk, peering in.
Hey, Evelyn, how’s the peeping?
Evelyn gave me a rather savage side-eye. I’m monitoring, not peeping.
Thanks for the clarification.
Inside, technicians in white paper bunny suits performed activities that I hoped involved getting the DNA of the killer and not just my and Lionel’s genetic markers. I turned back to Evelyn.
You’re up early.
I wanted to see what was going on here.
Even cocooned inside her puffy jacket, Evelyn shivered. Dorian and I didn’t always agree about what was right, but he was still family. He shouldn’t have died like that. He was my brother’s grandson, you know.
I nodded. I hadn’t liked Dorian, but not even at my angriest would I have thought that he deserved to be stabbed to death in a dank basement.
He came to see me Thursday afternoon. He told me he was going to pay back some money he borrowed from me last year, which shocked me half to death.
So he must have had something going on? That he thought would get him…
Aloud I said, How much money?
Ten grand.
That’s a chunk of change. Do the cops know?
Evelyn shook her head. I tend to keep my trap shut around the fuzz. Our sheriff is a sexist and a bigot.
Then talk to Mac instead. He seems okay.
Mac’s good-hearted, I’ll give you that,
she said. But there’s something else that doesn’t look good for me. I’m the beneficiary of Dorian’s will.
What? Why?
I made him write one when I loaned him the money, so that after he got killed doing whatever idiot thing he was planning to do, I could at least sell his car and recoup part of my losses after he was dead.
Evelyn spoke matter-of-factly, as though this were a perfectly normal thing to demand.
Damn. That’s cold.
You gotta be tough. Otherwise a charmer like Dorian will run all over you.
Evelyn took a quick breath, and I realized she was trying not to cry. She sniffed and regained her normal cranky composure. I thought drawing up a will would be one of those…what do you call them? Wake-up calls? Teachable moments? Make him consider how dangerous it was for him to get involved with married women and big-time gangsters.
Evelyn shook her head. He agreed just like that. We went to the bank to get it notarized and everything. He just smiled the whole time, joking, acting like I was some dingy old bat. Now the poor kid’s dead as a doornail.
I think the police really need to know this,
I said. I can text Mac directly and let him know you want to talk to him.
Evelyn arched a brow. I didn’t realize you were on such friendly terms with the law.
Mac’s a regular customer at the restaurant,
I said, as if that explained it all.
All right, then. Do it.
I tapped out the message quickly, fingers already stiffening from the cold wind blowing off the choppy sea. The clear day was giving me a much-needed infusion of sunshine and vitamin D, but without the insulating layer of cloud, the sharp wind cut straight through my jacket.
I was just going to have some breakfast,
I said. Do you want to come with me?
Evelyn cocked her head as if I’d done something incredibly strange and unexpected.
At your place?
she asked.
No, the diner.
I gestured down the street at the Prospector.
Oh, God no.
She sniffed. If you’re hungry, come back to the Beehive with me.
The what?
The Beehive—it’s where I live. I’ll cook you an omelette.
***
The Beehive was a women-only assisted-living facility situated in a long, green one-story building three blocks from the Eelgrass. As we walked through the door, I saw a comfortable-looking lounge with a television. An assortment of unmatched recliners, love seats, and sofas made the space seem snug. Several of these were occupied by old ladies. A couple of them worked crosswords. Another crocheted, while three others seemed glued to the TV screen.
All but one looked up as I entered.
This is Andrew,
Evelyn announced, waving her hand back as though I were some stray dog that had followed her home. He’s the chef at the murder restaurant.
To my surprise, only one of the old ladies seemed scandalized, and she appeared to be mainly irritated at Evelyn.
I’m sure he doesn’t want to be introduced like that.
She used her cane to push herself to her feet and steady herself as she held out her hand. I’m Julie.
She said the word Julie with a strong French accent, though the rest of her English sounded free of regional inflection. She wore stylish black slacks and a bold red blouse. Her white updo managed to be elegant without appearing stiff.
Julie’s bones felt frail as a bird’s and her skin fragile as paper. She certainly wasn’t intimidated by Evelyn, though.
It’s nice to meet you,
I said.
Evelyn headed to the side of the living area, where there was a small kitchen with regular residential appliances. I followed, trailed by Julie.
Katie isn’t going to like you in there,
she said to Evelyn.
Katie’s not my mother.
Evelyn found a skillet and some butter and eggs. Only cheese here is Colby-Jack, I’m afraid.
That’s fine with me.
At this point I was curious what she was going to do. Plus I don’t have anything against Jack, or any other food when applied appropriately. I’m more of a food nerd than a food snob.
Evelyn nodded as though this was the right answer. As she began to beat the eggs, Julie made it to the small table inside the kitchen alcove and sat down.
Are you going to make me one too?
she asked Evelyn.
You and me can split one,
Evelyn said. This seemed to satisfy Julie.
My phone buzzed. Mac had replied with a text.
Drew, I strongly advise you to stop interviewing people about the murder.
I texted back: I’m not. I just ran into Evelyn, and she told me.
Mac wrote: You are not to question Evelyn further.
So I replied: I will not. I’m just sitting here at the Beehive, having breakfast. But if she happens to start talking about it, I’m not going to stop her. That would be rude.
Mac made no reply for so long that I thought he’d given up. Then finally, a message popped up.
You are impossible.
To which I sent a smiley face.
As Evelyn cooked, I found myself distracted by the deftness