Birds Of A Feather (A Bluebell Cafe Cozy Mystery Book 7) by Judith Jackson

Author:Judith Jackson [Jackson, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Judith Jackson
Published: 2024-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

“Next door?” exclaimed Harriet. “So now we’re thinking it was Maryellen who’s the killer? A jealous rage?”

Claire already looked convinced. “It’s as good a reason as anything. A lot better than some of the motives we’re looking at. Do we really think Gloria Loring got homicidal because Olivia implied there were weevils in the flour at the Pick and Pack?”

“There’s mouse droppings on the floor, too,” said Fern. “But that wasn’t in the book.”

“Mouse droppings?” Harriet winced at that one. “I buy our spices there.”

“There you go,” said Claire. “Gloria isn’t a killer. She won’t even get rid of her mice. I don’t see Maryellen’s car, so she’s not home from work yet. How about we go inside until she shows up and we’ll figure out how to approach her.”

“Carefully,” said Fern. “You don’t want to get on her bad side. I asked her very nicely if she would pull up a little in the driveway because she has that enormous SUV, and I can’t see past it when I’m backing out. You should have heard the way she carried on.”

Claire nodded sympathetically. “I can imagine.” She peered at the driveway and then at Fern. “Was her car here on Saturday? I can’t remember.”

“It was. Between that tank of hers and all the police cars, I couldn’t see a thing when I left to go to Ruby’s.”

“Interesting. I wonder why we didn’t see her outside. You’d think she’d have wanted to know what was going on.” From the look on Claire’s face, it was apparent that Maryellen had jumped to the top of her suspect list. “The three of us will go over as soon as she gets home.”

Fern’s eyes widened. “Me? I don’t know how to investigate people.”

“Neither did we. Turns out there’s nothing to it.” And on that confident note, Claire headed for Fern’s front door.

“You two are the experts,” said Fern, as she and Harriet followed behind, “but Maryellen scares me. How about instead of talking to her we make an anonymous call to the police?”

Experts? Harriet tried to sound nonchalant as if she was accustomed to being called an investigative expert. “We’ll be very careful with how we word things.”

“It’ll be more of a fishing expedition,” said Claire. “We’ve found out the hard way that you can’t get much out of people once you imply that they’re vicious killers.”

They walked up the front steps and Fern unlocked the door. “Don’t bother about your boots. The house will be torn down so the floors don’t matter anymore.”

“Wow,” said Claire, unzipping her jacket. “You’re decisive.”

“Hardly. I’ve been thinking about selling for years, but I’ve never been great with change.” She pointed down the hall. “If you’ve seen my bathroom, you’ll know what I mean.”

“Where would you move to?”

“I hate doing yard work, so a condo would be perfect. Last fall I looked at one in Denise’s building and it was gorgeous. And I could rent a small store with a studio space like Ruby has. If it was downtown, it would pay for itself with all the foot traffic.

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