Island Escapes and Deadly Scrapes: A Cozy Tiffany Black Travel Mystery by A.R. Winters

Author:A.R. Winters [Winters, A.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“I’m thinking it wasn’t Greg,” Nanna said. “If Otis wanted him to do something, he never would. Because teenagers.”

“Was I terrible when I was a teenager?” I asked her.

“Of course you were. But I love you anyway.”

I couldn’t think of a single teenaged thing that I had done.

Rosie looked at her phone as she walked. “We’re supposed to visit a blacksmith shop this afternoon.”

“Why?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Local color? Lots of horses? Something to do? Mr. Locandro set it up, so we need to go. Except…”

“The notebook,” I said. “I thought you would crack it before lunch.”

“Crack it, sure. But there’s a lot of pages in that little book. It’ll take time to decode them all. As much as I’d like to smash some glowing hot metal with a hammer, this might be more important.”

“Say, that does sound like a barrel of monkeys!” Nanna said. “Call it arm day. Build up some muscles.”

“I’ll handle it. If you give me the camera, I’ll get some pictures for the vlog,” I said.

Back at the B&B, Rosie ran upstairs for the camera. I hung out near the café. The regulars were still chatting and gossiping.

“Y’know, I don’t really want to sit down,” I said.

Nanna nodded. “I get it.”

“What I’m going to do is take a walk. We keep running into the same information. Sorting it out would be good. Just need to think for a while.”

“You want company?” Stone asked.

“No, I think I’d like to be alone. Get some coffee to go. Let the caffeine soak in. But I’ll be back for an early lunch. Can you guys entertain yourselves for a while?”

Stone nodded. “Rosie might need some help.”

“Someone has to make sure she isn’t binge-watching Perry Mason,” Nanna said. “She’s not going to believe you’re voluntarily exercising.”

Maybe I wasn’t. While it was true that my butt didn’t want to sit, that didn’t necessarily mean I wanted to walk. But we’d been together for nearly this entire investigation. There was one subject I wanted to talk to on my own. A group might not work as well.

Call it a hospitality deflection. Playing host was an easy way to avoid direct questions. Or make the questioner feel a little guilty. Grilling a subject was always better one one-on-one. Rosie knew when to jump in. She had reliable insights. But all four of us was throwing me off my game.

Ignoring my pain, sipping my coffee, I walked down the middle street. Above was the fort. I’m sure Charles Locandro had a tour of the place set up. What was up with a blacksmith shop?

I needed to separate the crimes from each other. The vandalism wasn’t necessarily tied to the murder. Heck, the attack with a gnome might not have been a part of the murder. It could’ve been a separate attempt.

When I compartmentalized, there was one person who popped up as the most likely killer. A guy who wanted to defend his friend. Throw around a bunch of red herrings, perhaps. But specifically, these were red herrings that pointed to a suspect with a solid alibi.

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