A Crabby Killer (13 page)

“Anyone for dessert?” Sarah winked at Dom. “I have some special Italian pastries for you to try.”

E
veryone enjoyed
a healthy helping of dessert and then started to take their leave. Mae and Tom had driven down from their farms together, so they left at the same time, and Zambuco made up some lame excuse to leave right after Jane. The rest of them drifted off one by one until it was only Dom and Claire left at the table.

Dom licked the blob of custard left on his fork from the Neapolitan he’d polished off then pushed his plate away.

“That was
delizioso
, but I hate to tell Sarah it isn't a traditional Italian dessert like your pizzelle.” Dom pointed to the thin waffle cookie on Claire’s plate.

Claire broke off a small piece of the anisette-flavored cookie. “It's quite delicious, but I don’t dare eat too much. Gotta keep my health up, you know.”

“I know. I’m going to have to add a few miles to my walking regimen to work this off.” He patted his belly.

“I think you worked off some extra calories when you were chasing down Donovan,” Claire said.

Dom laughed. “That was quite a chase. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have done it, but I didn’t want him to get away. I guess I still have a young man’s brain in an old man’s body.”

“Oh, I’d say you did pretty good even if you are an old man,” Claire teased.

“Meow
.”

Porch Cat appeared from underneath a rhododendron bush and trotted over to weave figure eights around Dom’s ankles.

Claire picked a morsel of lobster from her plate and held it out to the cat, who sniffed it thoroughly before taking it gently in his mouth.

“Can you believe Zambuco actually gave us credit?” Dom asked as he watched the cat eat.

“I almost fell off my chair. Do you think he was serious about having us consult on cases?”

Dom had wondered if Zambuco was serious, too. If he was, did they want to take him up on it? He sneaked a look at Claire.

In their younger days, he’d considered her somewhat of a nuisance to work with, but he had to admit that he’d come to depend on her insights into human behavior on the past two cases. Perhaps he was growing more tolerant in his old age. Either way, he knew that investigating the murder cases had added excitement to his life and he sure did hope more of them came along.

“I’m not sure if he was serious. He’s not as annoying now and it looks like Jane seems to have had something to do with tempering his cantankerous personality.”

“I noticed that.” Claire looked disturbed. “I’m not sure what’s going on there, but it can't be all bad if it makes Zambuco act nicer. And I do have to admit, working on cases again would be interesting.”

“Yes, I have to agree. These past two murder investigations have really added some spice to my life.” Dom realized that during the past several days, he hadn't had time to wallow in grief. Investigating had made him feel young and invigorated, useful again.

“It would be strange after all these years to officially be partners again. Sort of like old times.” Claire looked at Dom out of the corner of her eye.

“Indeed.” Dom found that he could not look her straight in the eye. He had never told her about the fight he’d witnessed between Sarah and Blunt and now he felt guilty about that.

Partners did not withhold information from each other, but at the time he hadn’t known that they were going to become partners. He’d thought he was just keeping an eye on Claire so as to make sure Sarah got a fair shake.

Of course, it didn’t make much sense to tell Claire now. What good could come of that? It would only upset her.

“I do think our skill sets complement each other very well. We always did manage to catch the killer back in the day,” he ventured.

“And we always managed to work together, even though we sometimes didn’t agree on each other’s methods.” Claire broke off another piece of pizzelle and pushed it around her plate, unable to look Dom in the eye.

She felt guilty that she still hadn’t told him that she’d seen Mae and Blunt fighting that day. Of course, Mae had admitted that herself in her kitchen when she told them the real reason for the fight, but that didn’t change the fact that Claire had withheld information from her partner.

Then again, she hadn’t really considered him a partner when she’d withheld the information. In her mind, she had only been teaming up with him so as to keep Mae safe from being incriminated. She considered alleviating her guilt by telling him about it now, but she didn’t want him to know that she hadn’t trusted him with the information. It wouldn’t be a good way to start their new partnership, so she decided to let it ride.

“I actually think we work together even better now. Perhaps age has mellowed us,” Dom suggested.

Claire laughed. “I think it has. I would look forward to working together again on another case and I do hope one comes up, because it gets kind of boring around here with nothing going on.”

“That's true,” Dom agreed. “One can only do so many puzzles or taste test so many desserts to keep busy.”

“Yes. But I don’t know if you can put your puzzles away just yet. After all, how many more murders can there be on this one little island?”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Dom’s left eyebrow started to tingle and he reached up and smoothed it with his index finger. “I have a feeling we just might be surprised.”

T
he end
.

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U
SA Today Bestselling author Leighann Dobbs
has had a passion for reading since she was old enough to hold a book, but she didn’t put pen to paper until much later in life. After a twenty-year career as a software engineer with a few side trips into selling antiques and making jewelry, she realized you can’t make a living reading books, so she tried her hand at writing them and discovered she had a passion for that, too! She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, Bruce, their trusty Chihuahua mix, Mojo, and beautiful rescue cat, Kitty.

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ind
out about her latest books and how to get discounts on them by signing up at:

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ttp
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T
hanks so much for reading
, “
A Crabby Killer”
. I hope you liked reading it as much as I loved writing it. If you did, and feel inclined to leave a review, I really would appreciate it.

This is book two of the Mooseamuck Island Cozy Mystery Series. I plan to write many more books featuring Dom and Claire. I have several other series that I write, too - you can find out more about them on my website
http://www.leighanndobbs.com
.

This book has been through many edits with several people and even some software programs, but since nothing is infallible (even the software programs), you might catch a spelling error or mistake and, if you do, I sure would appreciate it if you let me know - you can contact me at:
[email protected]
.

Oh, and I love to connect with my readers, so please visit me on facebook at
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ignup to get
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f you want
to receive a text message on your cell phone when I have a new release, text COZYMYSTERY to 88202 (sorry, this only works for US cell phones!)

T
his is a work of fiction
.

N
one of it is real
. All names, places, and events are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to real names, places, or events are purely coincidental, and should not be construed as being real.

A
Crabby Killer

Copyright © 2015

Leighann Dobbs

http://www.leighanndobbs.com

All Rights Reserved.

N
o part
of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner, except as allowable under “fair use,” without the express written permission of the author.

C
over art by
:
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