A Sinister Sense (21 page)

Clara arrived at the bookstore just in time to catch Stephanie as she was leaving. Surprised to see her cousin there on her day off, she shook her head. “Just can’t stay away, huh?”

Stephanie shrugged. “I had to come in to pick up some bills.” She glanced at the clock. “You’re late. Did you oversleep?”

“No, I was talking to someone.” Clara answered Molly’s wave with a flap of her hand. “I need to talk to you.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Privately.”

Stephanie looked worried. “There are customers in the Nook, and we’re pretty busy right now. Can it wait?”

Clara hesitated, then reluctantly nodded. “When?”

Stephanie frowned. “I’ve got the kids the rest of the day. George won’t be home until late tonight. He’s going
to a meeting. Why don’t you come by the house on your way home tonight? I’ll fix you something to eat.”

Clara sighed, thinking of Tatters having to put up with her mother again. “Okay. I’ll see you then.”

Stephanie gave her an anxious look. “Is it important? You’re not in trouble, are you?”

“Why does everyone automatically think I’m in trouble?”

Stephanie lowered her voice. “We
are
investigating a murder, remember?”

“How can I forget?”

“Is it about the murder?”

“I think so.” Clara smiled at the customer heading toward her. “We’ll talk tonight. Go get your kids.”

Stephanie looked as if she wanted to hear more, but Clara was already greeting the elderly man, and after a moment’s hesitation, Stephanie rushed out the door.

It was late afternoon before Clara had a chance to call her mother. “Not
again
,” Jessie said when Clara told her she was having dinner with Stephanie. “Ever since you brought that dog home you’ve been gone more than you’re here.”

“Then it’s a good thing you have Tatters for company,” Clara said, hoping Jessie wouldn’t cause too much of a fuss. “Why don’t you take him for a walk? He’d love it, and it would do you good.”

“I’m on my feet all day at the library. I don’t need to be dragged all over town by an unruly animal.”

“You know that Tatters is perfectly behaved when he’s with you,” Clara said, crossing her fingers.

“Oh, very well. But we can’t go on like this. I have a life too, you know. I can’t spend all my time staying home to look after a dog.”

“Then just leave Tatters in my room. He’ll be fine until I get home.”

“He gets lonely on his own.” Jessie’s voice softened to a low crooning. “Don’t you, my sweet? Yes, he’s
such
a good boy.”

Clara grinned. “Okay, then. I won’t be late.” She hung up, satisfied that Tatters was in excellent hands.

She returned to the counter just as the door opened and Rick strolled in. Delighted to see him, she sang out a greeting.

“Hi, yourself.” He grinned at her and walked over to the cookbook table. “Got anything new on here?”

She hurried to join him, her anxious gaze taking in his face. He looked tired, as if he hadn’t been sleeping well. “You okay?” she asked, and got a nod for an answer.

“I don’t think I saw this one the other day. Is it new?” He picked up a book and started flipping pages.

“That one came in about a month ago.” She picked up another book with pictures of fruit all over the jacket. “This is the latest one to come in, but I think you’ve seen this one, too.”

He took it from her and opened it. “Yeah, I did see it.”
He put the book down. “I had a visitor today. The mayor of Finn’s Harbor stopped by.”

Her stomach flipped over. “What did he want?”

“I’m not sure. He kind of wandered around the store for a while, then asked me if I’d seen Dan lately.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I told him I hadn’t talked to Dan in the last couple of days.” Rick frowned. “I think he was trying to find out if I’m still a murder suspect. He’s not going to give up until I’m in jail.”

“That’s never going to happen.”

She’d sounded so adamant, he raised his eyebrows. “Do you know something I don’t?”

She caught herself before she could blurt out anything that would tip him off to her recent activities. “I just know that you didn’t do it.”

His smile looked a little fragile. “Thanks. I needed that.”

“It’s true.” How she wished she could give him something to hang on to—some small ray of hope that all this would be over before much longer. She was still so unsure about what she did know, and what it all meant.

Buzz’s revelation about Carson Dexter had seemed so significant when she’d first heard it. Now that she’d had time to think about it, however, she wasn’t at all sure that the mayor’s connection to Frank Tomeski’s sister had anything to do with his murder. Even if it did, how could they convince Dan of that, much less prove anything?

She could only hope that talking it over with Stephanie
would help her unravel the tangle of thoughts in her mind and enable her to think more clearly. Right now, the more she tried to sort out what she knew, the more confused she got. And that wasn’t helping Rick at all.

Stephanie greeted Clara with an anxious face when she arrived at her house that evening. “The kids are playing outside,” she said, leading Clara into the dining room. “They’ve already eaten, so we can have dinner in peace.”

Glancing at the large chicken Caesar salad waiting for her, Clara grinned in appreciation. “That looks terrific.”

“Good. I opened a bottle of wine. Help yourself while I get it.” She returned a moment later with a bottle of pinot gris and filled her cousin’s wineglass. “Here.” She pushed the glass closer to Clara’s plate. “You look like you can use this.”

Clara picked up the glass. “Here’s to solving the murder.”

“Amen.” Stephanie filled her own glass and took a hefty sip. “Mmm, that’s a good one.” She sat down opposite her cousin. “So, what’s up? Have you found out anything else about the case?”

Clara waited until she’d swallowed another sip of wine before answering. “I talked to Buzz Lamont this morning.”

“You didn’t!” Stephanie’s eyes were wide with horror. “By yourself? Why didn’t you wait for me to go with you? That was stupid.”

Clara shrugged. “It was okay. He was working close to the street.”

“So what did he tell you?”

“He knew Amy Tomeski.”

“He did?” Stephanie paused with her fork halfway to her mouth.

“He told me she was Frank Tomeski’s sister and she used to work in Portland with someone he knows here in Finn’s Harbor.”

“Who is it? Anyone we know?”

Clara smiled. “Our esteemed mayor, Carson Dexter.”

Stephanie’s fork clattered onto her plate. “Are you kidding? If he knew Amy Tomeski, wouldn’t he have known Frank, too?”

“Not necessarily. If he had, I would think he’d have identified Frank when his picture was on TV. Maybe he never met the guy.”

Stephanie’s eyes grew wider. “Unless he didn’t want anyone to know he knew him.” She paused, apparently turning things over in her mind. Her voice was hushed when she added, “You think Carson Dexter killed Frank Tomeski?”

Clara let out her breath in a rush. “I don’t know what I think right now. All I know is that the mayor knew Amy Tomeski. That connects him to the victim of a murder.”

“That doesn’t mean he killed him.”

“No, but it does add him to our list of suspects.”

Stephanie met her gaze. “You’re not suggesting that you question him?”

“You don’t think it’s a good idea?”

“No, I don’t. Even if he is guilty, and it’s a big if, I doubt very much that he’d answer your questions. You could be in a lot of trouble after he warned you to butt out.”

Clara shook her head. “I guess. I just don’t know where to go from here.”

Stephanie picked up her wineglass again. “You need to conjure up the Sense.”

“I wish I could.” Clara dug her fork into her salad. “It really hasn’t been much help lately. Though it did say that one thing right before I found out about Amy.”

“What was that again?”

“It said
City Hall
.”

Stephanie choked on her wine. “Do you think it was telling you the mayor was a suspect?”

“I don’t know. There a lot of people who work in City Hall.” She paused, trying to grab hold of something niggling in the back of her mind. “Wait, I just remembered. The day of the murder, Rick was in the bookstore chasing after Tatters.”

Stephanie grinned. “Yeah, I remember you telling me. The dog was running after Roberta. I didn’t think anyone could get the better of that woman, much less a dog.”

Clara smiled at the memory. “She was really scared of him. If she knew what a sweetheart he is, she’d feel pretty silly about the whole thing.”

“Nah, she’d insist he’s a killer dog just to save face.”

“Yes, well, anyway, I remember Rick coming in, pretty steamed at Tatters because he had to leave customers
alone in his store. He said one of them was asking where to find City Hall.”

Stephanie picked up a roll and broke it in half. “I’m not following.”

“Frank Tomeski was in the store that day.” Clara shook her head as Stephanie offered her half the roll. “What if it was Frank asking where to find City Hall? What if he was looking for the mayor?”

Stephanie dropped the piece of roll onto her plate. “Or what if he was looking for the police because he was afraid someone was out to kill him?”

“But he didn’t go to the police. Dan didn’t know who he was until the motel manager identified him two days later.”

“Maybe he never got there because the killer found him first.”

Clara put down her fork and leaned back on her chair. “You’re making things even more confusing.”

“I’m sorry.” Stephanie lifted her own fork and pointed it at her cousin. “I just think you should be sure about everything before you go accusing the mayor of murder. Even Dan isn’t going to listen to that. He and Carson Dexter are best buddies.”

“I know that.” Clara gazed miserably at her plate. “I just wish I knew what to do.”

Stephanie’s frown softened. “We’ll think of something. Why don’t you try to find out more about the mayor’s connection to Amy Tomeski? You’re so good at researching stuff on the computer. Something might turn up that will help make sense of all this.”

Clara sighed. “I guess you’re right. I need to think about it some more and maybe the Sense will come through for me. Though I’m not going to hold my breath for that.” She finished her salad, only half listening as Stephanie prattled on about her kids and their latest escapades.

“They remind me so much of us when we were that age,” she said as Clara helped her carry dishes to the kitchen.

Clara opened the dishwasher and started stacking dishes. “Do you remember the time we decided to sell some stuff so we could get roller skates?”

“How could I forget? We were grounded for weeks after that.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think your mom was too happy when she found out you sold her pearls for two dollars.”

Stephanie smiled. “Good thing it was Katie Minsen who bought them. Her mom made her give them back.”

“After she’d cut them up to fit her dolls.”

“I know. I lost a month’s allowance to pay for them to be restrung.” Stephanie reached for a paper towel and wiped the counter. “It wasn’t just me. You tried to sell your dad’s golf clubs.” She laughed. “I can still see his face when he came tearing across the lawn to rescue them before someone snapped them up.”

Clara started to laugh with her, then choked as tears unexpectedly filled her eyes.

Stephanie dropped the towel and threw an arm around her. “Oh, I’m sorry, Clara. I wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s okay.” Feeling foolish, Clara swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I just miss him. He’s been gone three years now, and it still hits me now and then. I guess I’m feeling down over this darn murder thing. No matter how we try, we can’t seem to get any closer to solving it, and it doesn’t look as if Dan is having any better luck and Rick—”

She broke off with a laugh. “Listen to me. I’m whining like I used to whenever you got me into trouble.”

“
I
got
you
into trouble?” Stephanie drew back, her face pink with indignation. “You didn’t seem to have any problem going along with everything. Until we got caught, and then it was always
my
fault!”

Clara shrugged. “You were always the one with the brilliant ideas. Ideas, I might add, that usually backfired on us.”

Stephanie looked about to explode, then her face broke into a grin. “We had fun, though, didn’t we?”

Clara grinned back and reached out to hug her. “We sure did. And now I’d better get home and see what kind of fun my mother is having with Tatters.”

Arriving home a few minutes later, she was relieved to see her mother dozing in front of the TV. Tatters got up as usual as Clara walked into the living room and ran over to greet her, waking her mother up in the process.

“Oh, there you are,” Jessie said, sitting up. “What time is it?”

“Not yet ten.” Clara peered at her. “Are you okay?”

“What?” Jessie frowned, then added with a yawn, “Of
course I’m all right. Just tired. This ridiculous dog wore me out on the beach.”

Tatters’ ears pricked up, and he looked at Clara with pleading eyes.