Stan cased the apartment, looking for anything that might give him a clue as to who had stabbed Elise and potentially killed the vendors associated with her book signing. Mel watched him confer with Hayley. They both looked pretty grim.
As she passed the kitchen counter, Mel saw a box of books. She glanced inside and noted that it was Elise’s author copies of The Palms. It had a snazzy pink-and-aqua cover, a nod to the heyday when the Palms was built. The mid-century modern development was built in the late fifties and early sixties and still had many of the prominent features of the time.
Mel snagged a copy and dropped it into her bag. She’d return it. She just wanted to give it a quick read and see if there was anything in it that might provide a clue as to who had the biggest grudge against Elise.
Mel and Joe drove home with Peanut in Mel’s lap, her head sticking out the passenger-side window while Mel held on to her leash. Joe glanced over at them every now and then and shook his head as if he couldn’t figure out exactly how this had happened.
“There is one thing I can’t let go of,” he said. He turned his car into their neighborhood and wound down the quiet street towards home.
“What’s that?”
“Cassie getting everything if anything should happen to Elise,” he said. “That’s just weird.”
“Cassie explained it. She is Elise’s best friend. Plus, Elise didn’t have anyone else.”
“Not even her dog?” Joe asked. He studied Peanut for a moment. “She wouldn’t have been the first crazy rich lady to leave her fortune to her dog.”
“Well, she’s not dead, so it doesn’t really matter who she would have left everything to. Besides, Cassie didn’t do it,” Mel said for what must have been the hundredth time.
“I know you believe that,” Joe said.
He turned into the driveway of the ranch house they shared in the Arcadia neighborhood. With Joe’s parents around the corner and Mel’s mother nearby, it felt as if they were coming home not just because they lived together, but because so many of their significant lifetime memories had happened in this neighborhood.
“It’s more than believing,” she said. “I know it.”
“How?” Joe asked.
This was one of the many reasons she loved him. He didn’t ask to be argumentative. He genuinely wanted to know how she could be so sure that Cassie was innocent.
“Because of the multiple murders. Think about it this way: As Elise’s main bookseller, how would the deaths of the people Cassie hired to work Elise’s book signing benefit her?” Mel asked. “It makes no sense. She uses those vendors all the time. If she murdered them, how would she get her events catered or photographed, etcetera? She’d be harming her own business.”
“I’ll give you that,” Joe said. “I can’t figure why she’d do that unless she had something greater to gain. If she got all of Elise’s money, she might have decided that retirement was in order. So who cared if she murdered off everyone involved in the release of the book, and used them to distract the police from herself?”
“No, Cassie loves her shop. She’d never leave it voluntarily,” Mel insisted. “It has to be someone else, like Hair Plugs Todd or Child Bride Mallory.”
“Statistically speaking, it usually is someone involved with the victim,” Joe said. “Which I’m sure Stan and Tara are looking into first.”
He parked in the garage and they climbed out of the car and entered the house through the laundry room. Mel carried Peanut into the house, hoping that she could facilitate the first meeting between Captain Jack and the dog. Joe gathered Peanut’s things and followed her.
“Okay, sweetie, this is your new home,” Mel said.
“Temporary home,” Joe corrected her. “You did see what she did to that pillow, right?”
“I’m sure she was just acting out because she was left alone all day.”
“Or she likes shredding things,” Joe said. “I think I’ll go hide all of my shoes.”
Mel set Peanut on the floor. She sat down and looked up at Mel as if waiting for something. Her tongue was hanging out and she was snort-breathing after the excitement of the car ride.
“Are you hungry?” Mel asked.
The dog blinked at her. She took it as a yes.
“Let’s go set your bowls up in the kitchen,” Mel said.
Peanut trotted along beside her as if she knew kitchen meant food. Mel rounded the corner and Peanut put on a sudden burst of speed. She didn’t stop until she slammed her face into Captain Jack’s bowl of dry cat food.
“Oh, hold up there, that’s not going to be—”
A hiss sounded from above and Mel glanced up to see Captain Jack sitting on the counter. His tail was swishing and the dark patch of fur over his eye looked particularly pirate-like. Mel snatched the bowl of food from Peanut and put it on the counter beside Captain Jack.
She stroked Jack’s fur and he arched his back. Mel had a feeling he was still irritated, but not willing to give up the pets.
“Now, Jack,” Mel said, “you’re going to have a roommate for a—”
Ruf ruf ruf. Peanut barked, having just realized a cat was perched above her like a vulture.
“I see it’s going well,” Joe said over the barking as he returned to the room. He hurried over to Peanut’s bag of stuff and started to dish her food.
She kept barking and Captain Jack returned the greeting with a hiss.
Joe put the food down beside Peanut and she glanced at it and then the cat, all the while still barking. Obviously torn between antagonizing the cat and eating, Peanut let loose a flurry of barks and then turned her attention to her food.
Captain Jack remained perched above her with his tail swishing, but he wasn’t hissing
