“Oh.” Hannah was mostly mollified. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“She had white hair.”
Her scowl was almost immediate. “Astra was here? Why?”
Maddie, who was helping Boone distribute the takeout, straightened. “That’s the evil witch you were telling me about, isn’t it?”
Hannah nodded, her hands on her hips as she regarded Cooper. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Cooper was calm. “You know why. I wanted to talk to her, figure out her angle on this. Whenever the two of you are in the same room together, well, things get messy.”
“That doesn’t mean you should’ve gone alone,” Hannah fired back.
“I wasn’t alone. Nick was with me.” Cooper refused to be drawn into a fight. “I thought it was best we knock that interview out of the way as soon as possible.”
“And?” Boone prodded. “No offense to the relationship drama you guys like to generate so you don’t have to focus on other things, but we have a murder to contend with.”
Rather than acknowledge he had a point, Hannah stuck her tongue out at the sheriff. “Blah, blah, blah.”
Boone smirked and jabbed a finger in her direction. “That right there. You remind me of my daughter when you do things like that.”
“I believe he’s saying you act like a teenager sometimes, baby,” Cooper teased.
Hannah ignored him. “Just tell us if we should be loading for bear to keep Astra out of here or what.”
“Technically, I think that’s a good idea no matter what,” Cooper replied. “As for Velma ... I’m just not sure.” He slid into one of the open chairs and grabbed a container of food. Despite the upheaval of the day, he found he was hungry. “Just out of curiosity, where are the other psychics?”
“They headed downtown,” Hannah replied. “There’s some metaphysical bookstore they wanted to visit. They invited Maddie, but she decided to stay back here with me.”
“I wasn’t sure where you were,” Maddie volunteered to Nick. “I knew you would be upset if I left without telling you and our cell reception is spotty up here.”
Nick pulled his phone out of his pocket and realized he’d missed no less than eight messages from his wife while away from the town. “I’m sorry, love. I didn’t realize I was cut off from contact with you.”
Maddie merely shrugged. “It’s okay, although I would like to point out that we have a bit of a double standard going on here. You left town without telling me and yet, if I were to do the same, we would end up fighting.”
Nick opened his mouth to deny the charge and then snapped it shut. She was right. “I’m sorry,” he said finally. “You’re absolutely right. I should’ve told you. It’s just ... it was kind of spur of the moment.”
“Once we heard that Astra had been here we thought it best to talk to her right away,” Cooper volunteered in an effort to save Nick from further grilling by his wife. “It was my idea.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Hannah intoned darkly. “We’re totally going to talk about that brilliant mind of yours later.”
Cooper sent her a saucy wink. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Oh, geez.” Boone rolled his eyes as he settled in his chair. “It’s bad enough when I have one couple to deal with. Now I have two and it’s ... so gross.”
“You love us and you know it,” Hannah teased, tapping the top of his head.
“Yes, it’s the highlight of my day,” Boone drawled. “Let’s talk about Astra. What did she say?”
“Not much.” Cooper turned serious. “She called Velma a fraud, confirmed she was in the parking lot, and pointed out there was no motive for her to commit murder. Honestly, she has a point. Unless Velma’s surprise announcement had something to do with Astra — which seems like a long possibility — then why would Astra even care?”
“I don’t know.” Boone rubbed the back of his neck, thoughtful. “I don’t trust that woman, even if she doesn’t have a motive. She’s simply evil.”
“She is,” Cooper agreed without hesitation. “That doesn’t mean she’s guilty.”
“No,” Boone agreed. He blew out a sigh and then shook his head. “While you guys were gone, I held a teleconference with the guys from the coroner’s office. They had some interesting information.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask,” Cooper said. “Whenever you say the word ‘interesting’ in conjunction with an autopsy it usually results in some terrible monster attacking from the shadows.”
“Yes, because that’s my fault,” Boone snarked, rolling his eyes. “It’s your lucky day, though. The information is interesting, but not that kind of interesting. Dr. Welch was the one who handled Velma’s autopsy, and he says that we’re looking for a female assailant.”
Cooper blinked several times in rapid succession. “I don’t see how that’s good news,” he said finally.
“It cuts the suspect pool by fifty percent.”
Hannah stirred. “Except it doesn’t.”
Boone slid his eyes to her. “How do you figure? Now we just have to look at women and can cut out the men.”
“Except there are like three men with the psychic group,” Nick pointed out. He’d glommed on to the problem almost immediately. “Not only are all the psychics women, but so are their assistants. Maddie is one of the few people who brought a spouse, which makes me feel out of place but that’s neither here nor there. I mean ... the bulk of the people up here right now are women.”
“Oh.” Boone let out a pent-up breath. “I didn’t even notice that.”
“Shows what kind of detective you are,” Cooper teased.
Boone shot him a quelling look. “Don’t get obnoxious. I just ... didn’t think about it.” He was rueful as he turned back to Hannah. “And here I was thinking that was actionable information.”
“It’s still good info,” Hannah reassured him, patting his hand. “Just out of curiosity, though, how did they narrow it down to a female?”
“The angle of the blade in Velma’s chest,” Maddie volunteered without thinking. She was focused on her burger
