"My money's on Nancy," Betty said.
The girls had stopped running, and four of them were doubled over panting. Not Betty. She didn't even seem winded.
"Why's that?" Rex asked thoughtfully. He didn't talk down to her. He seemed legitimately interested in her opinion.
"She wanted Aunt June's boyfriend. It's always a love triangle."
Rex nodded. "That's an excellent point. Most of the time, it's either about love or money."
Nancy was younger than Dr. Morgan but about the same age as Pete. Maybe a bit younger than Virgil. But that didn't mean anything. What would Nancy want in a man? She had the best business in town. It was always packed there, so it obviously wasn't failing.
Which might rule out money. Basil thought Virgil and Dr. Morgan were wealthy. I thought Pete might be comfortable. But then again, some people with money might want more. So we couldn't rule that out. And if money was what she found attractive, that put Virgil and Morgan on the list.
Would Nancy kill Aunt June over jealousy? It wasn't far-fetched. She had definitely been standoffish when I'd asked about Aunt June. Killing her would free up the love interest. It was an extreme solution but not hard to believe.
"Our suspect list includes Nancy." I ticked off the fingers on one hand. "Dr. Morgan, Pete Oroner the Coroner, Virgil the postmaster, and Nigel."
"Hickenlooper?" Rex's eyebrows went up.
"Because she ran against him for mayor and because of the possible sale of this house to developers," I explained.
"Yes," Kelly mused. "But why kill his client?"
I shrugged. "I just don't think we should rule him out."
"So five suspects," Rex said. "And no evidence this was murder." He pointed to the clue in my hands. "In my opinion, those clues aren't really clues."
I asked, "What about the comment on the Maplethorpe Funeral site?"
"'The fraud got what she deserved,'" Rex said. "That seems vengeful. It could be from Nancy. It doesn't strike me as coming from one of the suitors or Nigel. Or it could be a smoke screen."
"Unless by fraud, one of the suitors meant that they'd thought they were the only boyfriend until he discovered otherwise. Pete seems to think he was the only one close to her."
"We still don't have proof that she was murdered," Rex said. "Except for the note that came with the urn. Is it possible she was a bit disturbed and is leading you on a wild-goose chase?"
"Of course it is," I admitted. "I didn't know the woman at all."
I led him downstairs to the first floor, where I pointed out all the photos of Aunt June with various historical figures. Kelly offered to take the girls outside for a game of Red Rover. We had to shoot down Betty's idea of both teams lining up with their backs against the river in a dangerous sort of semicircle.
Once they were out of hearing, I told Rex my suspicion that Aunt June was former CIA.
"Riley is supposed to get back to you?"
"Yes." I thought about it. "But then again, I wasn't exactly nice about it. I could see him blowing me off."
Rex laughed and took out his cell. Within seconds, Riley answered, and the two chatted amiably until Rex asked him what he'd found and then hung up.
"He couldn't find anything. Riley's convinced she wasn't a spy. He is interested in this place though. He offered to come up and help."
"I hope you told him no." The last thing I needed was Riley.
"I did."
I turned to the photos. "Basil thinks she was a socialite from San Francisco or something."
"We could dig around in her background. If you think it's important to the case."
My heart leaped when he said case. It was confirmation that he took this seriously.
"I don't know. But there was that rumor about a hidden treasure."
"Most small towns have rumors like that," Rex said. "It makes them more interesting to live in."
"Then we focus on what we can do here," I said. "We need to approach this as if there was a murder."
"You won't make any friends here doing that."
I shrugged. "So? I wasn't doing a good job of that anyway."
Rex stifled a grin. "Let's revisit the idea of the treasure. If she had one, where would she put it?"
"I would've thought the hidden rooms. But we haven't found anything," I admitted.
"It's a big house. If there are hidden rooms, there are other hiding places." Rex looked thoughtful. "What do you think the treasure is?"
"Money? There's so much speculation that she was very wealthy. Jewelry?"
He continued my train of thought. "It could be stocks and bonds. Gold bullion."
"It's certainly not in those killer bugs." I wished Nigel would hurry up and get rid of them. Although, the frog was growing on me a little. Maybe it was the big brown eyes or the idea that he was listening to me before trying to kill me.
"What if it's not in the house? What if it's somewhere else?"
A scream came from the parlor, and we ran in to see Betty racing to the kitchen sink to wash her hands.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked the other girls.
"Why did you stick your hands into a jar of ashes?" Ava countered.
"I thought it was where we were supposed to store the ashes from the fireplace?"
Ava said, "That doesn't explain why you stuck your hands in it."
"What happened?" I asked.
"Betty stuck her hands in Aunt June," Lauren said matter-of-factly.
"I can't believe you have a dead body here!" Betty was furious.
"It's not a body, technically," I said. "What made you want to put your hands in ash?"
Betty looked really mad. "I don't want to talk about it."
Kelly's eyebrows went up. "I thought we'd left that at camp?"
"Sorry," I apologized. "I brought it with me when I came over to take a bath yesterday. I thought she'd be more at home here."
"Really, Betty," Inez chided. "It's got all those
