“Me too. I think I have the killer worked out in this book too.” Bunny leaned closer, which wasn’t easy to do since she was not much taller than the case. “I think I’m getting pretty good at working out mysteries.”
Claire slid the pastries into the bag and opened the other side of the case for the cannoli. “You did a good job on the last book.”
“Yes. And it’s not just in books, either.” Bunny glanced around and lowered her voice. “But I’ll keep mum until I have real evidence.”
“Evidence?” Bunny certainly was overly dramatic this morning.
Bunny waved her hand in the air. “Don’t mind me! Just silly chatter.”
Claire’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t take Bunny for a silly chatterer, but she could tell that she wasn’t going to get any more out of her. The book club mysteries certainly were having an influence on her, but she appeared to be having fun, so what was the harm?
She rang up Bunny’s purchase and watched her leave.
Sam was outside, tying Dooley up at the post by the door. His eyes followed Bunny as she got into her pale-blue car.
Did Sam seem a little less stooped today? That was good. Dooley was having a good effect on him. He still had a sad air about him, but if she wasn’t mistaken, she’d seen a teeny bit of spark in his eyes as he walked in the door. Did that have something to do with Bunny?
“How are you, Sam?”
“Great. Just took Dooley for a walk on the Marginal Way. Haven’t been there in a while.”
Maybe that was what was responsible for Sam’s apparent vigor and it had nothing to do with Bunny.
He turned to face the door. “Say, isn’t that the woman who… Um... Oh, what is her name? The one in the blue car.”
Claire leaned over to see out the window. “You mean Bunny.”
Claire understood Sam’s forgetfulness. It happened to her more often than she liked to admit, and Sam had a few decades on her.
Sam snapped his fingers. “Yes, that’s it! Bunny Johnson.”
“Bunny Howard.”
“Oh, right.” Sam looked sheepish. “Memory isn’t all that. I remember her from a while back. Guess I should have said hi.”
“I’m sure you’ll have plenty of chances to see her again. She comes in quite regularly.”
“She does, does she?” Sam shuffled over to the section where the dog biscuits were, and Claire followed.
“Yep, and she’s part of our new book club at Tides.” Claire looked over the case at him. “You might want to join that.”
Sam frowned as if considering it. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe.” His demeanor seemed to dim, and Claire wished she hadn’t said anything.
“How many?” Claire held up the dog biscuit bag.
“I’ll take four.” Sam smiled as if to offset his rejection of the book club.
A woman was perusing the items in the case. She pointed at the biscuits as Claire took out four for Sam.
“Oh, you carry Beach Bones. My dog loves those. I got some down in Wells,” the woman said.
“Wells? I only sell them here. These are my own recipe,” Claire said proudly. The woman was probably confused about some other dog biscuits, but Claire hoped she’d try hers.
“Oh. Well, the others were named something similar. I thought it was a brand from a big store. My mistake. I’ll try some of yours, though.”
Claire was happy to sell the woman some Beach Bones, but now she was feeling little uneasy, especially since she remembered someone mentioning they’d seen that name the other day. Maybe changing her name was best, but Claire was getting sort of attached to the name. And besides, if someone had copied her, then she didn’t want them to think they could just take her name for the biscuits. She made a mental note to have Tammi step up the pace on her trademark research.
* * *
