The meetings were supposed to be anonymous, but anonymity wasn’t guaranteed. I’d sat in on one a few years back while investigating the death of Dolly Paris, with Gilly and Pippa in tow, and that’s when we’d discovered Tippi was attending meetings. Tonight was Tippi’s three-year birthday. Had my nightmare stalker used that information to punish me? The bullets placed in the popcorn stand next to my sales booth had felt like a cruel taunt. Whoever was behind this wanted to prove they were cleverer than I was, and they didn’t care if they hurt the people I loved in the process.
By the time I finished my shower, I felt emotionally drained but somewhat lighter. Downstairs, the comforting aroma of lemon, fresh basil, Italian parsley, and garlic wafted up, drawing me to the kitchen. Gilly, Ari, and Gilly’s husband, Scott, were waiting for me, and their presence was a balm on my frayed nerves.
Gilly had cooked lemon chicken piccata served over fettuccine with a side of pan-fried asparagus for dinner and had brought me a plate over. The whole thing was covered in fresh-grated Romano cheese. Her ex-husband Gio was a renowned chef, but in my estimation, he didn’t have anything on Gilly. Her food was comforting and delicious.
“Eat up,” she said, placing the dish in front of me. “I know it’s one of your favorites, and I made enough to feed an army.”
Scott, who looked like a perfect blend of Harrison Ford and Anderson Cooper, beamed at me. “It’s the best chicken I’ve ever had.” He put his arm around Gilly’s shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. “You’ve outdone yourself tonight, sweetheart.”
Gilly flushed with pleasure, and I smiled. Not to take away from Gilly’s cooking, because, as I said before, she was excellent. But she could smear peanut butter between two slices of bread, and that man would rave about how it was the best peanut butter sandwich he’d ever had.
I took a bite, savoring the sour, bitter, and salty notes of the lemon, wine sauce, and capers. “Mmm-mmm.” I hummed. “No lies detected.” I gave her a grateful look. “You didn’t have to do all this for me, though.”
She gave me the stink-eye back. “You had coffee and a roll for breakfast, no lunch, and you barely ate any of the tacos I brought you earlier. And I know you well enough to know if I wasn’t force-feeding you a meal right now, you would go to bed without eating.”
I smirked. “Guilty as charged.” Reaching over, I squeezed her hand. “Thank you for taking such good care of me.”
“You’d do the same for me.” I dug in, slicing a piece of chicken breast and wrapping it with the pasta before shoving it in my mouth. “God, this is so good,” I said when I finished the bite. “You can make this for me every day.”
Gilly’s grin almost reached her ears. “When you finish, you’ll tell us what happened tonight, right?”
I nodded as I took another bite. Gilly and Ari had been with me when the stinky flowers had arrived. Of course, they wanted to know how it all turned out. I took another bite, then another. How could I tell her that my nightmare stalker was targeting my closest loved ones? I worried for Ezra, but at least he had a gun. I would never forgive myself if something happened to Gilly, Pippa, or anyone in their families.
By the time I finished my plate, there was nowhere left to hide.
When I didn’t say anything right away, Scott asked, “Should I get the murder board?”
Ari’s eyes lit up. “Murder board?” She smacked her palms on the counter. “What murder board?”
I chuckled softly. When we’d stumbled over a body in a vineyard last year in June while celebrating Gilly’s impending nuptials, we’d created a murder board for our investigation. It had made sense at the time since we were unfamiliar with the deceased and the suspects and had no real access to the police investigation since it was out of Ezra’s jurisdiction. “No one’s been murdered, so I’m not sure we need one.”
“Then we’ll call it a suspect board,” Gilly amended.
“I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
Ari took her phone from her back pocket. It was one of the new foldable phones that opened to a large screen. She slid a stylus out of the end. “Suspect board acquired,” she said robotically.
Gilly giggled. “Excellent. First, what happened tonight? And before you get all, oooo, how much should I tell Gilly, I will say that Pippa called me and told me about the bomb in the church.”
“Then it seems you know everything.”
Ari leaned forward. “How did you figure out it was the church and not the library or bookstore?”
“I didn’t do it alone. The twelve rules from the memory were the twelve steps for recovery. Tolkiens was tokens, like coins or chips.” I stood up, my belly stretched full. “I must’ve heard him wrong in the vision.”
Scott nodded. “Or he was purposefully trying to throw you off.”
“Maybe.” I worried that the real reason I’d heard Tolkiens is because that’s what I’d expected to hear. If he left another message for me, I had to pay closer attention to the exact words. I couldn’t get the stench of the bomb out of my mind. I’d never smelled anything so awful. “The church used to be the library.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Gilly said. “I think I still have my card from there somewhere.”
“Didn’t you say something about Morgan Freeman in one of the visions?” Ari asked.
“Yes, he sang the EZ Reader theme song fromThe Electric Company.”
“So, it’s a boomer,” Ari said, scribbling on her phone with the stylus.
I frowned. “What makes you think that?”
