I hid a smile. “Right. So you said.”
He made a little huffy sound. “What did Mrs. Miller say?
“About Sal? Not much. She knew who he was, and that he seemed nice enough.”
“What do we know about her?” Zachary wanted to know.
“Mrs. Miller? Again, not much. She’s an elderly woman with too many cats who owns the duplex Nick was renting. Her husband’s dead. She heard Nick’s truck arrive but claims she didn’t hear the gunshot. She said he was a nice boy who helped her with her groceries, but we only have her word for that.”
Zachary leaned forward. “She was there, so she had opportunity. And she might have had motive. Maybe means, too. An old lady living by herself? She might own a gun. For protection.”
She might. I’d come across vicious old ladies before, so I knew very well that they aren’t all harmless. Several have tried to kill me, as a matter of fact.
“Most people are killed by someone they know,” I said slowly.
Zachary nodded. “What if he wasn’t paying rent, or was playing music too loud, or—I don’t know—kicked one of her cats because it sprayed on his tires?”
“You think he’d do that?” I wrote it down anyway. “Or that she would?”
“She must like cats quite a lot,” Rachel opined, “to have so many. Half a dozen, you said?”
“Maybe more. I don’t know if saw them all.”
“I’d do something bad to anyone who kicked Edwina,” Zachary said, and I had to admit that I so would I. Maybe not murder, but I’d certainly slash their tires or something equally vicious and petty.
“Anyone else that needs to go on the list?”
I couldn’t think of anyone else, and said so.
“So what do we do?” Zachary wanted to know. “Now that we’re actually getting paid to solve this crime?”
“Nothing stupid,” Rachel admonished. “Let the police handle the mob. If Abruzzi or the other guy killed Nick, let’s not get involved in that.”
Fine by me. I tapped the pen against the page. “I suppose we keep an eye on them. One of us at the Body Shop, one at the duplex in Bellevue.”
“I’ll take the Body Shop,” Zachary volunteered. “I already know the routine. And it’s nice to have the Taco Bell so close for when I get hungry.” He grinned.
“I’ll take Bellevue, then.” And maybe I’d take Kenny, too, on my way there. “You’ll tell us if Kenny starts to behave like he has a guilty conscience, won’t you, Rachel?”
“Of course,” Rachel said. “What about Jacquie? She’s the one who hired us, but?—”
“But she’s also a suspect.” I nodded. “Seems stupid, though. If she killed Nick, why hire us to investigate his murder?”
“Maybe she is stupid,” Rachel said.
“I’m sure she is. But I don’t think she’s stupid enough to draw attention to herself when she doesn’t have to.”
“She could be trying to be clever. Hiding in plain sight, so to speak.”
“That would be even more stupid than leaving it alone. And unless you want to go in the field?—”
Rachel shook her head. “No, thank you. I have enough to do here.”
“Well, then there are only two of us, and we can only be in so many places. Between the mob—and we’re not keeping an eye on them; Mendoza and Megan have that covered—and Sal and Mrs. Miller, I think our time is better spent watching Sal and Mrs. Miller than Jacquie.”
Zach nodded agreement.
“Besides,” I added, “if it wasn’t Sal or Mrs. Miller—or the mob—then there’s only Jacquie left.” And Kenny. “So we zero in on her either way.”
