I nodded. “It was a huge gun, especially in her hands.” We laughed together.
She sobered, looking intense. “I thought since my two partners are in the Caribbean, maybe I should take this case myself.”
I refrained from banging my head against the wall. “Nonna, I don’t think we need Three Hens Investigations on this.”
Nonna, Thelma, and Georgiana had recently created their own detective agency, and they vacillated between calling it Three Hens Investigations. They were Hawk Investigations until my nonna joined. Thus far, they’d solved cases involving lost animals. Which was wonderful, but I didn’t want the Cupids hurting her.
“Oh, no, I’m in this,” she said. “Nick Basanelli is joining this family. He’sItalian, Anna.”
I winced. She loved Aiden, but he was all Irish, and she really wanted more Italians in the family. “I understand.” A sudden idea grabbed me. “In fact, why don’t you help me set up my murder board?” Aiden wouldn’t. However, Nonna was fair game.
“I would love to,” she said, coming to assist me by removing the ice from my knee.
I wore a long T-shirt and thick socks, so I figured that was enough. She helped me out of bed, and I tried to put a little weight on my leg. It was better, definitely better. Even so, I let her hold some of my weight as we made our way into the laundry room.
She looked around. “The laundry room, huh? Aren’t there two other bedrooms in this place?”
“Yeah, but I think better in here.” My heart warmed when I saw that Aiden had already placed regular and colored tape on the washing machine. The man really did know me. I reached for a file folder. “I printed the Basanelli pictures from Facebook. We just need to tape them up on the wall.”
“How exciting.” Nonna flipped open the file folder. “I see. We have Sandrine and the three Basanelli boys.” She looked at me. “You should probably sit down.”
I put my hands behind me on the washing machine and hefted myself up.
“Much better,” Nonna said. “Okay, direct me.”
“Put the Basanellis over to the left, please,” I said.
She taped their pictures together.
“Okay. Now, Wayne and Spencer Wilson. While Spencer had an ironclad alibi back then, it doesn’t mean he didn’t know something or even help his brother after the fact.”
She taped their pictures up.
“And now, Ryan and Lisa Robinson.” I needed to buy some markers or pencils, at the very least.
While Lisa’s picture had been easy to find on Facebook, I’d had to scroll through many years of memories to get a picture of Ryan. He’d been a decent-looking guy. “Then just the blank,” I said.
Nana put up a blank piece of paper and drew a figure. “Who’s this?”
“The unknown. We don’t know everything,” I said.
She sat back and tapped her lips. “These are the suspects, huh?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t have a picture of Richard or Imogen, so I nodded toward a blank piece of paper. “Would you write their names on there, Richard Basanelli and Imogen Wilson?”
“Sure.”
“Secure them above everybody. Once we get colored pencils, we’ll draw lines to show how the people are connected.”
She chewed on a nail. “I don’t see much of a connection.”
“I know. It’s also possible that Richard was seeing other women in town. Do you remember any rumors?”
She shook her head. “Not really, but I’ll get right on that. I mean, our agency will get right on that.”
“That’d be great.” With a couple of phone calls, she could probably find out more than I ever could.
“What else do we have on the case?” She frowned.
