I glanced at Pepper. The look of horror on her face almost made me bust a gut laughing.
She quickly recovered, though. The redhead tromped over to the booties and inspected them. “Oh, I don’t know. We might need some of these in a few years, don’t you think?”
Axel paled.
Pepper elbowed his ribs. “You know, because Hugo’s going to get bigger and he’ll need some.”
The blood rushed back into Axel’s features. “Right. Hugo.”
“Who’s Hugo?” Alice said.
“My dog,” Pepper snapped.
Axel spoke over her. “Her dog.”
“Methinks the lady doth protest too much,” Ruth murmured.
“Didn’t the Hudsons have a niece?” Alice said.
I turned to her. “Did you say something about the Hudsons having a niece?”
Alice pressed the tip of her finger to her lips. “Hmm. Yes. That’s what I was thinking.” She paused and blinked at me. “Do you know her?”
My lips peeled back in a tight smile. “No, I don’t know her. I didn’t even realize they had a relative in town until you mentioned it.”
“Yes, now that I think about it, I do believe there was a niece.”
Ruth slowly folded her arms. “And what made you just now remember this?”
“I think it was the booties.” She raised her latest project into the air. “Crochet helps me think clearly. It’s like what all those hippies talk about with zen, or things being far out. I get all my far-out stuff from working a needle and yarn.”
Alice returned to her work. I shot Ruth a frustrated look. I don’t think Alice meant to drop a gemstone of information and then make us scramble for more pieces, but she wasn’t exactly offering them, either. “Does this great feeling of peace also provide names and locations of people?”
“Now let me see if I remember correctly.” Alice snipped the yarn with scissors and knotted it, tucking the stubby end back into the bootie. “I think the niece had a very distinct name. Very distinct. Not the sort you hear every day. Let me think about it for a while. It’ll come to me.”
“In the meantime I’ll search for information on what happened to the Hudsons. See if I can find anything.” Axel moved toward the door. “I’ll see if anyone can help with the strange name of the niece, too.” The words slung from his mouth with a bite. He sounded as annoyed with Alice as I was. I couldn’t blame him. Alice offered a sliver of information that wasn’t exactly what I’d call helpful.
“I’ll go with Axel,” Pepper said.
“Hey, what’re y’all doing for supper tonight?”
Pepper’s flickering glance at Axel suggested they didn’t know.
Axel shrugged. “No plans.”
“You’re welcome to have supper with me and my boyfriend. He owns Haunted’s B and B—it’s a pretty original name. It’s called the Haunted Hollow Bed and Breakfast. You can’t miss it.”
Before Axel could reply, Pepper answered enthusiastically. “We’d love to come. What time?”
“Seven.”
“Perfect. That gives us time to look around town.” She hugged her purse to her and grinned. She was so darling. I wanted to pinch her cheeks and put her in my pocket.
No, I wasn’t being sarcastic. Sometimes I actually liked people.
After they left, I turned to remind Ruth and Alice of the dangers of theSpirituswhen Ruth interrupted me.
“What in the world?”
