Eugene’s shadow crept up the white wall. The movement was slow and reluctant, and I got the sense he was a little sheepish. Then the shadow took the shape of a body and nodded.
Gideon tacked the paper on the murder board.
“What is it? Oh. It’s a newspaper article from the Ravenstone Gazette. It says, ‘local brewer opens Bull’s Eye Brewery, giving a nod to his sharpshooting history.’ So, Malcolm is a sharpshooter? That’s pretty damning…” I leaned closer. One of the article’s photos showed Malcolm and three other men holding a trophy. The caption said their team had won a national competition. The picture was several years old, but one of the other men was familiar. His sunglasses and long hair hid part of his face, but there was something about his nose. “So there was a whole team?”
“Oh, yes,” Hazel said, not looking up from her blanket. “The others were all quite good, too. Almost as good as Malcolm.”
Sandy’s stomach gurgled. I could hear it all the way from where I was.
“I need to grab something to eat,” Sandy said, rubbing his belly. “Please don’t forget the treats next time, okay?”
“Okay.” I nodded.
“I need to leave, too.” Hazel tucked her knitting needles into her bag before shaking out her top skirt. In a flash, she had it wrapped around her waist and secured in place. “My mister is anxious about what happened yesterday and doesn’t want me lingering too long in this part of town.” She shook her head and smiled fondly. “You’d think we lived in the city with the way he was carrying on last night. I had to wrap him up tight in my web so he’d calm down.”
I shuddered at the thought of being wrapped in Hazel’s web. Nope. Not for me.
Soon, the only ones left were Gideon, Elwood, and Eugene. Well, and the familiars, they were there, too. I stared at the murder board a bit longer. Something was niggling at me.
Then it came to me. I spun toward Gideon. “What if…?”
“What if… what?” he prompted when I didn’t finish what I was saying because now that one of the pieces of the puzzle had fallen into place, I was getting a picture of what’d happened. I glanced back at the board again. “I think I know who the next target will be.” I grabbed Gideon’s hand and tugged him toward the door. “We gotta go to the conference center before it’s too late.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Declan Solves a Murder… Again
Gideon
“Elwood,” I said, on the way to the door. “We need the microbus.”
He was already reaching for his keys.
The three of us piled into the microbus. Elwood started the engine and sped off, spinning his tires like a man who considered speed limits a polite suggestion.
I reached for the handle above the door on instinct. Old habit.
“Okay, Declan, tell us.”
He turned in his seat so he could see me, one hand braced on the dashboard as Elwood took the first corner.
“Donny,” he said. “I think Donny is the next target.”
“Donny the second-place brewer?” Elwood asked.
“Donny the bookie,” Declan said pointedly. He pushed his glasses up. “Fletcher has the most to lose from Kettlebrook pulling the contract. The brewery was his investment. Roy wasgoing to use that distribution money to expand, which meant Fletcher wouldn’t get any of that money. Then, when Roy died, Fletcher needed to hold everything together. He tried to recruit Beckett. Beckett said no. And now Kettlebrook has handed the contract opportunity to two new candidates.” He paused as Elwood navigated a curve at a speed that made me grab onto my seat to keep from sliding. “One of those candidates is Donny. And Donny isn’t just a brewer competing for a contract. Remember how you said Donny kept talking about how unlucky Fletcher was? I’ll bet anything he’s the man Fletcher owes money to. A lot of money.”
“So Fletcher needs Donny out of the picture,” I said.
“That’s what I think, yes.”
“So we’re going to the hotel to find Donny before Fletcher does,” Elwood said. “And then what?”
“And then we make sure he’s still in one piece,” I said. “And then Grady takes it from there.”
“And if Fletcher is already there?” Declan asked.
I kept my eyes on the road ahead. “Then we'll deal with that.”
