“Can I help you?” the man in a polo with the theater’s logo asked.
“Oh, I thought I left my shawl here last night after the fireworks. You didn’t find one, did you? It’s pink with sparkles?” Rarity asked, hoping that someone else hadn’t had the same shawl and had left it.
“No sorry. I’m going to have to ask you to leave. We’re tearing down the area and I don’t want you to get hurt.” He held his hand out toward the entrance. “You can call the theater on Wednesday. Ask to talk to Cheri about your shawl. If it was here and someone turned it in, she’d know.”
“Oh, thank you. I appreciate the help.” She tugged on Killer’s leash as he sat down to wait for her. They went back to the car where Rarity called Jonathon. “Hey, are you sure they were in that corner?”
“Southwest by the street, yep,” he answered quickly. “Why? What did you find?”
“I’ll bring it Tuesday night.” She paused. “Look, I’m heading into Flagstaff. I’ll chat with you Tuesday.”
“Okay, I’ve already talked to Shirley and I’ll be at the bookstore tomorrow with Romeo to write, if you want to stop by.” Jonathon was giving her another option.
“I’m not sure what I’m doing Monday,” she said. “Anyway, I better go. I don’t want to be on my phone driving.”
“You have a Bluetooth system, but whatever. Romeo wants out anyway.” He paused then said, “Just be careful and call me on your way home.”
“I’m not out sleuthing,” Rarity said. Okay, so she was, but Jonathon didn’t need to know that.
“Whatever you want to say. I raised two kids and was a police detective. Rarity, I can tell an omission as well as a lie.”
“Okay, well, I’ll call you on my way home.” Rarity ended the call. She knew that Archer had a Find My Phone app on both their phones, just in case something happened. Besides, she wasn’t actually going sleuthing, was she?
As she drove to Flagstaff, she decided to go talk to the guy at the spider store again. Maybe he remembered seeing Mason when he bought the toxin from Jax. And maybe, Mason had had a companion with him.
Chapter 22
“Jax doesn’t work here anymore. The boss fired him when the cops told him what Jax was doing.” The young man, Todd, who’d helped Rarity and Jonathon before, was standing in the front of the store, his arms crossed. “He wasn’t doing anything wrong. He was providing a service to old guys.”
“I’m sorry that Jax was fired.” Rarity knew Todd probably thought it was her fault, and maybe it was, but she’d driven all this way to find out something and she wasn’t going to be bullied. “Look, all I want to know is if you talked to Mason Pike when he was in the shop.”
“Mason Pike? Yeah, I talked to him. That guy is a legend. Have you seenAttack of the Venus Spiders? He was in the store about a week before he died. Oh, wait, don’t tell me the stuff Jax gave him was responsible. It’s impossible. Now if it was from a Sydney funnel spider, that stuff is deadly. Jax just had the Brazilian wandering spiders at home. He bought up the supply once the owners discontinued selling them in the store.” Todd looked confused. “Seriously, I don’t know what the police are thinking, but one spider isn’t the same as another. Besides, Mason has a pet tarantula. He knows spiders. Or he knew them. I’ve seen Oscar on the internet. Mason’s always posing with it. Or he was. Every time he posted on social media, we’d get a rash of kids in here who wanted their own spider. Now I guess that will stop.”
Rarity wasn’t getting anywhere with Todd. “So was there anyone with Mason that day?”
“With him? Oh, like a date?”
Rarity smiled. “Yeah, like a date, or maybe just a friend.”
Todd shook his head. “No, he came into the shop alone.”
Rarity thanked him and left to head to the pet store. Killer needed a treat after being in a shop filled with snakes and spiders. He was shaking in her arms the whole time they were in there.
As she put him in his bed on the passenger seat, she kissed his head. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not bringing home one of those pets for your companion. Maybe a kitten someday, though.”
Rarity laughed at the look Killer gave her. People didn’t think dogs were smart, but he definitely had understood what Rarity had said and he wasn’t having any part of it.
“Okay, maybe not a kitten.”
Rarity got into the car and started the engine. She looked over at Killer, but he had his back to her. He’d get over his mad when they got to the pet store. He loved going there.
She turned up the music. At least she’d tried to follow up on the lead. When she got home, she’d let Drew know what she found and where and then dust her hands of it. She had to admit that the sleuthing club had failed this time. Maybe it was the fact that all their suspects were out-of-towners. She didn’t have a lot to go on. She’d been distracted with worrying about Darby.
As she pulled into the parking lot for the pet store, Killer barked and watched the building coming closer. “Sure, now you’re happy again. Mommy’s a failure and you’re going crazy because you get to go pick out your treat.”
At least she wasn’t a failure to her dog. He thought she was amazing. As long as she didn’t mention kittens. She sighed. When she got home, she’d pull out the murder book one more time. Maybe something would trigger her. And she could put away all the excuses she’d made as she drove away from the snake shop.
One more thought cheered her as she put Killer in a cart on top of his store blanket they kept in the car. She wasn’t alone in this. Maybe one of the other club members had come up with something and with what she knew, they’d put the puzzle together.
