Page 99 of Murder on Charity Lane

I went straight to where she was adjusting the stack of napkins and reported in about my research into the non-CJ murder suspects. “I’ve been looking for donors for work,” I told her. “So I asked around about Sunny Wheeler. It’s such a small town, all the rich people know each other. He’s well-liked but not entirely trusted.”

“Not trusted how?” Lily-Ann asked.

“Basically, Sunny Wheeler is a little too into Sunny Wheeler. Plus, he lost money in a big investment? Sounded like normal rich-guy stuff.”

“Mm,” she said. “Did you ask about Karina?”

I made a face. “She wasn’t involved in giving. Everyone knew Frank better, and liked him more. They made him sound old-fashioned, but in a good way? Though I guess he’d been declining pretty steeply the past year or two.”

“I did some investigating myself this afternoon,” Nicholas said, moving to stand beside me.

“What?” I squinted at him. “When? Where?”

“I, um, ran into Helene Kagant. Downtown, on my lunch hour. She was having iced tea and doing a crossword.”

“Details we didn’t need.” I eyed him suspiciously, because he sounded evasive. “What’d you find out?”

“Not much. Turns out Karina isn’t an engineer, she just worked with them. Uh, she’s apparently a killer on the bocce court.”

“So to speak.”

He bumped me with his hip. “Is bocce the same as lawn bowling?”

“No idea.”

“I don’t see the pertinence,” Lily-Ann said.

“Where exactly did you run into her?” I asked.

“Just, y’know, downtown.” Nicholas gestured meaninglessly. “Oh, and Helene’s a serious cat lady. She fosters for the local shelter. I took a picture of a kitten for Hamilton.”

“So you went to her house!”

He looked shifty. “What? No.”

“She happened to be carrying a kitten around?”

“I mean, I didn’t go inside her house. And she lives downtown, so—”

I narrowed my eyes. “Nicholas Perez! Did you bully her into reading my play?”

“Aw. You’ve never both-named me before.”

“You’ve never deserved it before. Would you stop undermining me?”

“I’m not undermining you. You’re undermining you! You’re amazing, your play is amazing. You just need to get more eyes on it.”

“Which I’ll take care of when I want to.”

“Okay, okay! I’ll stop.”

“Thank you.”

“After I follow up on the copies I already handed out.”

I felt my lips thin. “How many is that?”

“Oh, is that Mrs. B?” he said, turning away.