‘I don’t see the connection.’
Ellen pushed her empty pie plate to one side and picked up her glass of iced tea. It was too hot for coffee.
She, Dan, Mary and Emma Baxter all sat around Mary’s dining-room table, eating lemon blueberry pie and drinking iced tea. It was also too hot to bake but that’s what Mary did when she was upset. Somehow it helped settle her nerves, and her conversation with Mo Black had left her upset.
‘More pie, anyone?’ She pushed her chair back, ready to refill plates.
Millie looked up hopefully from her spot under the table by Mary’s chair. Ranger and Morgan lay on each side of the kitchen door. Hoping some crumbs would drop their way as she passed in and out?
Everyone groaned. The pie was delicious but rich.
Ellen pushed her aunt gently back down in the chair. ‘I’ll get the iced tea pitcher.’
Emma got up, started to collect plates and followed Ellen into the kitchen.
Dan stared at Mary. ‘I don’t see how you do it. You found two people who are willing to swear Eric Wilson was in Santa Louisa not more than a couple of weeks ago while Wilson gave us to believe he’d never heard of this town until he got the call that Miller was dead. It’s not exactly a lie but as close as it gets to one. Only, why?’
‘Why was he here or why didn’t he tell you?’
‘Both.’ He sighed and leaned back. ‘It’s interesting and I guess I’ll have to ask Wilson about it when he returns, but I’m with Ellen. I don’t see the connection.’
Emma stepped over the dogs and sat back down. ‘Why do dogs always lie in doorways?’
No one had an answer to that question either.
‘I can think of one possible reason he was here.’ The behavior of dogs abandoned, she returned to the behavior of people. ‘Wilson was furious when he found out Miller had made a connection between that string of robberies. He could have been trying to find out if the Blacks were implicated.’
Ellen stepped over the dogs and slid into her chair. ‘What would that have to do with Miller’s murder?’
Emma shrugged.
‘Were Miller and Wilson partners when Mo Black’s brother was arrested?’
That the wheels were turning in Dan’s head as he tried to fit the puzzle pieces together, Mary had no doubt, but these pieces didn’t seem to belong to the same puzzle.
Emma looked blank. ‘Don’t know. That was way before my time.’
‘But you know how long they’d been partners?’
She nodded slowly. ‘Over ten years. My uncle said they’d been close friends at one time but had a falling out a long time ago. I don’t know over what. Anyway, they remained partners but the personal friendship was dead. Miller has gone his own way ever since.’
‘A falling out but not such a big one they weren’t still partners. That doesn’t sound like a big enough motive for murder.’ Mary had absentmindedly scratched Millie’s ears as the dog tried to climb into her lap. She pushed her down. ‘There’s not room enough in this chair for both of us and the crumbs are gone.’
Millie sighed and crept back under the table.
Ellen set her empty iced tea glass back down and looked at Dan. ‘Do you think the Blacks could be implicated? That Black shot Miller because he was on his trail?’
Dan shook his head. ‘First, we don’t know Miller was. Second, if anyone was on Black’s trail it was Wilson, and if Emma’s right he was on Miller’s trail as well. But what good killing Miller would do either of them, I can’t see.’
‘Suppose that …’ Ellen didn’t get any further.
‘Suppose we don’t go any further ourselves until we get some evidence. Wilson should be back tomorrow or the next day and, with any luck, they’ll have found something on Miller’s computer or phone. There wasn’t one thing in his hotel room that was helpful. Except possibly that laptop and phone. And, of course, the dog bed.’
Ellen laughed. ‘Which you brought home and Ranger has ignored. Morgan likes it, though.’
Dan grinned. ‘Ranger likes having his own dinner dish.’ His grin faded as he stared at the dog. ‘Another mystery is why no one on Miller’s team has offered to take Ranger or offered any information on who might.’ He turned to Emma. ‘Did Miller have a family?’
‘I heard he was divorced but have no idea when or where his ex might be. I don’t know who would have a claim on Ranger or who might want to adopt him. I can’t. I live in an apartment complex that frowns on goldfish. How about the guy who we met walking him?’
‘Tommy Lowell?’ Mary looked at Dan, then Ellen. ‘He seems to like the dog. Would he take him?’
‘I don’t think his father would let him.’ There was more than a hint of disapproval in Ellen’s voice.
It was annoyance more than disapproval that Mary felt. ‘Tommy Lowell is a grown man. He lived in London for years before he came home. He’s a certified … something and can rival his father in jewelry design in every way. I doubt he’d need permission to take a dog.’
Dan burst out laughing. ‘Tommy would be happy to hear you stick up for him, I’m sure, but I agree. I doubt he needs sticking up for. Ellen’s also right, though. Jerry Lowell has pretty fixed ideas of what he wants and what he doesn’t. If Tommy wants the dog and his father doesn’t, I’ll bet Ellen could find him a little house someplace to rent. He might be a lot happier that way.’
Mary remembered what Tommy had said. His mother had asked him to move back in with them. Why, she didn’t know. Would Tommy really move into his own place over a dog? Time alone would tell.
That was as far as the conversation went that night. Ellen yawned. Dan smiled, pushed back his chair and suggested they call it a night.
Mary locked the door after them and went into the kitchen to clean up, but the girls were way ahead of her. Glasses and plates in the dishwasher, remains of the pie in the refrigerator, drain boards wiped down – there was nothing left to do. Relieved, Mary let the tiredness that had been creeping up on her for the last hour or so take over. She and Millie would also call it a night. She vowed tonight she wasn’t going to lie awake, worrying about who killed Mr Miller. If it was someone from town, what would that mean for the town? She was going to slip into her lightest nightgown, leave the ceiling fan on and go right to sleep.
Only she didn’t.