We had a million questions, but Red didn’t have any answers. All he knew was that Dixon had been strangled. He said he needed to go and made a quick exit, promising to call me later. Joe promised to make sure that Steve Austin, Red’s dog, made it home safely.
“Glad I deleted that video now,” David said.
We tried to comfort him, but I knew the best thing we could do was to get busy. “This is horrible. Just because none of us liked him doesn’t mean we wanted him dead.”
“I suppose this rules him out as a suspect,” Beau said.
“I’d say that’s a good assumption. Chances are rare that there are two stranglers out there.”
“So now we need to figure out who murdered Naomi Keller and Dixon Vannover,” Dr. Morgan said.
“I’m worried about June,” Dixie said.
“That poor woman sells her first painting and loses her husband on the same day,” Monica Jill said.
I glanced at Dixie. “Casserole?”
She nodded. “Casserole.”
“Any chance June killed them both?” Madison asked.
We stared.
“I suppose it’s possible,” I said. “Although . . . she seemed to worship the man.”
“True, but he was a lying womanizer,” B.J. said. “Besides, how do we know that June Vannover is the innocent she claims to be?”
“You mean like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?”
“Maybe June Vannover is meek and mild when she’s sober, but once she’s wasted, she becomes a totally different person.”
Something in the way she spoke made me ask, “Are you speaking from experience?”
She took a deep breath. “My ex-husband was like that. When he was sober, he was the perfect husband. He was kind, thoughtful, romantic, and . . . sweet.” She shook her head. “But once he got drunk, he became mean and abusive.”
“I didn’t know alcohol could do that,” Monica Jill said. “I always thought liquor amplified your personality rather than changed it altogether.”
“Well, that’s not how it worked with Richard. I put up with it for a few years. He always promised that he was going to stop drinking, but he couldn’t.”
Monica Jill reached out and touched her friend’s arm. “I had no idea.”
“Why should you? We’ve been divorced for almost ten years now.” She shrugged. “I’ve moved on. He’s moved on too. Now he’s remarried and some other woman’s problem, but just because this June Vannover seemed nice when you met her doesn’t mean she’s that way all the time.”
“That’s true, Mom,” Stephanie said. “You did say you thought she wasn’t a stranger to alcohol.”
“That was just my first thought. I’m certainly no expert.”
“Well, your instincts are usually pretty good,” Joe said.
I thought for a few moments. “You’re all right. I guess I feel sorry for her, so I don’t want her to be guilty. The facts are that she was angry with Naomi Keller. She believed she was having an affair with her husband and that he planned to leave her.”
“And Naomi Keller ended up dead,” B.J. said.
“Strangled to death,” Dixie added.
“Next thing we know, June’s husband ends up dead,” Monica Jill said.
“Strangled to death,” Stephanie said.
I held up my hands. “Okay, June Vannover stays on the list.”
B.J. raised an eyebrow. “Stays on the list? June Vannover needs to be at the top of the list.”
“Okay, but we can’t eliminate our other suspects. There’s still Britney Keller.” I glanced around the table and noted that the others nodded their agreement, although reluctantly.
“There’s also Warren Keller,” Dixie said. “His motive is just as strong as June’s. Naomi was his wife.”
“Plus Dixon Vannover was diddling not only his wife, but his daughter too,” Madison said.
I glanced around. “Anyone else?”
“That’s enough for now, don’t you think?” Dixie said.
We talked about our next steps. Joe hadn’t been able to visit the Greyhound rescue, but he promised he would do so tomorrow. Dixie and I planned to take a casserole to June Vannover. Mai was also planning to visit the rescue to get more info on Brittany Keller. Theodore Jordan was going to court, but Stephanie was going to ask around at the pub and the courthouse.
“I was supposed to meet with Dixon Vannover tomorrow morning,” Beau said, “but . . . now I don’t have an assignment.”
“I think you and David should still go to the campaign site,” I said. “The workers may have some insight that might help.”
David narrowed his eyes. “What kind of insight?”
“Did he have an argument with someone? Maybe someone heard that he was going to meet with one of our suspects. Look, I doubt that we’re going to find a note on the floor saying, ‘Meet killer at seven p.m.,’ but you never know what someone heard. There’s bound to be a lot of emotions, and maybe someone will let something slip that we can use later.”
David nodded. “Got it.”
“You want us to just listen and see if there’s something that will help tie these murders together,” Beau said.
“Yes,” I said. “We don’t have a lot to go on, except now we have one more dead body.”
Monica Jill patted my arm. “Hopefully, we also have one less suspect.”
Later, when I was in bed, I wondered if Monica Jill was right. Did we have one less suspect? Were we even looking in the right direction? I tried to think through what I knew about Naomi Keller and Dixon Vannover. In my gut, I didn’t believe the murders were unrelated. So if they were related, what did the two people have in common? They were lovers. That meant there were two spouses who might have wanted one of them dead, but would either June Vannover or Warren Keller want both of them dead? Try as I might, the only person I could imagine who would want to see both of them dead was Brittany Keller. If she was in love with Dixon Vannover and he had jilted her, then she might be angry enough to want him dead. If I can’t have him, then no one can may seem clichéd, but newspapers were filled with stories of an injured lover with that mentality. Plus, she hated her stepmother. The fact that her lover tossed her aside for her stepmother had to be like pouring salt into an open wound. After delivering my casserole to June Vannover, I needed to make my way to the Greyhound rescue.
I sat up in bed. “My goodness. I need to make a casserole.”