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Em sat in the chair in front of Catt’s desk as Catt explained the detective’s visit.
“You’ve got to be kidding. Death by dog clippers?” Em asked.
“Yes.”
“What’s our next move?”
“I’m torn between helping Bella and following Detective Harding’s order to stop investigating. He was mad when he left.”
“I say we keep at it and ask for forgiveness later,” Em suggested.
“Agree. We’ve come too far to stop now. But let’s review what we have.” She walked to the white board and grabbed a marker. “First, we have Trey in the tub.”
“Dead as a doornail.”
Catt raised her eyebrows. “Be serious, Em.”
“Sorry.”
“So, we have Trey who was killed by a dog trimmer, and ours is nowhere to be found.” She wrote on the board.
“Plus, grooming shears in his chest,” Em added.
“Right. And the blond, Catrina Murray.” Catt continued writing.
“Who I don’t trust.” Em cleared her throat. “And Beau lying about knowing her makes things messier.”
Catt lowered her hand with the marker.
“Look we have to include everything,” Em suggested.
“Okay. Then there’s the man with the ball cap covering his face.” Catt added it to the board.
“Now that’s a mystery,” Em said.
“True.” Catt gave a puzzled look.
“What are you thinking?”
“There’s something familiar about him,” Catt said.
“What is it?”
“I can’t put my finger on it, but his look is throwing me off.”
“It’ll come to you eventually. It always does,” Em said. “Then we have Cagney with the blood on her leash.”
“I wish I knew how that happened.” Catt added it to the board.
“And the phone call from someone needing their shelf fixed but the number was unlisted,” Em offered. “And Lexi who told the detective you might know something about the missing trimmer.”
“Yeah, that. I plan to talk to her about it.”
“Plus, Darcey and Stacey who talked to Trey on the boardwalk the morning he was killed. Have you discussed that with them?”
“Not yet.” Catt wrote down the information then stood back and viewed the board.
“Plus, Beau not seeing or hearing anything the day of the murder,” Em added.
“He said he was busy working on the shed and never heard anything.”
“Right.” Em sounded sarcastic.
“Em, don’t make it worse.” She paused. “I think that’s everything.”
“You know what we’ve got here?” Em asked.
“What?”
“A hell of a mess.”
Catt agreed.
“What do we do with all of this?” Em asked.
Catt pressed her finger against her lip. “Hear me out. We’ve got the boardwalk event tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
“We use that to lure the killer.”
“How?”
“Get the word out that we found another angle on the security camera that identifies the killer and are waiting for the detective to come pick it up. And that we feel confident that the killer will be behind bars by suppertime.”
“Do we have time?”
“Yes. But we must work fast. Here’s what we’ll do. In between the event, I’ll hang out at the office and wait for the killer to make his move.”
“This could be dangerous,” Em suggested.
“Yes. But we have no choice. I could lose the business. Plus, now that I have access to the surveillance cameras, I can view the property to see who enters.”
