“Let’s drop Sammy off at Ethel’s,” Sandra said.
“All right,” Bob said, sounding amused. “Why?”
“I want to see if April is home.”
“April? Why?”
“Because if she’s not, we can maybe snoop around and see if we can find a gun. I would think it would be hard to hide a gun that big.”
“Why April, though? Why is your brain going straight to her?”
“She was weird on Tuesday night. I wish you’d seen it because I know you’d agree with me. Gertrude is so far beyond obnoxious. She literally injured April. And yet, April was as sweet as pie. And when Gertrude fell down, April came rushing over to help. It was bizarre.”
Bob stared at her.
“What?”
“You think she’s a murderer because she’s nice?”
“No! It’s more of a gut feeling. If you’d seen it, you’d be on my side.” She sighed in resignation. “All right. Maybe we don’t go to her place. But I’m not sure how to proceed, and that frustrates me. We have no leads. And I don’t know how to find one.”
“Can we find out if April is from Michigan?”
Sandra almost slapped herself in the forehead. Of course! If Jazmyn—or Donna, whatever her name was—was killed because of the accident in Michigan, then of course the killer would be from Michigan. She pulled the van over.
“What are you doing?” Bob looked out his window at the medicinal marijuana store they were now parked in front of. “Did Ethel move?”
“No, I’m calling Chip.”
“Really?”
“Really. We need the crime solved. I don’t necessarily need to do it myself.” Of course, Sandra wanted to be the first one to crack the case, but more than that, she wanted to make sure Gertrude wasn’t the first one to crack the case.
Chip answered on the third ring.
“Have you looked into April?” Sandra asked, after the perfunctory pleasantries.
“No. I’m focusing on October for right now.”
Sandra tried to gratify his attempt at humor with a fake laugh, but her laugh sounded more like the cry of a startled donkey. “I was being serious.”
“So am I. Who is April?”
“I don’t know her last name. She’s one of the adult dancers at Synergy Dance Studio.”
“Why would we look into her? Sandra, I know you mean well, but I’m busy here.” The condescending tone of his second sentence erased her motivation to answer his first one. And she could hear Slaughter harping in the background.
“Fine. Sorry to bother you.” She hung up.
“That went well.”
She sneered at the angel. “I didn’t know angels were big on irony.”
“Who are you calling now?”
“No one. I’m looking at April’s social media profiles.” Of course, she wasn’t friends with the stranger, so she had to go to Joyelle’s page and then find April there, which took a few seconds, and Bob made his impatience clear by tapping on the dashboard. It sounded like a fifth-grade drum solo. She found April’s account and scrolled down. She groaned.
“What is it?”
“There is literally no personal information here.”
“Smart woman.”
“Yes, she is.” Maybe too smart. “She doesn’t even use her last name on here unless her last name is May.”
Bob snickered. “Someone named their child April May?”
“Maybe? Maybe not. Lots of fake names around here.”
“How do you know where she lives?”
“I don’t yet. I was going to ask Joyelle.”
Bob stared through the windshield, squinting.
Sandra drove away from the pot shop.
“All right,” Bob said. “If we can figure out where she lives, I say we go take a peek. But only because I want to see if she’s from Michigan, not because I think we’ll find a gun, though that would certainly simplify things. And maybe we should wait until dark.”
“I would assume she’d be home at night.”
“Why do you assume she’s not home right now?”
“She runs a daycare downtown.”
“How do you know that?”
“Joyelle told me.”
“Oh!” He sounded impressed. She didn’t know why. She had accomplished far more impressive sleuthing feats. “All right then. Let’s go have a look.”
“Can you make me invisible?”
“I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“So you can make me invisible!” She was unreasonably excited about the idea.
“I didn’t say that.”
“Actually, you kind of did.”