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We both sat still for a few moments in the car after Holly started it up. A text came through on my phone, and I pulled it out of my pocket.
Is everything okay? It was Grayson.
I pecked out a quick explanation.
Oh no. Are you coming back to Holly’s?
I glanced over at Holly, who seemed completely deflated. “Holly? Do you want me to drive?”
She nodded, hopping back out of the car as we changed places, and I got behind the wheel. “Is that Grayson?” she asked.
“Yeah. I just filled him in real quick. He wants to know if we’re heading back to your place.”
Holly shook her head slowly. “No. I think . . . no. Has Grayson eaten breakfast yet?”
I texted Grayson. “He says no.”
“I’m starting to feel like I could have something. All I had this morning was coffee, and you didn’t even have that. My stomach feels really off.”
I said, “Are you sure you want food if you’re not feeling well?”
“I think it’s the kind of sick feeling you get when your body is dissatisfied with the fact you haven’t eaten yet,” said Holly, a wry smile on her features.
“Let’s have a big breakfast, then. I’ll text Grayson and ask him to meet us there.”
Holly considered this. “Okay. We can go to a fancy place that has an elegant buffet and mimosas. Or we can go to a place that’s a dive but has divine comfort food.”
“What are you feeling like?” I was hoping she’d say the dive because Grayson hadn’t gotten that money yet, and he and I were always on a bit of a budget.
A smile widened Holly’s mouth. “The dive. I want a sausage and egg biscuit. With maybe some hash browns on the side.”
A few minutes later, we were in an orange vinyl booth with cups of steaming coffee in front of us and laminated menus in hand. We were lucky someone left the diner right as we arrived because the place was completely packed and now there were several parties waiting for a table.
Holly said, “Sausage and biscuit, hash browns, and a side of buttery grits. How about you two?”
Grayson was happily studying the menu. It was the kind of menu that had photos of the dishes, just in case you weren’t sure what a biscuit looked like. He said slowly, “I’m trying to decide between a pancake plate or the three-egg breakfast.”
“Mm! Tough one,” said Holly. “I’m thinking you probably haven’t had too many carbs lately. Feel like loading up?”
“I’m thinking I need reinforcements while I hear more about what happened this morning,” said Grayson, looking serious. “May as well be carbs.”
The server came by, took our orders, and refilled our already-pretty-full coffees. As she left to place the orders with the kitchen, Grayson said, “Okay. What happened?”
Holly looked at me. “Can you fill him in?”
I did. I told him about us running by the practice to deliver a photo and hoping to have the chance to see Carl. I told him how we got more alarmed as we couldn’t find Lindy and where she was when we finally did. And I told him about Roberts coming.
Our food came as I was wrapping up. Grayson absently poured what looked like half a bottle of warm syrup on his pancakes as he absorbed what I said. “That’s awful. Hey, I’m sorry I slept in. I should have been there with you.” His face was grim. “What if the murderer had still been on the scene?”
Holly shivered. I said firmly, “Well, we were making so much racket calling for Lindy that he could easily have slipped out without confronting us. We weren’t exactly sneaking up on anybody.”
Holly said, “Don’t feel bad about sleeping in. You needed the sleep. And Murphy loved all the attention you gave him yesterday. That was a huge help for me. I’ve been feeling bad that I haven’t had time to walk him.”
Grayson gave her a small smile. We drank our coffee for a few moments. Then he said, “What happened after the cops came?”
Holly gave me a prompting look again. I said, “Roberts asked us some questions. He probably needed to eliminate us as suspects, I guess.”
Holly nodded. “He wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t.”
“Then Carl Hopkins came by. He wasn’t thrilled about having a murder at the dental practice,” I said.
Grayson raised an eyebrow. “The one he’s trying to sell. No, I guess he wasn’t. Even so, that probably came off pretty cold.”
“Yeah, I think Roberts might have thought it sounded that way. He was still trying to get a lock on Carl’s feelings about Frank, and the way Frank stood between him and selling the place. Carl seemed more concerned about what was going to happen when the patients came by and no one could get their dental work done.”
Grayson said, “A legitimate concern, but again, it doesn’t make him sound like the warmest person. Or that he cared much about Lindy.”
Holly said, “It sounded like he thought of Lindy as just an employee. A capable one, for sure, but not someone who he cared anything about. It made me think, if she’d known something about Carl being involved in Frank’s death, that he wouldn’t have thought twice about getting rid of her.”
“Is that what you think happened?” asked Grayson, looking somber.
Holly shrugged. “I don’t know what to think. I felt like I was just starting to feel a little normal this morning, you know? That’s the ironic thing. I was processing the fact that Frank was gone and taking baby steps forward. Now this happened.” She looked helplessly at us. “I want to find out who’s behind this. Seriously. I know the cops are doing their jobs, but it’s taking forever. What if more people die in the meantime?”
“You’re wanting us to figure it out,” I said. It wasn’t a question. I could see Holly’s intent on her face.
“I think we can do it. Especially since you’ve had some experience with this. People will talk more to us than they will to the cops. And we have a good angle for finding out information—it was my brother who died, after all. They’ll understand if I want to talk about what happened. Or if I embark on a vendetta,” she said dryly, picking up her sausage and egg biscuit to take a bite. After swallowing it down, she said, “Ann, can you give a rundown of all our suspects?”
“Sure. We’ve covered Carl already. And now Lindy is out of the picture, if she’d ever really been part of it,” I said.
Grayson nodded. “I’m sure the cops probably thought of her as a major suspect for Frank’s death. A girlfriend would be. But I couldn’t picture it.”
I said, “So we’ve got Warner the relic hunter, June the ex-wife, and Paul the best friend.”
Holly said, “You know, I’ve always thought Paul was a great guy and a good friend to Frank. Frank always had a tendency to stay in his own head too much, but he’d be a different person with Paul. Paul was good for him, I’d always thought. And now? I just don’t know what to think.”
Grayson nodded soberly. “It doesn’t look great, does it? It sounds like he might have been doing business on the shady side with that development.”
“So, what are we thinking?” I asked. “We think the developer bribed Paul to help push the development approval through? Maybe offered him some sort of stake in the project? Or maybe Paul was in on the development all the way through and just didn’t disclose it and recuse himself when it came up for a vote?”
Holly shrugged. “Either way, it stinks to high heaven. The whole thing bugs me. Paul has plenty of money. He came from money. It’s upsetting to me that he might be corrupt. Why would he need more money? Because of June and her crazy spending?” Her face darkened. “And what if he killed Frank because Frank stood in the way of him getting that money? And Paul was terrified of having his corruption uncovered?”
“At least the police know about Paul’s involvement in whatever it was. It sure sounds like it might have been influence peddling, at the very least,” I said. “So we agree he has a strong motive.”
Holly and Grayson nodded.
“Then we have Warner,” I said. “At first glance, he didn’t seem to have as much motive as Paul. We know he was upset and probably jealous of Frank. Frank seemed to have a much more successful relic hunting operation than Warner did.”
Grayson nodded. “I think a couple of things are key there. Warner sounded like he was frustrated with the status quo. He’s putting everything into his relic hunting passion, but he wasn’t as successful as Frank.”
Holly shrugged. “Frank was a little older, and he had a lot more connections.”
I said, “And Warner sounded pretty bitter about those connections.”
“True,” said Holly in a thoughtful tone.
Grayson added, “There’s something else, too. The way Frank was murdered seemed impulsive, didn’t it?”
“Totally,” I said. “It’s like someone noticed Frank’s car outside the library, found him, maybe had an argument or a disagreement, and then pushed the bookcases over.” I gave Holly an apologetic look at bringing up the way Frank had died.
But Holly, warming to the task of figuring out the most likely suspect, didn’t even notice. “It doesn’t seem planned, does it? It must have been spontaneous.”
I nodded. “Unless somebody knew Frank’s schedule that morning and waited for him.”
Holly said, “I’m not even sure Frank knew his schedule. He kept things pretty flexible because people would call in with dental emergencies, and he’d fit them in.” Her eyes widened. “But Lindy knew his schedule.”
We looked at each other. I said slowly, “Which could be the reason Lindy was murdered. Someone could have called in, asked to speak with Frank, and then Lindy mentioned where he was. Later, she’d have wondered about that.” A shiver went up my spine.
Holly shivered, too. “Okay. The next person up is June, the ex-wife. Of course, she’s a natural suspect, even though their divorce wasn’t exactly a nasty one.”
Grayson said, “But why would she kill Frank? The divorce had already gone through; it wasn’t like he was standing in the way of her getting married to Paul. Do you think she was asking for more financial support from Frank?”
Holly shook her head. “Why would she? Paul has a lot more money than Frank did. June was going to be set for life. But again, I think about the impulsive nature of the crime, like you were saying, Grayson. Maybe she was upset about something Frank had done a while back. Maybe she decided to give Frank a piece of her mind once she spotted his car in the parking lot. Then she got angry and shoved the bookcase down.” Holly looked at us to see what we thought of this scenario.
I nodded. “It could have just been an irrational act. June is under a lot of stress and has been for a while. First, there was the unraveling of her relationship with Frank. Then there was new-relationship stress with Paul.”
Grayson raised his eyebrows. “Is there such a thing as new relationship stress?”
“Oh, sure there is,” said Holly. “You’re trying to foster a new relationship and be on your best behavior. It’s definitely a thing.”
“Got it. Sorry for interrupting,” said Grayson.
I smiled at him. “Anyway, then there was the divorce process, which could have been grueling. And then there was the wedding to plan. It’s kind of a lot. So maybe she did just fly off the handle and do something she never would ordinarily think of doing.”
Holly said, “And we’ve already talked a little about Carl. He really gave me a poor impression this morning. I got the feeling that he didn’t care at all about what happened to Lindy or, by extension, Frank. The more I look at him, the more I think he can be cold-blooded enough to murder.”
Grayson nodded. “He’s definitely the kind of person who’s used to getting what he wants. And Frank stood in his way.”
I said, “Carl’s high on the list, for sure.”
We finished up our breakfast, still mulling over bits and pieces of the case. Holly said, “I think we should go see Warner.”
“All of us?” I asked.
“Sure,” said Holly. “I brought a couple of the relics from Frank’s house. I made sure they were ones he had plenty of. We can run by his house on the premise of stopping by to deliver them to him. A nice gesture. I also told him I’d give him Frank’s notebook. I’d like to find out a little more about Warner’s friendship with Frank. Besides, it makes me feel better that I’m doing something.”
“Do you think he’d be home now?” asked Grayson.
Holly shrugged. “No idea. It sounded like he had a pretty erratic schedule. We can give it a go. I just need to run by the house and grab the relics and notebook first.”
We went by Holly’s house, and Grayson and I let Murphy out while she grabbed a small tote bag. Then we set off, this time all in the same car.
Holly had looked up Warner’s address online. He lived in an apartment building that looked like it had seen better days. We went up a few flights of dirty cement stairs to an apartment at the end of the hall. Holly knocked on the door.
After a couple of minutes with no response, Grayson leaned over and pounded on the door.