"We waited for you before we started dinner," Cooper said as I walked into the kitchen a couple of hours later.
"Thanks, but I'm not sure I can eat a thing."
"You look tired. Long day?" he said, walking across the kitchen to give me a kiss. He took my purse and my bag from my hands, walking over to the small table in the kitchen that pretended to be a dumping ground for things. "Have a seat, okay? Something to drink at least?"
"Thanks, Cooper. And to answer your question, yes. You didn't hear?"
"Hear what?" he said as Willie came into the room and gave me a salute as he walked over to the refrigerator, opening it and grabbing a bowl of salad, and setting it on the counter.
"Well, apparently you didn't hear if you're asking that. Remember that pain in the you-know-what florist I told you about? Josie MacArthur?"
"The one who came into the shop to harass you,” Cooper said.
"Yeah, that's the one. Well, someone killed her at the festival."
Cooper froze for a second. "Willie, can you check and see if the chicken is done?"
Willie nodded, and Cooper came and sat across from me.
"Wait. Let me get you that drink before I start asking questions." He said the word "drink" as Willie started to get glasses out and grabbed the pitcher of iced tea from the refrigerator. He started filling the glasses so Cooper could just grab them and take them back to the table, where he sat down again.
"I'm surprised Tobey hasn't called me about it yet. What happened?"
"Well, it just happened, and I left when the sheriff left, after they closed everything up. Right now, it's a crime scene. I'm not even sure we'll be able to go back tomorrow."
"But what happened?" he prompted me again.
I went through everything that I had seen and heard. "I know she had enemies. But I mean enemies out in the world, not here in Hunter's Hollow. Who would want to kill her here?"
"I wonder if it's related to Susan's murder," Willie said.
He had taken the chicken out of the oven and was now putting a piece on each of the three plates while Cooper got up and grabbed the salad tongs to put salad on the plates. Bella was rubbing against my leg, and I was petting her velvety ears for comfort. Topknot was harassing Willie for food.
"Let me help you with that," I said, starting to get up.
"Nope, stay seated. I got it," Willie said, holding napkins and silverware in one hand and then stacking the three plates on his left hand and walking over to the table like a professional.
I looked at him with surprise. "Maybe you can get a job here as a waiter."
"Ha! I'm glad I haven't lost my touch since waiting tables during my four years of college," he said and set everything down.
The chicken smelled amazing. It was just baked chicken, but Cooper had years ago found some kind of dry rub that he had started putting on all our chicken, and it turned plain bland chicken into something fabulous. But as good as it smelled, I just wasn't that interested in eating. I pushed the salad around my plate as I thought about the question Willie had asked.
"I don't know what Susan and Josie really had in common up until today. Apparently, Scott paid Josie to come here and enter the contest to try and give the festival more exposure, and Susan found out."
Willie let out a low whistle. "So maybe someone found that out Josie was paid to be here and was angry enough to kill her."
"That's what I thought, but the one to be mad at is Scott, don’t you think, not Josie? Aren’t you a detective?" I said, teasing.
"Funny. Technically, yes, but it's like when a guy cheats and his girlfriend gets mad at the other girl. How often does the girl get mad at the guy? Maybe someone found out and was taking his or her anger out on Josie. Or maybe they didn't know she was paid to be there and just took their anger out on her anyway. Who would want to win that bad?"
I knew exactly who might want to win that bad, but was she capable of murder?