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“SO WE’RE NO FURTHER to the truth then?” Katie said later that night as she and Dana sat in adjacent Parisian armchairs with quilted pink and peach-colored cushions curled up by the fireplace in Grandma Rae’s Victorian home. They each had a warm ceramic mug of hot chocolate piled high with whipped cream and marshmallows. One of their favorite comfort drinks—just like in the old days when they were little and Grandma Rae would make it for them.
Truffles, their ginger haired Persian kitty, was curled up by the warm fire in her basket. She’d just been pampered and had her evening snack and was cozy. It appeared that she might even be listening in on their conversation. Which was fine by Dana, since she believed that Truffles had some sort of psychic trait. Weird to think about. But Dana had seen Truffles in action before. Besides, whenever there was danger, Truffles hairs would stand up and she would hiss loudly. She was a lovely companion and one of Dana’s closest friends. But that was something that Dana kept to herself, of course.
It was Truffles that had alerted the neighbors to Grandma Rae’s ill health scare before she passed away and it was Truffles who helped Dana, well inadvertently helped Dana by showing her a sign on her laptop, to solve the Brad Jackson murder last month. It was as if there was a positive energy that lingered between them. Some sort of a protection. She would do anything to protect her little kitty that she’d inherited from Grandma Rae and she knew deep down in her heart, Truffles felt the same way.
“It sure looks that way, cuz. I wish all the pieces of the puzzle fitted together like the riddles on my blog but they just don’t add up.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Dana said as she flipped open her MacBook that was laying on the side table, “it seems as if we have a few more possible suspects now.”
“Such as?”
“Such as, according to Darlene, any one of Lucy’s friends. I mean, Karla was the bridesmaid at her wedding and Darlene said something like she feels Karla had something to do with Lucy’s suspicious death. Because as soon as she was out of the way, she ended up marrying the groom herself before Lucy’s body was cold in the grave.”
“Yikes! That doesn’t sound good. Okay, who else do you have?” Katie asked while Dana typed the notes into her laptop.
Truffles purred gently beside her, his fluffy fur rubbing against her skin. “Well, I’m not sure what that means Truffs, but I’m going to add Lucy’s friends as a possibility though I’ll need to find out who they are.”
Truffles looked away. Dana wished she could read her little kitty’s mind sometimes.
“Okay,” Dana said, tapping on her keyboard. “So, there’s also Darlene. I mean, Darlene knew that Karla was messing around with Uncle Max’s finances and gambling.”
“It could be one of the casino boss’s.”
“Yes, that’s right, Darlene did mention that she saw the credit card bills and she racked up a lot of debt in gambling. She could have been bumped off. But then there’s Darlene, too. She doesn’t seem like an easy to get along with humble secretary. Was Karla trying to fire her? Did Darlene knock her off before Karla got a chance to get rid of her?”
“True. That is a possibility. But then again, Inga did say that Darlene’s not to be trusted, too.”
Dana took a deep sigh and closed her laptop. “I guess we really are further from the truth. The list of possible suspects could be endless.”
“But who had a motive and an opportunity?” Katie added.
“True. Darlene was close enough and then I thought it weird for some reason that she was on Heparin.”
Truffles hissed loudly.
“Thanks Truffs. I do hope you’re on to something. But for now, we have a long way to go because I have a feeling that whoever killed Karla is going to cover their tracks really carefully.”