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“DANA, ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?” Katie said, walking into the living area.
“I’m sorry, ma’am but this is a crime scene,” Troy said to Katie before recognizing her. “Oh, you’re Kate Sweet, right?”
“Yes, I’m Katie, Dana’s cousin. I work over at the café.”
“Right. Of course. I will probably need to speak with you later. Please don’t touch anything.”
“I won’t,” Katie said, looking around.
“What are you doing here?” Dana asked, surprised.
“I heard what happened. Are you okay?” Katie frowned.
“Yes, I’m fine. Just a little shaken up. I can’t believe he’s...he’s dead.”
“That’s terrible. How did it happen?” she whispered, her eyebrows furrowed with concern.
“Well, I came into...Hey wait a minute. How did you know about Mr. Renaldo’s death?”
“I came over to bring you the box of golden spoons for the cupcakes...”
“Oh, right. I forgot about the golden spoons.”
“Right. And well, I bumped into Gerdie-Sue...”
“Oh, boy. Gerdie-Sue. The unofficial news bulletin. But how did she know so fast?”
“She told me that she heard sirens going this way and after what she told me at the café about...well, I’ll fill you in later.”
“Fill me in about what? What is it Katie?”
“I can’t tell you here, but there’s something awfully strange going on.”
“Tell me about it. Old man Renaldo is dead. There’s a crazy murderer on the loose out there.”
“Or in here.” Katie’s voice was a hard whisper.
Before long, Dana inhaled a strong scent of a designer perfume. The smell wafted into the room before the source. A woman with white-blond long flowing hair, dangling earrings, a green dress and a Chanel black double flap lambskin handbag came waltzing into the kitchen area.
“Boo? Where’s my boo?” Her voice was falsetto and her lips were red and pouty and looked as if she had one too many Botox injections.
“I’m sorry, ma’am...” Troy proceeded. Before he could finish, the woman flung herself over the body.
“Boo. No, Boo.”
Dana couldn’t help but notice the dramatic eye-roll of the moment-ago grieving daughter and her two brothers.
Junior had his arms folded tightly across his chest and his lips pinched thin together. “Okay, you can stop with the Oscar performance, Goldie,” he said.
Goldie immediately stopped sobbing and a look of disgust slid across her face. She arched an attitudinal brow and placed her hands on her hips. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me? You were only here for our father’s money. Now he’s dead. Satisfied?”
“Satisfied?” Goldie was fuming. “Why you low-down dirty scoundrel. You killed him, didn’t you? You killed your daddy. My boo. I loved him.” She had a strong southern accent that seemed to flow out like a bottle of honey.
“You mean you loved his money. You probably had him bumped off,” Junior said.
“All right knock it off now,” Troy interjected.
“I will not knock it off, detective.” Junior was seething now.
The whole room felt like a boiling pot of mixed up soup with a few nuts thrown in.
“You should investigate that gold-digger,” Junior continued.
“Fool,” Goldie shot back quickly. “You three should be the one who should be under investigation. He’s no good to me dead, you brats. We’re not even married yet!”
And you never will be now, Dana thought to herself.
“Ah-ha!” Junior pointed his finger at Goldie. “So you were marrying him for his money.”
“I...I want my lawyer!” she said, storming out of the room.
“Why don’t you call him from the beauty parlor. That’s the only place you’ve been going these days. There and shopping, spending our daddy’s money since you came into the picture. You never gave a hoot about our pops.”
“Neither did you three,” Molly said, her hands on her hips. “I’m not going to stand by and watch as you guilty as sin kids try to get away with murder. You never cared about your pappy.”
Pappy?
This whole situation was getting weird by the minute in increments of two parts insanity and one part craziness.
“I’m going to ask you one more time to be quiet, or I’ll take you all down to the station to be questioned.” Troy’s voice was firmer and the tiredness was in his voice.
Dana could feel the heat climb in the kitchen. They said if you couldn’t stand the heat then get out of the kitchen...
But Dana couldn’t very well leave the kitchen now. Besides, the curiosity inside her was bubbling up like a home-made beef stew, cooking up a storm of ideas inside her brain. She was desperate to know what in the Sam’s fortune was going on in here. Which one of them was really guilty? If any of them.
Dana needed to help Detective Troy find out who cancelled poor Mr. Renaldo like a bad check.