“I can use that. Thanks. A lot.” He stepped closer, gaze holding mine. “Really, I appreciate—”

“Are you guys done arguing?” a voice asked.

We looked over to see Kayla. Michael stepped back.

“Hey,” I said.

“I saw you arguing earlier and I didn’t want to get in the way.”

“We weren’t arguing,” Michael said. “Just debating strategy.”

She looked disappointed.

“I know we met, Kayla, but not officially.” Michael held out his hand. “Michael Kennedy, I’m Claire’s brother and I’m—”

“A police detective. I’ve heard.” She lifted her chin, as if to say others might be impressed by his credentials, but she wasn’t.

“I’m just heading over to see your grandma,” Michael said. “Will I see you there?”

“Probably not.” She turned to me. “Are you busy? I need to talk to you.” A look Michael’s way. “It’s private.”

“Okay,” he said. Then to me, “Pick you up at five thirty?”

I nodded. Kayla waited until he was gone, then turned, expression unreadable.

“You’re going out with him?” she said.

“A good private investigator uses every method at her disposal.” I winked as the BMW roared from the curb. “Plus he’s cute and drives a really hot car.”

She rolled her eyes so high they threatened to disappear.

“Okay,” I said. “You wanted to talk. I heard this town has ice cream—”

“Later. Did you see Dorothy?”

“She wouldn’t answer the door.”

“I’ll get you in. Come on.”

eighteen

I knocked. When no one answered, Kayla opened the door.

“Hey, Dorothy! It’s me. Aunt Rose sent some of that peppermint tea you like.”

A wizened old woman with fire-engine-red hair peeked around the corner. Spotting me, she scowled. “Kayla Thompson, you’re a lying little—”

Kayla held up a bag. “Here’s the tea. Oh, and this is Savannah Levine. She’s investigating my mom’s murder. I told her you saw Cody and Claire arguing, but she needs to hear it from you.”

Kayla marched past her into the kitchen. “I’ll make your tea while you tell her.”

Dorothy followed. “I’m not telling her anything, Miss Kayla. I don’t know what you heard—”

“You saw Claire and Cody arguing behind the hardware store.”

“Who told you—?”

“You did. I heard you at Aunt Rose’s.”

“So you were eavesdropping.”

“Yep.” She filled the kettle.

Dorothy turned to me. “Kayla heard wrong. I never saw—”

“Yes, you did.” Kayla plunked the kettle on the stove, flicked the burner, then parked herself on a kitchen chair. “You don’t want to tell Chief Bruyn because you’re still mad at him for egging your house when he was twelve.”

“And thirteen. And fourteen.”

“So you don’t want to help him. That’s okay. You’re telling Savannah. You don’t have anything against her, do you?”

Dorothy’s look said just give her time and she’d find something.

“If she solves the case, it’ll make Chief Bruyn look bad,” Kayla pointed out.

Dorothy’s eyes glittered, but after a moment, she shook her head. “I don’t want to get involved.”

“That’s up to you,” Kayla said. “Just as long as you don’t mind having a killer in your town. One who might have seen you spying on him that day.”

Dorothy scowled at her, then finally waved me to a chair.

She settled across the table, looked me over again, then said, “It was the day before that girl died.”

Dorothy had been in the hardware store, trying to return a frying pan she’d left on the stove too long. Cody had been in line behind her, getting impatient as she argued with the clerk, which I’m sure only made Dorothy all the more determined not to step aside.

That’s when Claire came in. She’d walked past Cody and smiled.

“The hussy,” Dorothy sniffed. “Don’t you ever behave like that, Kayla. That’s how your mom got into trouble.”

“If my mom hadn’t gotten into trouble, I wouldn’t be here,” Kayla said.

Dorothy harrumphed and resumed her story. Claire had smiled at Cody. Then she’d walked out the back door, tossing another smile over her shoulder. Cody—“being a man, and you know how men are”—forgot whatever he’d been there to buy and followed Claire out.

That’s when the clerk gave up and agreed to exchange Dorothy’s frying pan, so she didn’t notice what was transpiring outside until she was about to leave, and caught a glimpse of Cody and Claire out the back door.

“That girl wasn’t smiling anymore. She was saying something and Cody didn’t like it one bit. He caught her by the wrist. She shook him off and tried walking back into the hardware store, but he stepped in front of her. Grabbed her arm. I headed for them. That girl was stupid, flirting with a boy like Cody Radu, but I wasn’t going to stand by and let him hurt her. Cody saw me and let her go real fast. She came inside. He took off down the alley, I bet. Coward.”

“Did Claire say anything to you?” I asked.

“I told her she ought to be more careful, and she agreed. Looked real shook up, too. Felt kinda sorry for her.”

Not sorry enough to tell Bruyn about the fight. Claire had flirted to lure Cody outside, meaning they hadn’t been lovers. What had she said to him? And, more important, was it worth killing her for?

As WE LEFT Dorothy’s, Kayla reminded me of my ice cream offer. We’d just turned onto Main Street when a familiar silver SUV roared past.

When Cody saw me, he braked and squinted out the window, like he was hoping for a limp, a broken nose ... I waved. He sped off.

“I hate him,” Kayla said, almost too softly to be heard. “Even if he didn’t kill my mom, I hate him.”

She led me into the diner. We got ice cream and went back outside.

“Grandma decided I should talk to you,” Kayla said. “On my own, without her there. That’s why I came over when I saw you with that cop. I think she figures I’ll tell you things I wouldn’t with her there. She’s still worried that Cody might have hit me.”