A Killer Plot (A Books by the Bay Mystery)

electric guitar strumming, and a heavy dose of screaming by a group of young men with gelled hair and leather pants.” She examined the lyrics. “None of the stanzas rhyme, but the lines of the chorus do. More sheep/wolf imagery there. Do you see what I mean, Captain? If this kid wasn’t holding a serious grudge against his father, then I’ll start drinking wine from a box.”
    Gabe’s arrival interrupted her musings. He greeted her and then began his preparations behind the bar. Olivia silently observed as he sliced lemons, limes, and strawberries. Considering his profession, Gabe was a calm and unassuming young man, but Olivia found his quiet friendliness refreshing and so did the regulars that liked to sit at his bar.
    Millay and Harris appeared at The Boot Top at half past five and joined Olivia at the bar. Harris looked puzzled while Millay, whose black hair was bright yellow at the tips, tried to put on her signature expression of cool disinterest. However, she quickened her pace upon seeing Olivia and a spark ignited in her eyes, belying her eagerness to discover why an emergency meeting had been called.
    Before Olivia had time to say hello, Laurel burst into the room.
    “I am the mother of two-year-old twins, you know!” she said, slamming her purse onto the bar’s polished surface. “I can’t just leave the house every other night. I have responsibilities!”
    Grinning, Millay slung an arm around Laurel. “Rough visit with the parental units so far?”
    Laurel’s shoulders slumped. “They’re my in-laws, actually, though they make me call them Mom and Dad as if I don’t already have a pair of my own.” She sighed heavily. “The good news is they just closed on one of the three-bedroom Ocean Vista condos so I’ll have free babysitting any time I want.”
    “And the bad news?” Olivia was already ordering Laurel a glass of wine. Gabe poured a glass of the house Merlot and then headed to the kitchen to fetch olives and pearl onions.
    After taking a generous sip, Laurel cracked a thin smile. “That they’ve moved here, of course! Oh, I know I should be happy to have the help, but I can never do anything right in Steve’s mother’s eyes. She always knows just how he likes things and now she seems to have the twins all figured out too.”
    “Don’t let her push you around. Your husband and kids are your family. Be nice, but do things your way,” Harris advised and Olivia wondered how often he’d had to stand up to bullies as he grew into manhood.
    Laurel patted his arm gratefully. “Well, let’s look at that haiku so I can get back home before she Cloroxes every inch of the nursery.”
    Olivia, who privately thought disinfecting Dallas and Dermot’s potentially germ-infested room sounded like a very sound idea, handed out copies of the new poem. She then poured wine for the rest of the group and led them to the table where she’d last sat sharing a drink with Chief Rawlings, preferring the bar’s intimate setting over the formality of the banquet room.
    “Oh, yeah, that Talbot dude was pushed all right,” Millay said after reading the haiku. She drank down half her wine in one gulp. “But you’ll be happy to know that Jethro Bragg is definitely in the clear as a suspect in Camden’s murder. He and Missy Gordon—she’s a trashy redhead who has a thing for men who’ve been in the slammer, even if it’s just the drunk tank—came into Fish Nets around three o’clock on Saturday. According to my boss, they were all over each other. They left before I poured out my first Bud of the night, but the word on the street is that Jethro’s hands were way too busy investigating Missy’s body to be killing anyone or writing poetry. I didn’t tell you guys before because I swore not to. We’re talking the hand-on-the-Bible kind of promise.”
    “Who cares about your promise?” Olivia stood over the younger woman, holding the wine bottle out of reach, her blue eyes dark with anger. “All along, we’ve been trying to figure out what happened to Camden and you kept this quiet?”
    Millay had the good sense to look abashed. “Missy’s married, okay! But her marriage is a big secret. I’m the only one who knows and I don’t spill secrets people tell me when they’re wasted. Besides, if her three-hundred-pound truck-driving husband came back after two months on the road and found out about her and Jethro, there would have been another murder in Oyster Bay, capisce ? Missy’s