Down Home and Deadly

her. No wonder she doesn’t. I could have helped her, but from the time she was small , if I even made a suggestion about her looks or clothes , she took it as an insult.”
    Amelia looked toward the door where Byron motioned toward her that he was ready. “Anyway, she hasn’t had good luck with men. Ricky seem s fine, but we just want to make sure. Will you do it?”
    “I don’t know . . . ”
    She tapped her nails impatiently on the table. “I seem to remember I didn’t hesitate when you asked me to look into something for you.”
    I shrugged. What could I say? She was right. In the last murder I’d been investigating, I’d asked her to check something out and she had. “I’ll figure out a way to ask John and Seth what they think about him without seeming suspicious. And I’ll let you know.”
    She pulled out a ten - dollar bill and left it on the table. “Thanks.”
    I scooped the ten into m y apron pocket and watched the First Lady of Lake View glide across the room.
    Poor Ricky. He had no idea what he was getting into.

Chapter Four

    A watched pot never boils .

    Within five minutes, Harvey was ringing up the last few stragglers from the lunch crowd. I was learning the ebb and flow of customers. They all came at once. They all left at once.
    I walked over to where Alice carefully filled the saltshakers.
    She smiled at me. “I bet you’re worn out. Not bein’ used to this and all.”
    I didn’t know it showed. Every part of me was longing for a nice, relaxing swim in the club pool. I would’ve even settled for taking inventory or cleaning the equipment in the exercise room. I sank into a chair and groaned. “My feet may never be the same. I don’t see how you’ve done this for so long. No wonder you wanted to sell this place.”
    A cloud crossed her face. “It’s never easy making a change, though. We’ve lived in Lake View our whole lives. And Harvey ’s parents owned the diner before us.”
    I needed a new subject fast. “I heard today that J.D. Finley was from here when he was young. Is that true?”
    “Um-hum,” she grunted without looking up.
    I waited for her to elaborate, but she concentrated on sifting the tiny white granules into the last shaker.
    She finished and picked up the big plastic pitcher full of salt. “With all those police officers out back, I’d better go see about the pies I have in the oven.”
    I stared at her back. If I wanted to snoop, I was going to have to find someone more loquacious than Alice .
    Or — I glanced out at the parking lot where police cars were parked everywhere — I could see for myself what was going on.
    I stood and stretched then ambled into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. “I’m on break,” I called to Carly as I let myself quietly out the back door, clutching my mug casually. No law against an overworked waitress taking a break out back, was there?
    Across the small alley the infamous Dumpster loomed. Behind it and to the sides were scraggly woods—land that had probably been cleared less than a decade ago but had been ignored since. Today that little thicket was literally crawling with cops.
    I leaned against the wooden post and watched the search.
    “Spread out more,” John barked , and the officers quickly obeyed.
    Thankfully no one even looked my way , or our esteemed chief of police certainly would have ordered me back inside.
    Just as I drained the last drop of my coffee, an excited yell went up from an area on the very outskirts of the woods.
    I stood on my tiptoes and could make out two familiar figures. “Over here!” Seth and Ricky waved their arms. “Found it!”
    Lake View ’s police force descended on them en masse, no doubt trampling significant clues in the process.
    I heard John growling at them, so apparently he thought the same thing. Within seconds, they headed back in my direction, John carrying a plastic bag with something small in it. As he drew closer, I squinted at the contents. Undoubtedly a gun, but it looked more like a tiny water pistol. Hard to believe something so small could do so much damage.
    Before I could slip back inside, John spotted me. His face grew red , and he twisted his mouth as if trying to think of what to say, but he just sputtered.
    I held my hand up in an international gesture of peace. “I’m going, I’m going.”
    I quickly let myself back into the diner before my childhood friend had a coronary. Sometimes he really overreacted to my tendency to want to know