Down Home and Deadly

what was going on.

    *****

    “Wow, Carly. You’re a genius.” I wiggled my toes in the warm water. “I’m so glad you bought two.”
    “I can’t take credit. I got them because of the advice Alice gave me.” Carly sank down in her own chair and immersed her feet in the plastic foot spa in front of her. She groaned and closed her eyes. “ ‘Take good care of your feet,’ she said. ‘And they’ll take good care of you.’ ”
    “Speaking of Alice . . . ” I couldn’t believe I’d been so drained that I’d forgotten this. “Yesterday after John let us all go, I overheard Alice say something odd to Harvey .”
    “She says odd things to him all the time,” Carly said without opening her eyes.
    “Yeah, but she said , ‘I wouldn’t blame you.’ Or something like that.”
    She sat up. “For what?”
    I shrugged. “She said for turning the burner up under the soup.”
    “Oh. Well , the soup was a little scorched today, I thought. Maybe that’s all it was.”
    “Maybe.”
    For a few minutes we sat, without speaking, in the darkened living room of the small cabin on our folks’ property that Carly and the kids had moved into a few months ago. With the girls in bed, Zac in his room on the phone, and our heated foot spas bubbling, we’d created a relaxation haven.
    “I guess you don’t think it was a stranger this time , either, do you?” Carly said tiredly.
    I didn’t even have to wonder for a second what she meant. “I wish I did, but not really.” Each time we’d gotten embroiled in a murder, we’d tried to cling to the false hope that the killer was a stranger. Both of the other two times we’d been sadly disappointed.
    “Yeah, me either. One can only hold on to that kind of naïveté for so long.”
    I squinted toward her. “Aren’t you getting cynical?”
    She shrugged. “Having a dead man show up at your grand opening tends to do that to you.”
    “Excuse me for ruining your grand opening by finding a body,” I said. “Why do you think he was there?”
    Carly kept her head resting against the padded back of her chair. “Well , since I already sound like a narcissist, maybe someone hired him to sabotage my big day.”
    I snorted. “No doubt. Wonder what the pay is for that?” I asked. “Dying in order to sabotage?”
    She snorted back at me without opening her eyes. “Okay then, smarty. I guess it would be too flippant to say that he might have put out a hit on himself to get him out of his relationship with Lisa.”
    I reached over and shoved her gently. “I think we’ve officially come down with the eleven o’clock sillies.”
    “Mama always says the only cure for that is going to bed before eleven,” Carly said in a pseudoserious tone.
    “Well, Mama should have come over and helped us clean up tonight at the diner,” I spouted. “Then we wouldn’t be so tired we can’t sleep.”
    “Good point,” she murmured.
    “I know the difference,” I said suddenly.
    “Difference in what?” Carly asked, something in my voice alerting her that my silliness had vanished. She sat up and looked over at me.
    “This body. This time we don’t know the victim. So we have no idea who might have done it.”
    “Very true , ” Carly said thoughtfully. “And since he was in fact a stranger to us . . . ”
    “A stranger might very well have killed him,” I finished triumphantly, feeling a little rejuvenated at the thought. “And we don’t even have to know why.”

    *****

    “Sunday dinner at your mom’s,” Alex said with a sigh as he helped me clear the table. “One of the many things I missed all those years we were apart.”
    I waved a fork at him. “You only love me for my mama’s cooking?” I teased. “We may have a problem.”
    He nudged me and motioned to Carly and Elliott who still sat whispering with their heads together at the other end of the long table. “You think we have a problem? At least we know the meal is over.”
    Elliott looked up and grinned. “Hey now, we’re not deaf.”
    “Well, stop the mushiness then, Romeo. You’re making me look bad . ” Alex r eturn ed his grin.
    Carly laughed. “This from the man who had my sister swept away in a limo to meet him for a private dinner at the marina .”
    “And then bought her a rock the size of Manhattan a few weeks later,” Elliott chimed in.
    “And even more romantically, helps me with the dishes,” I said, winking at Alex.
    “I think that was a hint for us to get busy.” Elliott