Love Can Be Murder

tart rush of flavor made her mouth pucker.
    For the third bag, all bets were off—she crammed in as many as she could get into her mouth. By now, her tongue was raw from the sea salt, but that didn't keep her from licking her fingers to get every last grain out of the corners of the bag.
    Forget black truffles—she'd take these fat-and salt-laden delicacies over any kind of fancy fungus.
    Suddenly Penny froze, her finger in her mouth, as a thought slid into her head so solitarily brilliant that she could almost hear the gonging noise in her brain. The blending of two memories...of Jimmy Scaggs saying that his beloved and valuable truffle-hunting dog Henry was out of commission, and of Deke's crumpled front bumper.
    She could still hear the squeal of tires as Deke had pulled away from the museum Friday morning, driving like a teenager. Henry had escaped from the truck bed once that morning—what if Henry had gotten loose on the road? What if Deke had hit the dog, maybe killed it, and driven on? What if Jimmy had seen it all? Would he have killed Deke over his dog?
    Penny swallowed the last salty bite. Yep.
    A knock sounded on the door. "Penny?" Marie's voice quavered. "Detective Maynard and Chief Davis are here to see you."
    She jumped up and stuffed the crackly, empty potato chip bags in the trash can, then licked her fingers before wiping them on her jeans. She flung open the door to see Allyson, Detective Maynard, and two uniformed New Orleans police officers.
    "Penny Francisco," Detective Maynard began.
    "Wait," she said, holding up her greasy hands stop-sign fashion. "I know who killed Deke."
    Allyson Davis cursed. "So do we— you."
    " No," she said, then looked at Detective Maynard. "Please—hear me out. Just walk across the street with me. If you don't find on the bumper of Deke's car what I think you'll find, then you can arrest me."
    "This is bullshit," Allyson said.
    "Please," Penny said to Detective Maynard. "It'll take only a few minutes. This is my life we're talking about."
    The man wavered.
    "Please?"
    Then he sighed. "Okay, Ms. Francisco, you've got ten minutes for your little field trip."
    "Follow me." She jogged past them, then outside, where she bounded across the street to the pink Victorian. B.J. and Sheena were still on the porch and pivoted their heads as the entourage of Penny, Detective Maynard, Chief Davis, the two officers, Marie, and Guy came onto the property.
    "What's going on here?" Sheena shouted from the porch.
    B.J. squinted at Penny and lifted his hands in question.
    "Tell her to open the garage," Penny said to Detective Maynard.
    He sighed. "Open the garage, Ms. Linder."
    "Why?" Sheena shouted.
    "Just do it," he said in a tired voice.
    B.J. left the porch and joined them in front of the garage. "What's going on?" he whispered.
    "I have a theory," she said, still smarting over his obvious lies about Sheena.
    "What kind of theory?"
    "Just watch."
    Sheena returned with the remote control opener and pushed a button. The double garage door rose slowly, and Penny was thankful that Deke liked to back in when he parked. His crumpled bumper shone beautifully in the sun.
    "Now what?" Maynard asked.
    "Check the bumper," she said. "See if you find any blood or fur."
    "Fur?" Maynard said.
    "Fur," she repeated.
    Maynard crouched down, then craned his neck and squinted. "There's something..." He pulled out a penknife and scraped at it. "It's blood, I think."
    Penny's heartbeat picked up.
    Then he removed a small plastic bag and scraped something into it. "And...looks like fur. Reddish—maybe a dog?"
    She nodded. "Bloodhound."
    "So?" Allyson asked, clearly inconvenienced.
    Maynard was quiet, but his arched eyebrows echoed the chief's question.
    Remorse pulsed through her for the information that she possessed and whom it would hurt. Jimmy Scaggs had offered to give her an alibi for Deke's murder...because he had actually committed the murder. She didn't want to believe that the oddly gentle man could do something so heinous, but it all made horrific sense.
    "Penny," Allyson prompted, "we don't have all day."
    Penny closed her eyes briefly, then sighed. "I think Deke hit Jimmy Scaggs's dog, maybe killed him, sometime Friday, and Jimmy went to Deke's Friday night for retribution."
    "Over a dog?" Maynard asked.
    "It's a very valuable dog," she assured him.
    Maynard looked at Allyson. "Do you know this Scaggs character?"
    "Yeah, but I don't think—"
    "Let's bring him in," Maynard said. "I want