Poisoned Prose (A Books by the Bay Mystery)

watched as tension stole the color from his face, thinning his lips and causing the muscles in his jaw to contract. “I’m on my way.”
    “What is it?” Olivia demanded. She gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white, waiting for what she sensed was more bad news.
    “It’s Dixie,” he said. “She says that Lowell’s gone. Not gone as in he’s fled, but gone as in—”
    “Missing,” Olivia finished for him. “He’s gone missing.”

Chapter 11
    Drinking is a way of ending the day.
    — E RNEST H EMINGWAY
    O livia followed Rawlings as he pulled out of the hospital parking lot, his cruiser’s light bar sparkling like a beacon in front of her. He drove above the speed limit but didn’t use the siren. As soon as he passed the sign welcoming visitors to Oyster Bay, he turned the lights off and slowed down.
    Behind him, Olivia banged the Range Rover’s wheel in exasperation. “Come on, Rawlings! This could be an emergency!”
    But then she saw the line of cyclists riding on the shoulder adjacent to a group of mothers pushing jogging strollers and knew the chief had been prudent to reduce his speed. On a beautiful summer day in July, tourists were everywhere. They drove their rental cars at a sluggish pace, looking for street signs or parking spots, and waited patiently while a gang of teenagers wearing earbuds and sunglasses sauntered across the intersection without bothering to check for oncoming traffic.
    Haviland barked at the teens as Olivia drove past, and a few of the boys lifted their heads and howled in response. This sent Haviland into a tizzy, and he barked in indignation while Olivia drove around in search of a parking space. In the end, she pulled into the loading zone a block away from Grumpy’s.
    When she and Haviland finally burst into the diner, it was eerily quiet. The Closed sign had been hung, and the lights in the dining room were off. Dixie was perched on a counter stool with a cup of coffee in her hand and a vacant look in her eyes. Grumpy stood behind the counter, still wearing his stained apron. The brim of his “Made in the USA” baseball cap was pulled low over his brow.
    Olivia took the empty stool next to Dixie and, without speaking, gave her a fierce, one-armed hug.
    “Let’s start with what we know. Mr. Reid was supposed to meet your boys two hours ago?” Rawlings asked. “At your house?”
    “Yes,” Dixie said in a hoarse voice. “The fishin’ gear was laid out and all ready to go. Lowell even bought live bait. That’s the main reason my kids thought somethin’ was wrong. The pail of minnows was tipped over, and every single one of them was dead. Lowell was pretty cheap, but he said he was gonna go all out for the boys today. He packed a cooler with sodas and sandwiches, but that was spilled too. The ice was all melted. Everythin’ went to waste.”
    Rawlings took a note. “Was anyone else at home with Mr. Reid?”
    Grumpy shook his head. “The older kids have summer jobs. The youngest two, the boys, have been at the YMCA camp since school got out, but we told them they could skip the afternoon session to go fishing with their uncle. They went home on the Y bus, but he wasn’t there to meet them.”
    “Was Mr. Reid acting peculiar? Either yesterday evening or this morning?” Rawlings wanted to know.
    “Please call him Lowell. And yes, my cousin’s been a nutcase since Saturday,” Dixie said without hesitating. “Looks out the window every other minute like someone’s comin’ to get him. He’s made me a nervous wreck.” She pinched her thumb and index finger together. “I came this close to shippin’ the kids off to friends’ houses for the week, but Lowell promised to sleep out in the woods to keep any danger away from the rest of us.”
    Grumpy made a dismissive noise. “He pitched a tent right next to the dog kennel, but he’s barely used it. He was on the sofa when I got up this morning.”
    “What about the dogs?” Olivia asked. “Did the boys mention how the dogs acted?”
    Dixie glanced at her in surprise. “We’ve been lettin’ them run loose. Grumpy thought they should have free range for as long as Lowell stayed with us. You know, just in case someone came pokin’ around. But they didn’t have a piece of some strange guy’s pants hangin’ out of their mouths, if that’s what you mean.” She turned back to Rawlings. “The boys said that Lowell’s stuff is still in his car, and the keys are under the