Poisoned Prose (A Books by the Bay Mystery)

so wrong, ’Livia, to be out huntin’ him like he’s a rabbit and we’re the foxes. We thought he ran off because he was scared, but that wasn’t the reason, was it? It’s those damned diamonds.”
    “I’m sure fear is playing its part,” Olivia said. “The murderers are in custody, but no one can rest easy until they’ve been formally charged and locked in a cell. And that’s only a cause for relief if the police have enough evidence to win over a jury. It won’t be easy to get Amabel to confess. She’ll fight like a cornered cat or shift the blame on Greg or Flynn. Lowell has to come forward and name her and Greg as his assailants or—”
    “Wait a second!” Dixie cried. “There’s another place he could’ve stashed the lock. The diner! He’s been in most every day, and he could slip in through the kitchen door without bein’ seen.”
    Olivia thought of all the cabinets and niches in the diner. It would be a simple thing to stick a padlock inside a sugar bowl in the far corner of a high shelf. “You might be on to something, Dixie. You two head over there and I’ll drive through the alleys. Since Lowell can’t operate a car, he must have found another way to town.”
    “None of the taxi drivers picked up a dwarf. I asked the cops at the hospital, and they’d checked with the taxi companies first,” Dixie said after telling Grumpy to head to the diner. “But he could have been hidin’ in someone’s trunk or backseat. He can make himself real small when he’s got to.”
    For a moment, Olivia’s mind formed an absurd picture of Lowell jimmying the trunk of an Oyster Bay police cruiser. “He must be feeling desperate. Be careful, Dixie.”
    Olivia paused to ask the female officer manning the front desk to get a message to Rawlings. After scribbling a note saying that Dixie thought Lowell might head for the diner, Olivia and Haviland ran through the rain and hopped into the Range Rover. Putting her windshield wipers on high, Olivia joined the search for the only person who could restore a sense of normalcy to Oyster Bay.
    “No one’s walking around in this storm,” she pointed out to Haviland. “Let’s check the alleyways.”
    Maneuvering through the narrow, pothole-ridden lanes behind the shops, Olivia drove slowly, keeping her eye out for movement. After thirty minutes of fruitless scanning, she ended up at Grumpy’s.
    Haviland raised his nose and sniffed. “I know you’re thinking about bacon, but this isn’t the time to beg for snacks,” Olivia scolded.
    She knocked on the back door to avoid startling the Weavers and then stepped inside the kitchen, Haviland close on her heels. “Dixie?”
    “In here!” came the reply. Though she’d spoken only two words, Olivia sensed an unusual gravity in Dixie’s tone. When she entered the dining room, Olivia saw why.
    Lowell was seated at
The Phantom of the Opera
booth. He wore a white lab coat over his hospital gown and was drenched. Water had run off his clothes and bare feet, and puddled on the floor.
    “Am I glad to see you.” Olivia couldn’t help but smile. “Are you all right?”
    “I’d be better with a hot cup of coffee, but Dixie won’t give me so much as a napkin unless I tell her where Violetta’s diamonds are. And I don’t have them.”
    Dixie stood near the counter, arms crossed over her chest. Her mouth was set in a stern frown. “All you’re gonna get from me is a swift kick in the ass if you don’t start fessin’ up.”
    Olivia approached Dixie and took her hand. “Why don’t you let me talk to Lowell? I’d trade both of my restaurants for a pot of your famous coffee.”
    Dixie hesitated, but when Grumpy nodded, she relented. “I’ll fix you some, but if the dwarf tries to leave, sic Haviland on him.” She turned to the poodle. “I hear he tastes just like pork chop.”
    Haviland’s ears perked up, and he gave Dixie his most winsome smile. Unfortunately for him, she was too hurt, angry, and worried to notice.
    “It’s all over, Lowell,” Olivia said, taking a seat across from the sodden dwarf. “Amabel and Greg are in custody. And Flynn . . . he’s come clean.” She swallowed the lump forming in her throat. “Forget about the diamonds. Tell me who assaulted you.”
    Lowell was silent for a full minute. He wouldn’t look Olivia in the eye but seemed intent on studying the Phantom of the Opera’s mask. “Another freak,” he whispered. “His story didn’t end any better than