Page 1 of The Murder Club

Chapter 1

Monday nights weren’t exactly bustling with activities in the small town of Pike, Wisconsin.

Okay, there weren’t any nights that bustled, but Mondays were the worst. The stores along Main Street had locked their doors at five o’clock on the dot, and the teenagers who’d gathered to watch football practice at the high school had long ago headed home for dinner. The only things open on Monday night were Bella’s Restaurant, a gas station, and the Bait and Tackle, a small bar squished between the dentist’s office and the laundromat.

The lack of entertainment might explain the bewildering question of why the Bait and Tackle was packed.

It certainly wasn’t the ambience, Bailey Evans wryly acknowledged, pushing aside her empty beer bottle, which floated on a ring of condensation. The narrow bar boasted a handful of tables and booths at the front with a scruffy wooden bar at the back. The paneled walls were covered with old-time tin signs, and the lights were hidden behind shades that had yellowed with age, creating a murky glow.

The bar wasn’t really Bailey’s choice for a night out, but her friend Kari Wentz had insisted that she needed something to lift her dark mood. They both worked at the local nursing home—Bailey as a nurse and Kari a part-time aide—and the older woman insisted that Bailey hadn’t been her usual bubbly self. After two days of nagging, Bailey had given into the inevitable.

It wasn’t like she had anything else to do, right? Ever since her best friend, Lia, had met Kaden Vaughn, a stuntman from Vegas, they rarely had time to hang out. Which was a shame. Lia would never have badgered her into going to the bar. She would have invited Bailey over to her apartment to watch sappy romance movies and eat homemade chocolate chip cookies.

The perfect evening.

“Another round?” Kari asked. The tall, solid woman had chopped her dark hair short after getting married and having kids. She’d also put on several pounds that she was constantly trying to lose by one wacky diet after another. This week was something to do with boiled eggs and spinach. Gross.

“Not for me, thanks,” Bailey declined the offer. “I need to get home.”

“Home?” Kari held up her sturdy arm, waving her wristwatch in front of Bailey’s face. “It’s not even eight o’clock.”

“I have to work tomorrow,” she said.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re always working.”

Bailey shrugged. Her friend wasn’t wrong. “Someone has to pay the bills. And since I wasn’t born with a trust fund and my dogs haven’t hit it big on social media, despite being utterly adorable, that someone is me.”

Kari scrutinized her, starting at the brown hair that was pulled into a loose ponytail and the thin face that was dominated by a pair of brown eyes. Bailey hadn’t bothered to put on makeup, although she did change her usual scrubs for a pair of jeans and a light yellow sweater. That was as fancy as she got.

“Are you sure you’re not still upset about old lady Warren?” Kari pressed, her expression genuinely concerned.

Bailey sighed. She’d been devoted to Nellie Warren. The elderly woman had lived in the nursing home for the past five years and quickly become her favorite. Despite being crippled with arthritis, she had a quirky sense of humor combined with a down to earth common sense that allowed her to age with a unique grace that Bailey could only hope she could emulate.

“I’ll miss Nellie, but I’ve worked at the nursing home long enough to know that the residents have a limited time left in this world,” Bailey told her friend. “Although it was crappy that her son didn’t even bother with a proper funeral. The whole town would have gone to pay their respects, but I heard he had her body burned and tossed her ashes behind his lumberyard.”

“Typical.” Kari clicked her tongue. “That’s what happens when you have a kid when you’re in your forties. And an only child on top of it. The Warrens spoiled Gage rotten. It turned him into a selfish jerk.”

“A shame, but Nellie’s at peace.”

“So if you aren’t upset about Nellie, then what’s going on with you? Oh . . . wait.” Kari grimaced. “Please don’t tell me you’re rushing home to play that stupid murder game?”

A shiver raced through Bailey and she was suddenly glad she was surrounded by a bar full of neighbors. She’d impulsively accepted an invitation to join the Murder Club when she was sitting home last New Year’s Eve. She was bored and feeling sorry for herself and in dire need of a distraction.

At first she’d been enthralled by the thrill of searching through cold unsolved cases and trying to figure out whodunit. She might not be a detective, but her cousin was the local sheriff, and God knew they’d had enough murders in Pike to make every citizen a homicide expert. And honestly, she thought she was good at spotting clues that other people overlooked.

“No, I’m done with that. I closed my account last week.”

“I’m glad.” Kari lifted her beer in a small toast. “It’s creepy.”

“It was a way to pass the time,” Bailey argued. “Plus, the people I met in the chat room were interesting.”

“You mean people like Eric Criswell?”

Bailey pretended she didn’t notice Kari’s derisive tone. Eric was a fellow aide at the nursing home, but he didn’t mix easily with the rest of the staff. He was shy and awkward and routinely disappeared to play games on his phone. Most of the locals considered him an oddball, but Bailey felt sorry for the poor guy.

“He invited me to join, but that’s the only reason I knew he was part of the club. Everyone preferred to remain anonymous, and honestly, that’s what made it fun. You didn’t have any expectations or any pressure to try to impress anyone. I could just be myself.” Bailey shook her head. “But you’re right. It went from fun to creepy over the past few weeks.”

“What happened?”

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