Page 25 of Little Merry Murder

This time she paused, leaning back to give the question more thought.

“Hmm, now that I’m thinking about it, I guess that would be Bruce … mmm, she was also good friends with Colin. You might want to talk to Colin first. He’d be able to answer your questions a lot better than I can.”

“I suppose I’ll need to speak to everyone.”

“Yeah, sorry. I don’t always notice things other people do. I tend to have my head in the clouds.”

“I’m the opposite. I notice everything. Every little detail.”

“I wish I was like that. I have the attention span of a squirrel.”

She shook her head, and we both laughed.

“If I’m being honest, I like noticing details, and it’s a huge benefit in my job,” I said. “Sometimes I drive myself crazy, though. When I enter a room, I start dissecting it all, taking it all in at once. It can be overwhelming, but it’s also amazing, noticing fine details most people miss.”

“I can’t imagine.” She took one more stab at her salad and then pushed the plate to the side. “I still feel bad about the disagreement I had with Claire.”

“You said before that the two of you had a heated exchange, but you weren’t yelling. I guess the reason I’m mentioning it is because one of Claire’s neighbors thought she heard Claire and Owen arguing. I talked to Owen, and he said he’d never raised his voice to Claire.”

“I’ve met Owen, and I saw him with Claire a handful of times. I believe him. He doted on her, and his tone and demeanor was always, I don’t know … different when they were together.”

“How so?”

“Softer, I guess? He treated her like a fragile bird he just wanted to protect. I may not notice everything, but I did notice that much. I remember thinking how nice it would be to have a man treat me the way he treated her.”

“I take it you’re single?”

She nodded. “Not by choice. I just haven’t found the right one yet.” She bent toward me, her voice lowering to a whisper. “I’ve been talking to Bruce a lot. He’s single, and I’ve been hoping he’ll ask me?—”

Before she had the chance to finish her sentence, Bruce and Teresa walked in. They were looking at each other, laughing. Teresa gave Bruce a soft nudge to the shoulder, and he smiled. It seemed Ann wasn’t the only one vying for his attention.

Ann glanced at the two of them and then at me.

“I need to go,” she said.

“Oh, come on, stay,” Bruce said. “We just got here.”

“I … I have some things to do,” Ann said.

She stood, reaching for her empty salad plate, the yearbook tumbling off the table and onto the floor in the process. I picked it up, and as I went to hand it back to her, my eyes were drawn to a page of staff photos. As I scanned the page, I picked up on a piece of information I didn’t know.

And there was something else.

In one of the photos, the person who’d caught my eye was standing in front of a poster, one I’d seen in a classroom on my last visit. I thought about the words on the poster and of the dream I’d had.

And all at once, it all made sense.

What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.

I believed I knew who killed Claire.

Now I needed to prove it.

CHAPTER 16

I leaned against my car, watching Holly and Colin walk together through the parking lot. Colin said something to Holly and then glanced up, noticing me standing there.

“I’ve seen your car around town,” he said. “Always wondered who owned it. Jaguar, right?”

---