Page 66 of Rest In Pink

Raina rolled her eyes.

“Exactly,” he said and ate my waffle. That was okay, I was probably going to eat his.

“Who bought the Shady Rest?” I asked him.

He pulled back from my plate to frown at me. “Where do you get this information?”

“That would be under ‘everybody knows’.”

“Everybody is not supposed to know.” He looked at Molly. “Did you get that from Mac?”

She shook her head. “Haven’t talked to him.”

“How many cops and firefighters were there last night?” I asked him. “All it takes is one of them.”

Alex Wilcox, the Senator’s wayward son, showed up with two loaded plates. “Who gets what?”

“They’re both the same,” I told him. “And there are two people without food. Do the math.”

“I don’t do math,” he said, putting the plates down in front of Raina and me.

“Who did Belinda have breakfast with this morning?” I asked him as Vince swapped our plates, giving me mine back.

“All kinds of people,” Alex said. “She talks to everybody. Y’all good here?”

“No,” I said. “Were any of those everybody police or firefighters?”

“Yeah, that Bartlett guy.” Alex shook his head. “Bragging up a storm. Did he really put the fire out?”

“That would be the fire department,” Vince said, dipping waffle into egg yolk.

“That’s what I thought,” Alex said and left before we could ask him anything else.

Raina shook her head as she dug into her waffles. “You’re going to have to gag Bartlett.”

“Easier to just keep him out of the loop,” Vince said around his waffle.

“Is he out of the loop?”

“Mostly. The really good stuff hasn’t gotten out yet.”

“Ooooh,” I said. “Tell me.”

He looked at me. “You are not part of the force and therefore are not privy to this investigation.”

“And after all I did for you last night.”

Molly snorted over her coffee, and Raina chewed with a smile on her face.

“That’s private,” Vince said, but he was smiling, too, as he dug into his eggs and changed the subject. “I had a thought.”

“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” I said, spearing one of his waffles to replace the one of mine he’d scarfed down while waiting for his.

Raina looked at Molly. “Are they being serious about this not being a serious thing they’re having?”

“Yes,” Molly said, smiling at her. “They are completely clueless, so we’re all just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and then we’ll have a big wedding with lots of waffles.”

“No,” Vince and I said together.

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