Much Ado About Felines (Whales and Tails Mystery Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

investigate?” Maggie asked.
    “I’m not sure,” I answered. “Tara and I are pretty busy with the bookstore, but Cody did ask us to help him brainstorm about possible leads. He really wants to have something new to report in the midweek edition of the paper.”
    “I’m afraid you’re going to find all kinds of leads when it comes to identifying who might have wanted Roxi dead,” Doris Rutherford, the queen bee of the local gossip circuit, commented.
    “I’ve heard from a few people that she’d been going out a lot since Jimmy died,” I responded.
    “Rolanda Perkins told me that she saw Roxi hanging all over Tony Sommers a few nights before she was murdered,” Doris continued. “And with Tony’s wife about to have a baby and all. I felt bad that Roxi lost Jimmy, but she had no right to go snooping around men who were already taken.”
    I knew Tony had dark hair and a dark tan, but so did more than half the men on the island.
    “Roxi might have been fooling around with Tony, but I heard she was thinking about shacking up with Greg Westlake,” quilting circle member and book club enthusiast Olivia Oxford informed me.
    Greg Westlake? Greg was kind of a nerd. He didn’t seem to be Roxi’s type at all.
    “How do you know?” I asked.
    “Greg’s mama told me. She said Greg had already informed her that he was moving out of her basement and in with Roxi. I have to say Greg’s mama was none too happy about that. Greg is a good boy. The last thing a mama wants is for her little boy to end up with a woman like Roxi.”
    Little boy? Greg was a thirty-five-year-old pizza delivery man. I would think his mother would be happy to see him end up with anyone .
    “At least Greg was single,” I commented.
    “Single or not, his mama was about as mad as I’ve ever seen her. If you ask me, I think the woman had a girl in mind for her son once he finished sowing his wild oats.”
    “Greg doesn’t seem like the type who would let his mama pick out his wife,” I commented.
    “I wouldn’t be too sure,” Olivia argued. “Greg’s mama has a lot more influence over him and his decisions than you might think. Besides, have you seen her? She’s built like a linebacker and Greg is such a puny kid. My guess is that he’s scared to death of her.”
    “I heard Greg was offered a chance to go to South America with that friend of his from the pizza place, but his mom put the kibosh on the whole idea,” Doris added.
    “Seems like he’s old enough to make his own decisions,” Maggie commented.
    “Maybe, but I don’t blame his mama,” Doris insisted. “That kid he works with is bad news.”
    I listened as the group began to discuss other members of the community who were bad news . In most cases the conservative senior women who took part in the conversation were being just that: conservative. Still, Doris did have a point about the kid from the pizza joint. The guy had always given me the creeps. If I found out tomorrow that he was a serial killer I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.
    “Were you at the book club on the Thursday before Roxi died?” I asked Maggie, who had remained uncharacteristically quiet during the exchange.
    “I was.”
    “And how did she seem?”
    Maggie shrugged. “She seemed like Roxi. She really enjoyed her mysteries and she always had a lot to share. That night was no different. She seemed cheerful and happy to be there. If something was going on that led to her death she didn’t let on.”
    “Did she mention any plans she might have had for the weekend?” I wondered.
    “Not that I remember.”
    “She did say something about meeting someone on Saturday,” Marley reminded Maggie.
    “You’re right. I think it was someone she knew from work,” Maggie informed me, “but I can’t be sure.”
    “You might talk to Molly,” Marley suggested. Molly was the cashier at the Driftwood Café. “It seems the two of them had been tight of late.”
    I spoke to the women for a few more