Cloudy with a Chance of Ghosts (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 4) by J.D. Winters

Suddenly, she gasped. “I think he did it.” She stopped short and grabbed my arm to stop me as well. “Don’t you think he did it?”
    “Who?”
    “Carlton of course. Who had a better motive? Keri was going to do a tell-all article on him. Maybe she was driving him crazy, always around, always eavesdropping and taking pictures. Maybe there are things in his background he couldn’t bear coming out.” Her eyes got very big. “Maybe he followed her down to the orchard and….”
    “Hello ladies!”
    We swung around to find Alda Gruening, the organizer lady, beaming at us.  
    “Have you come for one last look at these beautiful works of art?” she asked jovially. “Many of them are still available. Just let me know which ones interest you and I’ll…”
    “Oh, thanks Alda,” Jill said quickly. “We’re not here to buy. We’re here to pack up Jagger’s pieces and get them out of your way.”
    “Oh.” Her face fell, then took on a new look. “Is he still under arrest? Are they charging him?”  
    “He was never under arrest,” Jill said coolly. “And they aren’t charging him with anything. There was no real reason they even took him in for questioning.”
    “No real reason?” Alda’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you kidding? He was running off with her purse. And everyone saw them arguing earlier.”
    “They barely knew each other,” Jill protested.
    “They were dating,” Alda said back.  
    Jill’s mouth fell open but she didn’t make a sound. It was obvious that statement had shocked the words right out of her.  
    Marilee joined us at that point. “I wouldn’t refer to it as ‘dating’ Alda,” she said, pushing back her thick blonde hair and smiling in a strained sort of way. “They went out for coffee after the set-up the other night. Jill’s right. They barely knew each other. No motive I can think of. Give it a rest.”
    Alda shrugged, loath to give up on a theory. “What was in that purse that he was so anxious to keep hold of?” she pointed out.  
    I finally thought maybe I could contribute to the general nit picking.
    “It looked to me like he was trying his best to get rid of the thing at the time,” I said. “He acted like it was a hot potato and he didn’t want last touchies.”
    Everyone frowned at me and I shrugged. People always like fairy tales better than the truth. Jill went off with the two women to look into packing material for Jagger’s pieces, but I lingered behind. I’d seen the little Siamese kitty again and I was wondering where she’d gone.  
    Then I saw her, heading up the staircase I’d followed Marilee up the day before. She turned to look at me, meowed, put her ears back and ran up to the top of the stairs. If that wasn’t a sign that she thought I ought to follow her, I didn’t know what one was. I did as she commanded.  
    She ran right into the same room Marilee had been tearing up over the day before. I followed the cat in, a little short of breath but willing, and she jumped up on the bed and meowed at me urgently, as though I was supposed to know exactly what she was saying.  
    I looked around. The room was beautifully decorated and nicely finished off, with wainscoting and enameled molding. I walked over to where the cat was seemingly pointing, and I gasped. It was almost as though I’d received an electric shock. There was a sense of energy, then a buzzing, and it got louder as I got closer to the wall. There was something there, something behind the paneling, I was sure of it. But before I could begin knocking and poking around, Debbie showed up and ruined everything.  
    “What are you doing here?” she demanded, looking fierce.  
    “Here?” I said, as though I didn’t have a clue where I was. “Oh, here. Uh…the cat wanted me to follow her and I…”
    “What cat?”
    What cat indeed? I looked around but couldn’t find her. “That little Siamese,” I said, feeling bewildered and a bit foolish. “You know the