Fillet of Murder by Linda Reilly

waving the bottle under Talia’s nose.
    Talia closed her eyes and breathed in the scent. “Mmmm, that’s heavenly. Did you say you made it yourself?”
    â€œI did. I’ve been taking classes online. Eventually I want to have my own line of bath products, so I’m trying out some of the methods I learned.” Suzy’s blue eyes beamed. “I want you to take this bottle home and tell me what you think after you’ve tried it. No charge.”
    â€œOh no, I couldn’t—”
    â€œI insist. You’ll be my first tester.” Suzy smiled, her eyes lighting up. Talia saw how excited she was about the prospect of creating her own product line.
    â€œThanks, Suzy. I’ll look forward to my bath tonight.”
    As Suzy fussed with placing the bottle in a salmon-colored bag lined with a nest of silver tissue, Talia perused the various lip glosses perched on a circular display. She didn’t want to leave with only a freebie—the least she could do was support Bea’s neighboring merchant. Although shehadn’t known Suzy all that long, she’d always felt a kind of camaraderie with the thirtysomething woman. And Suzy had always treated Talia as if they were the best of buds.
    After narrowing down her choices, Talia snagged two tubes of seasonal gloss—a Vampire Smooch and a Butternut Squash. She dug out her wallet and pulled out a twenty. “Can I ask you something, Suzy?”
    â€œSure!” Suzy tucked the lip glosses into the bag with the bath oil.
    â€œPhil Turnbull came into Lambert’s on Wednesday. He told us you were on board with signing the petition against the comic book store. According to him, only Bea and Jim Jepson were the holdouts, and he was sure Jepson was going to cave.”
    Suzy swallowed, and her face flushed red. “That’s . . . not true. I never told him I would sign.” Avoiding Talia’s gaze, she went back to fussing with the silver tissue. “Besides, why would I object to a comic book store?”
    Talia chewed her lip. Was Suzy telling the truth? She could have sworn she saw Suzy’s pupils dilate when she asked her the question. She hadn’t meant to trap her in a lie—she was genuinely trying to find out if Turnbull had been deceiving Bea.
    â€œNo, you wouldn’t, of course. Thanks, Suzy. I was pretty sure Turnbull was lying, but I just wanted to get your take on it.”
    The door opened and two customers strolled in. From their ages, Talia surmised they were a mom and her teenaged daughter. Since it was close to seven, they wouldn’t have long to shop. But it gave Talia a chance to escape without embarrassing Suzy any further.
    Suzy’s face relaxed when she saw her new visitors. She pushed the bag across the counter toward Talia. “Let me know how you like the bath oil, okay?”
    â€¢Â Â Â â€¢Â Â Â â€¢
    Talia stepped outside onto the cobblestone plaza. A white half-moon framed by a smattering of twinkling lights hung low in the eastern sky. Feeling instantly chilly, she tucked her scarf more tightly around her neck. In the window of Jepson’s Pottery, a clay jack-o’-lantern grinned wickedly. Jim Jepson—Talia’s high school geometry teacher turned potter—was no doubt working late.
    The arcade was otherwise cloaked in darkness. The police tape, about the only thing visible on the darkened arcade, still stretched across the front of Classic Radiance like a long yellow snake.
    Anxious to get home, at least to Nana’s home, Talia had started toward her car when she spied someone emerging onto the rear of the plaza where Time for Tea, a specialty tea shop, sat perpendicular to the lighting store. Something about the person’s shape suggested “female,” but from this distance she couldn’t be sure. The person was slight, and appeared to be clothed entirely in black.
    Oh Lordy, it looked like Bea. She must