Guidebook to Murder by Lynn Cahoon

blank. She must have shut down the monitor when she heard him coming out. I wondered what she had found.
    I stood up. “Thank you for seeing me.”
    â€œNot at all. Come into my office. I’m sure the last few days have been trying for you, very trying indeed.”
    He talked like my grandfather had the few times I had met him. Slow, formal, but rather than Granddad’s deep, rich voice, Mayor Baylor’s voice pitched higher, more feminine. I appreciated his words of comfort, even though I didn’t believe the sincerity behind them.
    He put his hand on my back and led the way to his office, a gesture that would have been comforting if his hand wasn’t just a little too low. We passed by Amy’s desk. “Hold my calls, would you, my dear?”
    I shot a look at Amy over my shoulder as we walked into the office. She made a gagging motion, shoving her finger down her throat. Okay, the hand on the back definitely felt creepy. I stepped away from the mayor and sat down in one of the leather high backs in front of his desk. He crossed over the Oriental rug and sat down at his large, antique oak desk. No money had been spared decorating this office. This explained the plastic DMV chairs in the waiting room and Amy’s iron circa–World War II desk.
    â€œSo, what can I help you with? I assume you’re here to talk about selling Miss Emily’s house?” Mayor Baylor leaned back in his chair, his hands intertwined in front of him and a barely disguised grin on his mouth.
    â€œSelling? You think I’m interested in selling the house?” I was shocked the conversation had jumped here so quickly. Maybe Mayor Bird should stay on my list of suspects, even if he had taken my name off Detective King’s list.
    â€œWhy else would you come to see me? I have several investors willing to pay a premium price for the house, even in its current state. I can’t believe she lived there all those years in squalor.”
    My face felt hot and my hands sweaty. “The house isn’t in that bad of shape.” Okay, so that was an understatement. The house needed everything, but it wasn’t like she lived in a cardboard box.
    Mayor Baylor sighed. “I know you considered the woman your friend, and that’s honorable, especially since she was so difficult to get along with, but we both know that house should be torn down and someone should just start over.”
    â€œMayor Baylor, I don’t know what I’m going to do with the house yet.” This interview wasn’t going the way I had planned. “Now, if we could talk about something else?”
    â€œI’m sorry, I didn’t realize. Are there issues with your shop? I’m sure we can work something out. Maybe we could do a flyer for you in the next Examiner ? We focus on one struggling store a month and give it some free publicity. Amy can give you the application.” He leaned over his computer, clearly moving on to another part of his day, a part done with me.
    â€œNo, there’s not a problem with my shop.” He told me what to do, he insulted Miss Emily, and now he was calling my shop unprofitable? What a jerk.
    He stopped going through his e-mail and glared at me. “Then why are you here, Miss Gardner?”
    I’m here to see if you have the balls to smother someone in their sleep.
    I took a deep breath. “I wanted to know why you told Detective King I wasn’t to be considered a suspect in Miss Emily’s death.”
    Mayor Baylor sat back in his chair, his potbelly bursting at the buttons of his white button-down shirt. He looked at me, probably for the first time since I had walked into his office. “I told the officer not everything or everyone needed to be examined and suspected. Until yesterday, this was just a woman dying in her sleep. And you were the poor soul who found her.” He fiddled with his pen. “Now that you have been revealed as Miss