“Um . . .” I said, but my companion had already made her move, sailing inside with an obvious intent.

“Good afternoon!” she said cheerily.

Drew lifted his head, blinking, and registered Tabitha’s approach. “Oh. Um, hello. You’re . . . ah . . .”

“I’m the one,” Tabitha said in a rush, “who was really hoping you’d reconsider your decision not to rehire Ariella Tice. Now, I know you said she had some problems, but don’t we all?”

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but this isn’t something I’m prepared to discuss right now. I can give you my card, though, and you can call my office to make an appointment.”

“But surely you could—”

“Aunt Tabitha?” I interrupted. “Could you go get us some of those luscious-looking cherry chocolate chip muffins?”

“Oh!” Tabitha’s attention was diverted. “That is what we came in for, isn’t it? I’ll go do that right now.”

As she wandered off, I pulled out a chair and sat on the edge of its seat. “Sorry about that,” I said, doing my best to sound like a niece who was accustomed to cleaning up her aunt’s social mishaps. Sort of like the good cop/bad cop routine, only different. “Sometimes she gets focused on things and it takes forever to divert her away from them.”

Drew smiled. “No apology necessary. We can’t choose our relatives, right?”

“Right.” I returned the smile. “Thanks for understanding. And I’m sure your decision to fire that young woman my aunt was going on about was a good one.”

He leaned forward a little. “Terminations are usually hard, but I have to tell you, we really dodged the bullet on that one. She was trouble, and a lot of things that have happened around here since then make me thank my lucky stars I got rid of her when I did.”

“Timing is everything,” I agreed, hitching my chair forward. “Like they say, serendipity can be a real thing.” I wasn’t sure if anyone had actually said that, but if not, someone should have. “But what do you mean, things have happened?”

“Well, Brown Bernier’s death, for one thing.”

I blinked. “You think Ariella had something to do with his murder?”

Drew hesitated. “I’m just saying there was bad blood between the two of them. And that woman who was found in the state forest? Emily something? She and Ariella . . .” He paused and pursed his lips. “Well, what I can say is the interaction between them was the final thing I needed to justify Ariella’s termination.”

“You should talk to the sheriff’s office,” I said.

“No, no.” He shook his head. “The last thing I want is to get the city pulled into a murder investigation. This is all just guesswork, anyway. I don’t have proof of anything.”

And even though I did my best to persuade him, he didn’t budge from that position.

*   *   *