After a moment, Tabitha spoke. “Not that I want to borrow trouble,” she said thoughtfully, “but there is a common element between Brown’s murder and poor Emily’s.”

My recent dreams came back to me in full color. “Bicycles,” I agreed.

And we started making plans.

Chapter 10

Tabitha and I discussed investigative tactics and in an efficient few minutes came up with tasks for both of us. “Let’s talk again tomorrow,” she said. I agreed, saying I’d call about the same time.

I put my phone on the kitchen counter. “Eddie?”

My cat, who wasn’t a small version of his breed, seemed to have disappeared. This meant one of two things. Either he’d found a way to escape the houseboat, which would be very bad, or he was lying on the small pile of shoes in my tiny closet.

I pushed open the narrow door and looked down. He wasn’t on top of my shoes; he was lying next to them, as he’d managed to push every single piece of footwear aside and was curled up on the bare floor. “Why?” I asked.

Eddie stared at me and opened his mouth in a silent “Mrr.”

“Right. Well, if you don’t want to tell me, just say so.”

This got me another silent “Mrr,” which I probably deserved. I reached down and patted him on the head. “Just don’t put teeth marks in my flip-flops, okay? And I’m headed over to the house.”

Not that I would be there long. Rafe was headed to Gaylord for a meeting the purpose of which I couldn’t remember, and the two of us were having a short, quick dinner that would be tasty but undeniably unhealthy.

Accordingly, we were soon in the kitchen, opening the pizza box. “See?” Rafe pointed. “Onions on the whole thing. We’re eating vegetables.”

“Works for me,” I said, digging in, because although I wasn’t completely sure that nutritional experts classified onions as a vegetable, I didn’t see what else they could be.

After a couple of bites of sausage and onion, Rafe said, “Remember when Keith was over the other day, and I was ragging him about retiring? Looks like he’s going to be a former teacher sooner rather than later. He’s moved his retirement up from the end of next school year to the end of this calendar year.”

“Is he okay?” Because the only reason I could think of for such a thing was an unexpected illness.

“Not after I gave him a hard time for quitting on me early.” Rafe grinned. “I think it was this last round of parent-teacher conferences that tipped him over the edge. Plus he said his investments are doing better than expected.”