I traipsed back through the woods toward my house, feeling the absence of Pandora at my side. She hadn’t been in Elspeth’s house when I left and I didn’t see her outside.

Where was she? I glanced back over my shoulder as I pulled my cell phone out to call Augusta.

“Pandora!” I yelled. Was I expecting her to come bounding through the woods? She’d never come when I called before.

I felt a stab of worry for the cat—I had to admit, I was getting kind of attached to the fur ball even though she did act strangely at times.

I waited a few seconds, then turned with a shrug. It would be dark soon and I didn’t want to be in the woods after sunset. Pandora would find her way home—she always did.

I pulled Augusta up on my contacts list and pressed the button. She answered on the first ring.

“Hey, Willa. What’s up?” Her voice was muffled like she had a jelly donut stuffed in her mouth.

“Are you eating?” I asked.

“Yep. Chocolate cruller.” Not a jelly donut, but I was close. I wondered how she could eat so many donuts and still not gain an ounce.

“I was just calling to see if there was anything new about Lavinia. Do you have any idea why she was in the library that early?” I asked.

Augusta paused. I could hear her swallow the cruller. “You know I’m not supposed to talk about ongoing cases.”

“Oh, so it is still open?” My house came into view in the distance and I picked up the pace.

Augusta laughed. “I guess I can tell you that I have some doubts. I can’t just write it off if I have a doubt, so I sent the body from Stilton’s to the medical examiner.”

“Ahh … so you do suspect foul play.” I said it as more of a statement than a question.

“Not necessarily. But I have a funny feeling and my duty is to err on the side of caution.”

Augusta often had ‘funny feelings’ about cases and they usually turned out to be quite accurate. She was a natural cop, with good intuition.

“Okay. Well, let me know what you find out,” I said as I jogged up the farmers porch steps and opened my back door.

“Will do.” Augusta said. “Hey, wait a minute. Why are you so interested?”

“Oh, no reason, really.” I stepped into the back entry, the back stairs were in front of me, the kitchen to my right and a small area for boots and coats to the left. I turned to the left, placed the bag with the pie on the floor and slid my left boot off with my right toe. “It’s just that I found her, so I kind of feel like I want closure or something.”