“Okay, I’ll only be a few minutes here. Order me a small coffee. Black.” Striker turned to the door and I hobbled to my Jeep, wondering if I’d just accepted an invitation that was finally going to give me a break in the case … or that would lead to our first date.

***

I found a parking spot on Main Street between my shop and the Mystic Cafe. Glancing over to the bookstore, I could see Pandora glaring at me from her cat bed in the window. Her displeasure was obvious in her slitted golden-green orbs and I wondered if she’d demonstrate it to me by leaving a hairball on my purple sofa … or worse.

It was just a little after five and the cafe was fairly empty. I chose a booth near the back and sat facing the door. I ordered Striker his coffee and one for myself, along with a roast beef and melted Swiss cheese on an onion roll. I was hungry.

Striker strolled in just as the sandwich appeared on the table.

“Roast beef and Swiss?” He eyed the sandwich before taking a sip of the coffee I’d shoved over to his side of the table.

“You want half?” I raised my brow at him and slid the sandwich toward him.

“No, thanks.” He watched me smear some horseradish from the condiment dish on the sandwich and take a bite. I suddenly felt self-conscious, my face flushing—probably from the horseradish. I swallowed and the food sat like a leaden lump in my stomach.

“So, what have you got?” I asked.

“You go first.”

I shrugged. “I don’t really have anything. My best guess is that it has something to do with the bronzes.”

“How did you find out about the bronzes, anyway?”

“Josiah Barrows, the old postmaster mentioned it. He remembered when they were donated.” No way was I going to tell him Lavinia had verified that.

“So that’s why you were at the Bates’?”

I shrugged.

“And how did you happen to be behind the library, conveniently finding the murder weapon?”

“Aha! So that was the murder weapon.”

Striker nodded. “We found Lavinia’s blood on it. But how did you even know to look there?”

I narrowed my eyes. I didn’t like how this was going. It was starting to feel more like an interrogation than sharing information. So far, it was all take and no give.

“I actually wasn’t there because I thought I would find a murder weapon. At that time, I didn’t even know Lavinia had been murdered. I was looking for my cat,” I said, then tried to turn the tide so I was the one getting information instead of giving it. “So, you were at the Bates mansion because of the bronzes, too? That must mean you think the same thing I do.”

“Not necessarily. But I have to follow every lead.”