“Not exactly.” I had a sip of my coffee. “Kanesha was worried because she couldn’t find her mother, and Morty Cassity mentioned he hadn’t seen Vera. So we started looking for them.” I gave them a brief account of my discovery of Azalea and Vera’s body in the stairwell.

Laura shivered, her breakfast forgotten. “How terrible for Azalea. Locked in with a corpse.”

“Sounds like the title of a Golden Age detective story.” Sean scooped up the fallen egg and popped it into his mouth. Not much interfered with his appetite.

“Don’t be facetious, son.”

Sean shrugged. “Sorry.”

I suppressed a sigh of irritation. “Azalea was terrified, and Kanesha was pretty upset, too. She seemed to think Sheriff Tidwell was considering her mother as a suspect in Vera’s death.”

“Azalea? You’ve got to be kidding me.” Sean set his fork aside. “No way she’d kill someone. Did she even know Mrs. Cassity?”

“She knew her.” I hadn’t confided in either Sean or Laura about my set-down from Azalea or the reason for it. I would explain that to them later. I didn’t want Azalea to come back into the room and catch me talking about it.

“To know her was to loathe her, evidently.” Laura broke off another bit of bacon and gazed innocently at me as it disappeared under the table. Smug purring followed.

“That’s putting it mildly. Vera made enemies all too easily.” I had some bacon and biscuit and a forkful of eggs.

“Maybe one of the Ducote sisters caught her snooping and pushed her down the stairs. Maybe Ducote is French for ‘ruthless.’” Sean was being particularly smart-mouthed this morning.

My temper flared. “I’m not too happy with you right this minute, Sean. Your flippancy is totally out of place. What happened last night was horrible, and you ought to have more respect for Azalea and what she went through than to carry on like this.”

Diesel appeared at my side, meowing anxiously. He got agitated anytime he thought I was upset. In taking a moment to reassure him I began to calm down myself. I almost—almost, mind you—regretted my outburst.

“Sorry, Dad.” Sean looked suitably abashed. “I guess it seems a little unreal. I didn’t know Mrs. Cassity.”

“Neither did I, but I do know Azalea.” Laura seemed to withdraw for a moment, and I realized she must be thinking of the events of three months before when a friend of hers was murdered and she found the body. “I’m sorry she had to go through all that.”

Sean reached over and squeezed her shoulder. His voice was gruff when he spoke. “Sorry, Laura, I was really insensitive.”

“It’s okay.” Laura offered the ghost of a smile. “Dad, is there anything we can do for Azalea?”

“Just let her be,” I said. “She’s a strong woman, and if she needs us to lean on, we’ll be here.”

“What about her being a suspect?” Sean poked at his eggs. “Do you think the sheriff is really serious?”