Rafe and I exchanged a glance. Now was as good a time as any. “You probably don’t know,” I said, “but I work at the library. I drive the bookmobile.”

Jenica didn’t say anything, so I plunged on.

“Anyway, one of my favorite patrons is Pug Mattock. Or, he was, because he was killed a couple of weeks ago.”

Still, Jenica didn’t say a word.

Getting a bit desperate, I started to babble. “He was on the bookmobile a few days before he died, and he said he was going to meet you, to report some poaching he’d seen. Turkeys, I think it was. Anyway, I was wondering if when you’d talked to him, if he’d said something or if you’d seen something that might help figure out who killed him and—”

“There was nothing.” Jenica stood, pulled a wallet from her coat pocket, and tossed cash down on the bar. “It’s time for me to go.”

Then, without another word, she fled.

Chapter 15

Was that weird?” I asked, looking through the restaurant’s window as Jenica got into her small SUV and backed out onto the road.

Rafe, who’d been taking a first drink of his beer, set the mug down and said, “For most people, yes. Not so much for Jenica.”

“It sure seemed to me that she didn’t like the questions I was asking, so she ran away.”

“That’s because you don’t know that Jenica is a die-hard hockey fan. Tonight is the last game in the conference playoffs and there’s no way she’s going to miss the national anthem, let alone the puck drop.”

So it was sports weirdness. Just as mysterious to me, but common enough. “Well,” I said, “let’s move on to the next suspect on the list. Charlie Seller.” I sat up. “Say, you said hello to a Charlie on our way in. Is there any chance that’s—”

Rafe shook his head. “How long have you known me? When I can’t remember someone’s name, I always call them Charlie. Works for all genders.”

“You really are a genius,” I said admiringly. “No, I guess I never noticed that particular habit of yours. I suppose it’s too late for me to pick up on it?”

“Way. Get your own trick.” He toasted me with his mug. “But tell you what. I might have a way to get some info about that real Charlie. What are you doing tomorrow morning?”

*   *   *

And so, the next morning, I found myself at the Round Table, sitting next to Rafe and across from Connor, a college friend of his from back in his undergraduate days at Northern Michigan University. We’d been provided coffee and ordered our breakfasts, and I was sitting back, listening to the two of them talk about events I’d never heard about and people I’d never met.