Page 121 of Death on Gallows Path

I must have been out of it for quite a while, because the shop was empty. I didn’t even see Leo. He had to be around somewhere. He wouldn’t have locked us in.

The dogs stopped for their usual perusal of the treat offerings.

“Gracie raided so many treats from the bag, she shouldn’t get any more, yet I am tempted to get her and LuLu and Murph sprats to celebrate.”

I bent and picked up the biggest pack of the smelly little fish. Smelly enough that, again, the odor reached me and I recoiled.

“Celebrate? I knew it. You’ve figured it out.”

“I think so. We’ll have to tell Teague, Clara. It will take investigative resources they have that we don’t.” Financial and legal information for starters.

“But you have figured it out, haven’t you?”

“Have you?” A not-Clara voice asked.

Around the corner of the display shelving came Pammy and Zoley.

Pammy captured my attention, not because she’d asked the question, but because she held a gun, pointed toward Clara and me.

So, maybe no investigating required.

The relationship between the two women was clear now. Pammy was in charge.

“You told Zoley to talk about Bryon being possessive and volatile,” I said aloud.

“That’s what you think you’ve figured out?” She was superior, slightly amused.

“Part of it. Mostly it was the answers to two questions we had about Damon’s murder — why that spot on Gallows Path and why now?”

“Who cares about that?” Zoley sneered.

One of the downsides of having Gracie with me was I’d put my phone in my purse to leave my hands free for the paraphernalia — leash, treats, water spritzer, just in case. At the moment I was more laden than usual, holding that big bag of sprats.

I’d have to drop stuff to get to my phone. A tad noticeable.

A glance at Clara told me she was in the same situation.

Keeping Pammy talking might give us a chance to change that — somehow. Or Leo might return.

It sure was better than the alternative.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

“Pammy cares,” I said to Zoley. “Where and when were vital to her. You could have killed each other’s husband and each had an alibi for her own husband’s death. But that wasn’t what Pammy wanted.”

“Deputies would have been on us right away because so many movies use that plot,” Zoley said with superiority.

I would not be sidetracked to ask if she meant Throw Momma from the Train. Too much risk of a dead end — no pun intended.

“Is that what Pammy told you? Did she also tell you that you’d come out of this rich and single? She has other goals. Some wives can feel when their husbands stray. I suppose when he moves from straying with one to another, too. She knew your affair with Damon had run its course.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Zoley gave a superior sniff.

“He dumped you,” Clara said flatly.

“Why you—”

Before Zoley could gather energy to attack my friend, I hurried on. “You knew it, Zoley. You were trying to hold onto him, but he was less and less interested.”