“That many?” Tricia asked, surprised.

Angelica nodded. “Of course, if so many of our members weren’t found dead on a regular basis, it might help recruitment.”

Tricia frowned. Since she seemed to have an uncanny knack for finding the dead; she was usually initially (and unfairly) blamed for their demise. She decided to change the subject. “As I mentioned, I spoke to Grant today. Needless to say he was upset—very upset—that we hadn’t brought Betsy’s dubious Chamber files to his attention before now.”

“He’s had them since Saturday. That means he never even bothered to look at them.”

“I did point that out to him.”

“So why was he so annoyed?”

“He doesn’t like to be kept out of the loop. He threatened to talk to you, too.”

“Then I guess I won’t be checking my phone messages for the next couple of days. I hope you didn’t tell him we’d gone snooping in Betsy’s house.”

“Not a word,” she replied.

“Good,” Angelica said as they approached the house. The trunk lid was up on Antonio’s car and he had his head buried in it.

“Do you need some help?” Tricia offered.

Antonio straightened. “You are just in time, lovely ladies. If one of you would take the keys—”

“I will,” Angelica said, appropriating them from him, and quickly marched toward the front door, leaving Tricia and Antonio to carry in the stack of foam take-out boxes that were packed with food.

“Looks like you brought enough to feed an army,” Tricia said as he handed her one of the stacks.

“A well-fed workforce is a happy workforce,” he said, snagging a bottle of wine and tucking it under his arm before he grabbed a large paper sack. “I will come back for the rest of it.” He slammed the lid and they started for the steps, which someone—probably Antonio—had thoughtfully salted earlier that day.

“I came by this afternoon,” Antonio admitted, as though reading Tricia’s mind. “I wanted to make sure the Dumpsters had arrived.” They had, and now took up the entire length of the home’s driveway.

Angelica stood in front of the front door and called to them. “Good. We’ve got to get this place emptied out tonight—even if it takes all night,” Angelica said.

“I don’t understand.”

“We can discuss it while we eat,” Angelica said, turned, and unlocked the door.

“Where’s Ginny?” Tricia asked Antonio.

“She will be here soon. I called her just before I left the Brookview Inn. She said she would be changing her clothes and would be here as soon as she could.”

Angelica had already set Sarge free by the time Tricia and Antonio made it inside. They walked through the stacks of cartons and into the kitchen, putting down their boxes. Angelica had peeled off her coat, but as Tricia went to unfasten the buttons on her own, Angelica stopped her.

“Since the Dumpsters are already out there, why don’t you two start taking stuff out to them so we can have more room to work.”

“Why don’t you carry the stuff out?” Tricia asked, annoyed.

“Because someone needs to take charge, and as I am a natural-born leader, I have taken on the burden of command.” Funny, everyone had looked to Tricia to take charge the night before.

“Marvelous idea,” Antonio said. “I will take out the first bag of trash and then bring in the rest of our dinner.”

“Get to it. Tricia, you know where all the trash is stacked,” Angelica said and turned back for the kitchen.

Tricia ignored her last comment. “What exactly does the burden of command entail?”

“I’ll set up our dinner while the two of you tackle some of those bags of trash. When Ginny gets here, we can eat and then the real work will begin.”

Though unhappy with her assignment, Tricia nonetheless headed back to the living room and began taking the bags of trash out to the Dumpster.

Ginny arrived ten minutes later, breathless and full of apologies but ready to start work. With three worker bees now in attendance they set up a kind of bucket brigade, with Tricia tossing bags out the side door to Ginny, who tossed them to Antonio, who tossed them in the Dumpster. It took only ten minutes to clear out the mess from the evening before, so they could start making a new mess.

Angelica had impeccable timing, announcing that dinner was served just as the last bag landed inside the Dumpster. Tricia had been ready with a snarky quip, but had to eat her words when she saw that while the three of them were on garbage patrol, Angelica had been scrubbing the kitchen. The table, sink, and counters were certainly cleaner than they had been the night before, and she’d spread out the food, buffet style. Sarge trotted around the table looking hopeful, but Angelica admonished them not to feed the bichon frise. “He’s already had his dinner. You don’t want him to get fat and have to go on a doggy diet, do you?” But it was hard to eat such delicious chicken, beef, and pâté with Sarge’s little brown eyes following every bite.

Antonio poured wine for all of them, but Tricia noted that Ginny didn’t touch hers. Apparently she still hadn’t shared the news of her pregnancy with her husband.

“Antonio, I’m sure you heard about the fire at Betsy Dittmeyer’s house overnight,” Tricia said.

“I did. Everyone at the inn was talking about it.”

“And that it was arson?” Angelica asked.

He nodded.

“I’m afraid if we don’t finish tonight, someone might find out that Betsy’s garbage had been housed here for the past couple of years and do the same. That’s why we must get the house emptied. I’m not going to lose the Chamber’s only viable home to an arsonist.”

Antonio looked unhappy but nodded in agreement.

“Does this place have any outside lights? If it’s lit up like a Christmas tree, it might discourage anyone from coming nearby,” Angelica continued.

“Do you think we should call Grant or maybe Fire Chief Farrar?” Tricia asked.

“It probably wouldn’t hurt. Once we’re finished, I think I’ll do just that,” Angelica said.

The temptation to linger over their lovely meal was thwarted when Antonio suddenly became businesslike and announced that it was time to get back to work. “I’m hopeful, but not anticipating, that we will finish our work here tonight. And that will not happen unless we get started.”

“Shall I clean up here?” Ginny asked, looking hopeful, and before Angelica could volunteer for that lighter duty.

“Yes. The rest of us will begin clearing out the upstairs,” Antonio said.

“I’ll make my calls first,” Angelica said, and turned to grab her purse and her cell phone.

“Why don’t we do the same thing we did outside: someone toss the boxes downstairs and we open them here. That’ll save us lugging all the trash down the stairs,” Tricia volunteered, but Antonio shook his head.

“The Dumpster sits directly under one of the upstairs windows. We can simply toss the trash bags into it.”

“Good idea,” Tricia agreed, and the two of them started for the stairs to the second floor, leaving Ginny to tidy the kitchen and Angelica with her phone.

Sarge seemed to think they were competing in a race, and zoomed on ahead of them, excitedly barking for them to join him at the top of the landing.

Tricia started working in the smaller of the bedrooms, dumping boxes and methodically going through the accumulated mess. Sarge thought it was some kind of game and sniffed at the items. He’d pick one up, carry it around the upstairs, showing off his new toy before dropping it and grabbing something else.

Soon Ginny joined them, but rather than stand over her emptied boxes, she sat on the floor sorting the wheat from the chaff, while Angelica and Antonio worked in the other room.

The pickings weren’t anywhere near as good as they had been the night before, and soon Antonio opened the window on the south side of the house and began tossing the trash into the Dumpster.