I handed Dee Dee her phone. “Write down George Buchanan as well.” It was painful to remember the scene where Annie berated him. “I believe if I was George I’d want to kill her.”

“Why?” Dee Dee asked with raised eyebrows.

“It was terrible Dee. Annie had asked each of us to write a paper. She read them out loud and then critiqued them. After she read George’s paper she said “this is an example of how not to write” and then shredded it. Everyone just sat there in shock. Poor ole’ George didn’t take it so well. He threw back his chair, threatened Annie, then fled the room.”

“Sounds like another candidate for a person of interest. I swanny, I don’t know why the detective focused on you. I’m putting a star by his name, too.”

Dee Dee tapped her pencil on her tablet. “Getting back to George. When you tell Detective Sams about Tippi, you need to tell her about George, too. Who else do we need to write down?”

“Amanda Holbrook. She reminds me of myself when Wade divorced me. Instead of a chip, she has a boulder on her shoulder.” Dee Dee grinned at my rhyme. “She’s been put in a position where she has to find a job to support herself and her children. She wrote for pleasure, now she wants to write professionally. Sounds a lot like me, doesn’t it.”

“That may have been you when you first moved back to Vans Valley, but it isn’t you now. You’ve grown so much Trixie. I’m real proud of you.” She rewarded me with a wide smile.

“Thanks Dee. I couldn’t have done it without your help and support.” I reached over and squeezed her hand. I had no doubt Dee Dee would be there for the long haul.

“Anyway, Amanda definitely harbors a lot of anger, but it seems to be directed at her ex-husband. I don’t see any reason she’d take it out on Annie.”

“Yeah, but she was in the bed and breakfast so we need to write her down.” Dee Dee wrote her name with a flourish.

“The only other person I can think of is Ladonna, the housekeeper. She was in the room when Annie told us she was feeling sick. I wonder if she’s staying at the bed and breakfast? If so, it’d be easy to find her.”

“Looks like we have us a bonafide suspect list. So far we have Bodene, Lori, Tippi, George, Amanda and Ladonna. Wow, that’s six people.”

I looked over Dee Dee’s shoulder to see none other than Detective Sams and Sergeant Gary Sargent heading our way. “Quick, hide the list. Here comes the detective.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Quick thinking Dee Dee opted for a foolproof method of hiding the names. She shoved the tablet under her ample bottom, and donned a smile, as innocent as a baby.

“Trixie.” Detective Sams greeted me then she shot a questioning look toward Dee Dee.

“Hello, Detective. This is my good friend, Dee Dee Lamont.”

Dee Dee stared at her mirror image. “Hi.”

Detective Sams gave an approving look at Dee’s outfit. Today she wore red slacks, a white top with a red and green sweater, in keeping with the holiday season. “Nice ensemble, Dee Dee.”

“Why thank you,” Dee Dee said, grinning ear to ear.

“Unfortunately, I’m not here to talk about clothes. I hear you ladies were making a hit list?”

What in the world? I guess that busybody reported us. Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse – they did. I looked up to see Nana staggering toward us. I reached over and nudged Dee Dee and pointed toward Nana. We jumped up at the same time knocking into each other. Dee Dee, being a patron of the Woman’s Department, won the round and I ended up back in my chair. She moved faster than I ever imagined she could. I hurried to catch up. With Dee Dee on one side and me on the other we guided Nana over to the chairs and sat her down. All the while Detective Sams and Sergeant Gary Sargent took in the scene wide-eyed.

Everybody gathered around and I sat in the chair opposite Nana. “What’s the matter? Don’t you feel good, Nana?”

She looked up and smiled. “Actually, I feel pretty good.” She held up her hot pink cast. “See, no pain.”

Dee Dee gasped. “Nana, did you take more of your pain medicine?”

“I just took two more,” she shook her head, “I think it was just two.” I wasn’t feeling any better, so I thought I’d take a couple more. Now I don’t feel a bit of pain. A little woozy though.”

I lifted my head toward heaven. Lord, give me strength and patience. Hurry please. “Sorry about that, Detective. This is my great-aunt, Nana. As you can see she fell last night and broke her arm.”

“I’m sorry to hear about that, ma’am. Now back to that list.”

Nana piped up. “Are you here to question Trixie?” She slurred her words making it sound more like “Are you here to quesion Trixie?”

“Ma’am this is police business,” Detective Sams said. “Someone needs to get this woman coffee. Or escort her back to bed.”

“I’ll be quiet.” Nana dropped back against the cushion, cradling her cast in her good hand, her head swaying a bit from side to side.

The sergeant had his notepad out, ready to take down whatever I said.

“What list are you talking about?” I saw the tablet sticking out from under Nana. I held my breath hoping she wouldn’t notice. No such luck.

Nana pulled it out and raised it high in the air. “What’s this?”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Four hands grabbed for the notebook. Detective Sams won, snatching it faster than a coon dog treeing a squirrel. “Let me see what we have here. Suspect list?”

“Uh, we were just brainstorming, Detective. It doesn’t mean we were going to do anything with it. By the way, I wanted to tell you about Tippi Colston. She was right outside Annie’s door when I went to visit her. And Annie tore up a paper George wrote. He threatened her before the whole class. You can ask them.”

“I fully intend to. I don’t think you’ll need this list, so I’ll just take it with me.” She skimmed the list. “You’ve been busy, haven’t you?” She ripped out the page Dee Dee made her notes on. “I told you before, I’d investigate this case to the fullest. When there is as much evidence as there is against you then you automatically shoot to the top of the list. It doesn’t mean we won’t look at others, but you need to leave it to the professionals.”

Nana spoke up. “She is a professional. She’s solved three cases already. And I helped.”

“Yes ma’am, I’m sure she was an asset to those cases, but she’s a person of interest in this one. That means hands-off. Do you understand?” Detective Sams looked from me to Dee Dee and back to me.

“I definitely understand what you said, Detective.” I understood what she said, but it didn’t mean I was going to keep my hands off this case. It was my bootie that was at risk of being thrown in the caboose, and I didn’t trust the detective to clear my name.

“All right then, I’ll be on my way. I don’t want anyone else calling in with information you’re sleuthing on your own.”

Well my goodness, we were in agreement, I didn’t want anyone calling in either.

“Let me know if you change hotels and I’ll be in touch with you soon.” She touched the bill of her hat with her hand, turned on her heel and sauntered out of the lobby. Sergeant Sargent gave me one last smirk before he hurried to catch up with the detective.

I looked over at Nana to find her sound asleep in the chair. Her mouth stood wide open and a little bit of drool slid down her lip. She snored like a bear.

Dee Dee’s stomach emitted a growl louder than Nana’s snoring. “Yikes, look at the time. No wonder I’m hungry. It’s afternoon already.” She glanced at Nana. “What are we going to do with her?”

“I’d like to get some lunch, but we need to wake her and take her back to the room first.” I’d no sooner got the word “lunch” out of my mouth when her head popped up like a jack-in-the-box.