“Embarrassher? We like to died of mortification! She was over at our house all afternoon Tuesday, kissing Frog like there was no tomorrow,” Bug said indignantly.
“You’ll be singing a different tune about kissing in a few years, my friend,” Jack said, ruffling Bug’s hair.
Bug started up with the fake barfing noises again.
“I’m sorry you were embarrassed, but it wasn’t Tuesday afternoon,” I said absently.
“Yes, it was,” Lily insisted. “I remember, because she was there when we got home from school, and then I had tap dance class, and when I got home from that, she was still there!”
“It was disgusting,” Bug put in, clutching his stomach.
Horrified realization flooded me, and I walked down the sidewalk to intercept Sadie before she could go into the bakery.
“Hey, Tess,” she said cheerfully. “How’s it going?”
“It’s going fine, Sadie. I hear you were at Frog McKee’s house on Tuesday afternoon.”
She looked at me blankly.
“Allafternoon. So, you really couldn’t have been at home with your granny and Ish Phleabottom at the same time you were at Frog’s, could you?”
Fear widened her eyes. “Oh, Tess, please don’t tell Susan. She gets so cranky! Granny was safe with Ish. He comes down to visit her several times a year. She loves him!”
She clapped a hand over her mouth.
“Oh, no. I wasn’t supposed to tell anybody about his visits. He doesn’t want anybody to get upset. He doesn’t stay long, just pops in to see Granny and me, you know,” she said, blushing.
I knew all right. The movie-star-handsome Ish would have found easy prey in gullible Sadie.
“There’s not a problem, though, right? You don’t have to tell Susan?”
“I’m sorry, but I have to tell Susan. Because there’s abigproblem. You gave Ish an alibi for the exact time of his mother’s murder.”
Sadie burst into tears, but I called Susan, who sounded completely exhausted and extremely angry at her cousin. Andy had already told her about Henrietta. She promised to let me know if they found Ish, and we hung up.
After all that—catching Henrietta fleeing town and busting Ish’s alibi—I was sure the rest of the day would be peaceful and calm.
But then we got to my shop and discovered that the zucchini plant had eaten the building.
32
Jack
We sat in the truck and stared at the front window of the pawnshop. Yesterday, anybody who looked in the window would have seen a tasteful display of objects for sale.
Today, all we could see was green.
Green leaves. Green zucchinis. Green vines.
So. Much. Green.
“Oh, no, she didn’t,” Tess snapped.
“She?”
“Audrey III.”
“I don’t understand—”
