Her words gave Zona’s nerves a jangle. “There will probably turn out to be some simple answer,” she said to both her mother and herself, and forked the last bite of waffle into her mouth.
“Yeah, he murdered her. Plain and simple.”
Zona swallowed hard. It had been horrifying enough thinking their neighbor might be capable of hurting someone.
She settled her nerves with a firm dose of reality. “With CCTV, DNA, and nosy neighbors, do you know how hard it is to actually get away with murder?”
“Doesheknow?”
The doorbell rang, signaling Martin’s arrival. “You need to let go of this idea,” Zona said, and rose to go let him in.
“What if it’s true?” Louise called after her.
“What are the odds?” Zona called back, then cringed. She hated when she slipped and used gambling terms. It triggered all kinds of unhealthy emotions.
She ditched the surfacing bitterness and replaced her frown with a smile for Martin. “Come on in. We’ll be ready to go in a minute.”
He nodded and stepped inside just as Louise was coming out from the kitchen, Darling escorting her. “I just need to brush my teeth,” she told him.
“While you’re doing that, I’ll take Darling for a quick walk,” Zona said. She’d have time. In addition to brushing her teeth, Louise would also be making good use of the bathroom and checking to be sure her makeup was perfect.
Zona grabbed a doggy-do bag, snapped on Darling’s leash, and let him race her down the sidewalk past Alec James’s house. His truck was in the driveway, and all was quiet. It hardly looked like the scene of a crime. But if a crime had taken place, would it have taken place in that house or somewhere else? Like one of the trails in the foothills?
Oh, good grief, she was turning into her mother.
Darling was a good boy, and Zona was a good pet owner, picking up after him. By the time they returned to the house, Louise was ready to go.
“Quite a few garage sales today,” said Martin after they were all in his car. “Did you see there were a couple in San Dimas? Those might be good.”
“Oh, yes,” said Louise. “Good hunting for Zona,” she added.
Looking for treasures sure beat indulging in morbid speculation about the man next door. “This garage sale hunting has turned out to be a brilliant idea,” Zona said from the back seat.
“I’m full of good ideas,” Louise quipped, and Zona could hear the smile in her voice.
“Yes, you are,” Zona agreed. Well, she was full of ideas. And most of them were good, anyway.
Their treasure hunting yielded some charming Christmas ornaments, including one with a Boston terrier that Zona was sure would get fought over when she finally posted it. She was equallypleased with the women’s brand-name bicycle shorts and top that she found, which were in mint condition.
“My teenage daughter wanted to get into cycling,” explained the woman selling them. “But she said the seat hurt her butt. She’s into running now. We’ll see how long that lasts.”
“Next year we might find all kinds of running shoes,” Louise joked as they left.
Zona supposed the next year she would still be selling garage sale finds online. And doing who knew what else.
At their last stop Louise and Martin were drawn to two boxes of books marked at a dollar each.
“A steal,” Louise crowed as Martin showed her a vintage gothic novel.
Zona, too, was drawn to the bargains and started looking through the second box. One book in particular practically jumped into her hands. She picked it up and read the title:The Psychology of Dangerous People.
She showed it to Louise. “This might be good research for your book.”
“Maybe,” said Louise, but she didn’t sound all that interested.
“I’ll get it for you,” said Zona.
“We can both read it,” said Louise.
