Bianca made a face like she had just walked in crap. “Rather you than me, dear,” she muttered. “So, you must have met Francis, then? Tracy’s assistant. Shame what happened between Agatha and him. Poor boy. He had such high hopes for his little fashion blog-log thingy.” She swiveled in her seat. “You know he chose all the outfits I wore to the International Conference of Dating Experts in San Francisco the week poor Agatha passed away? I was standing in front of hundreds of people head-to-toe in Chanel while she was breathing her final breath. So tragic.” She paused for effect, hand on heart, before launching into the conversation again. “And did you know Francis dressed me for the City Council People of the Year Awards for the past three years running? My pictures got over a million hits on his instaphoto-whatever page. People were calling me a GILF for weeks.”
I choked on a snort of laughter, turning it into a coughing fit to avoid the wrath of Bianca. She barely appeared to notice. “Poor Francis. Agatha was so pig-headed, kicking him out like that. Cutting off her nose to spite her face, typical Agatha. I really thought she’d at least make it up to him in her will, but I suppose she was stubborn to the end. Honestly, it was the last thing Francis needed after the Broadway fiasco.”
“Broadway fiasco?” My eyebrows were practically touching my hairline. I was beginning to see what Tracy meant about Bianca.
The white-haired beauty swiveled to face me. “You haven’t heard?” Bianca didn’t wait for me to answer before she launched into her tale of woe. “Francis was a drama major, you know. He was a pretty big deal on the Am Dram scene in high school—”
“Am Dram?” I interrupted.
Bianca pursed her lips. “Amateur Dramatics. Anyway, that was in high school, but when he got to college, things really took off for him. There was no role the boy couldn’t play; he could have pretended to be my long-lost son and I would have been convinced, such a chameleon. He got himself an agent before he’d even graduated and landed the role of Jack Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest on Broadway.”
“Wow.” Even I knew that was a big deal.
Seeing she had my attention, Bianca’s voice lowered to a stage whisper—Am Dram style. “Opening night, Francis was caught in the alley behind the theatre, being earnest with a hunky cop who was meant to be on the beat. Well, the media had a field day. By the next day, his agent had dropped him, and his understudy was given the role of Jack. The understudy ended up landing a blockbuster movie the next year because of his performance in the role that should have belonged to Francis. Dejected, poor Francis came home and trained to be a veterinary technician. Tragic.”
Bianca’s thin lips curved into a wicked smile. “But he still has an eye for the cops.” She pressed a finger to her lips as though we were sharing a secret. “Between you and me, my agency set him up with the big man in Salem Police Department and the man is besotted with young Francis. He’d do anything for him.” She patted her hair. “I wouldn’t be surprised if I need to get a hat for the chapel for a summer wedding. Another win for D’Arcy Dating Agency.”
My stare was frozen on Bianca’s face as the piece of the puzzle clicked into place inside my skull. A life twice ruined, a convincing actor, the head of police wrapped around his little finger. “Dear?” Bianca tapped my arm sharply and motioned for me to stop the car. “This house is mine.”
Numbly, I pulled over in front of a beautiful white corner-lot house, built in Art Deco style. Bianca turned to me with a cheery smile. “Thank you so much for taking pity on an old woman. Don’t you believe any of the nasty things anyone in town might be saying about you, you’re a good girl, and you inherited that place fair and square. Don’t let the rumors run you out of town, Salem is your home now.” She stepped gracefully out of the car and gave me a queen’s wave.
Before I could even respond, she was out the door and halfway up to her house, her feet as swift and light as a ballerina’s.
Chapter Twenty
To say I was overwhelmed would have been an understatement. I sat in the car outside Bianca’s house for what could have been hours, lost in my own thoughts as I tried to sift through the jumble of information spinning through my mind. When I finally gathered my thoughts enough to drive, I couldn’t bring myself to call into Bewitching Bites for lunch. The thought of what else I might learn about my neighbors from sweet, nervous Dot was enough to turn my stomach.
I parked the car beside a bland-looking deli, but before I could open my door, my cell buzzed inside my pocket. I frowned at the unfamiliar number on the display and answered cautiously, ready to kill the call if I heard Officer Bert Fitzgerald on the line. “Hi, Price?” A familiar voice sounded through the receiver.
My shoulders relaxed. “Tracy, how are you?”
“Fantastic, thank you.” I could almost hear her easy smile through the phone. “How have you been? How are the cats?”
“They’re great, thanks for asking. Driving me a bit crazy, but we’re all doing just fine.” I paused, uncertain how to proceed.
Tracy filled the silence. “Listen, I hope you don’t mind me using your phone number from the cat’s file, but there’s an awesome little spot just down the road from my office and I was wondering if you’d care to meet me there? I have a feeling you’ll love it.”
I paused for a moment. The guys were waiting for me, and they’d sounded worried on the phone, but on the other hand, Tracy might have some information we could use. And I really, really wanted a decent coffee. “You know what? That sounds lovely. What’s the name of it?”
Tracy’s voice laughed through the receiver. “The Three Cats, if you believe it.”
Of course it was. I shook my head. “Sounds great. I’ll look it up on my phone and meet you there soon?”
“I can be there in fifteen,” Tracy said. “See you then.”
I sent a quick text to Agatha’s phone before I started the engine, promising to return with the finest take-out lunch The Three Cat’s could make. I drove back through the easy streets of Salem city, guided by Google Maps on my phone. When I arrived at the cute little cafe, Tracy was sitting in at a table in a cozy corner near the back. There was a painting of three massive black cats on the wall, and all the servers wore cute little cat T-shirts.
“Nice place.” I took a seat across the table from Tracy.
She smiled at me. “I thought you would like it, the perfect place for a dog lover with three adopted cats, right?” She winked at me and I laughed. “Nice to see you again.”
The waitress took my order, and in no time I was sipping on a piping hot soy matcha latte. It was pure bliss, and I closed my eyes and let myself relax and enjoy the moment. It was exactly what I needed.
“You look like you’ve had a hell of a day,” Tracy said. She was drinking a steaming cup of green tea and watching me carefully.
I groaned. “You don’t know the half of it. I swear to God, everyone in this city is nuts. I think you lied when you said they weren’t.”
Tracy grimaced. “Yeah, there are a lot of interesting characters around here, that’s for sure, but I think you get that anywhere. Anyone in particular bothering you today?”
Unease prickled the nape of my neck as I stared at the pretty vet. Why was she being so nice to me? She was Frankie’s boss. Maybe she knew Harlow, too. Maybe they all knew each other. I lifted my cup to my lips and sipped slowly, trying to remember any of Dr. Lee’s advice. I needed to keep a grip on reality. The whole world wasn’t against me. Probably. “Oh, nobody really,” I lied. I felt Tracy’s gaze sharpen. I took a gulp of my latte and tried to think of the least incriminating topic. “Well, mainly those two old ladies that were at Agatha’s funeral.” I gestured for the waitress to bring me a second coffee. “Do you know them well?”
Tracy groaned. “Trust me, you can’t live around here and not know them. Bianca and Dot are big characters. What have they done now?”
I drained my mug, waiting anxiously for my second cup to arrive. “Not much, really. I just ran into Bianca today and she had a few things to say about people in the neighborhood.”
“Bianca has more than a few things to say about pretty much everyone, if you ask me,” Tracy said.
I nodded my agreement. “So, Agatha was close with them? I didn’t really get that impression from the way they were acting at her funeral.”
Tracy leaned back in her chair, contemplating her answer. “When I first arrived in Salem, the three of them were inseparable. I used to see them together all the time, they were always out causing some sort of mischief in the neighborhood, like three children in grown women’s bodies. Then something changed.”