“We haven’t talked about Kacey’s death.” I took a sip of my orange juice. My statement was partially true. We’d only talked about Greg interviewing Nick about the food truck incident. And of course, the fact that Sadie’s recipes were back in her hands. But we hadn’t talked about a cause of death and I was beginning to wonder why a seemingly healthy adult would just die. Or how.
“Whatever. I tell you, though, that chick was fired up. She didn’t think Kacey died of natural causes. Her friends had to drag her out of here.” Carrie nodded to another table. “Enjoy your meal.”
I thought about the memorial and tried to pick out anyone who was upset or seemed angry. Besides Josh. I took a bite of my omelet and realized Darla was watching me. “What?”
“I told you I went to Bakerstown to the funeral home. Doc Ames wasn’t in, so Mabel told me what she’d heard.” Darla set her fork down on the table and leaned closer. “She said the poor girl’s chest was all covered with a rash, and her airway had closed up. Worse case of allergic reaction she’d ever seen.”
I kept eating my breakfast. This so didn’t replace Sunday breakfast with Amy. We typically talked about the latest star couple breakup or what she’d overheard in the mayor’s office. Okay, I’ll admit it, we gossiped. This was more of an interrogation.
“Bee sting, I bet,” Darla mused. “The news is always talking about those killer bees coming up from South America. I bet she got stung from one of the little buggers who stole away on a cargo ship that docked in the city.”
“I thought the killer bee story was an urban legend.” I finished my orange juice, hoping to speed up the meal so I could go home and call Amy to patch up our little quarrel. Amy loved debunking urban legends, and the bee thing had been on her list to research.
“I don’t know. Any way you look at it, the death doesn’t appear to be a murder. So Austin is in the clear to inherit Kacey’s estate.”
Maybe Darla was right. Kacey could have just died. Then Darla’s words hit me. “What estate?”
“Her dad patented the formula for those puffy cookies they sell in stores, you know, the really good ones? When he died, he left her a fortune.” Darla started in on her pancakes. “I guess Austin’s the beneficiary. Don’t tell me Greg didn’t know this.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. We don’t talk about ongoing investigations.”
Darla laughed so hard she started to choke on the bite of food in her mouth. Once she got in control of her breathing, she gasped. “You don’t have to hold up the party line to me. There’s no way the two of you don’t exchange any pillow talk around your day.”
“I hate to burst your fantasy, but we don’t talk about open investigations.” I took a ten and two ones out of my purse and laid them on the table. “That’s for my meal. I forgot I have another appointment.”
Darla smiled. “You just don’t want to admit I’m right.”
CHAPTER 10
Darla’s words still rankled. I wasn’t lying when I said Greg and I didn’t talk about cases. Well, except for when he was mad at me for getting into his business. I’d turned over a new leaf, and I was actively staying out of investigations. But I had to admit, Kacey’s death had me stumped. Darla seemed to think the condition of the body proved she was murdered. I still wondered if the ingestion of the wheat had been an accident. From what the women in my coffee shop had said, Austin was always doing stupid stuff that ended up putting Kacey in danger.
I shook off my unease and decided that instead of worrying about something I couldn’t change, I’d call Amy and tell her I was a royal jerk for my attitude yesterday. I had to admit, Kacey’s memorial had affected me in ways I didn’t expect. However, one fact remained totally clear: Taylor Archer was a jerk. Especially now with the power of the geo club position behind him. As I walked back from Diamond Lille’s, the parched look of the wild areas outside of town bothered me. All that water just yards away in the ocean, but the grass was dying of thirst. I didn’t really understand how they could send a man to the moon and develop a bomb that could kill off all the living creatures of the world, but they couldn’t take salt out of water?
When I reached the house, Greg’s truck sat in my driveway. He was on the front step, reading something on his phone. When I opened the gate, he put the phone in his pocket and stood and kissed me on the cheek. “Hey, what are you doing here?”
A confused look passed over his face. “It’s Sunday, right? We’ve got a standing afternoon date. I thought we’d go into the city and get some dinner at one of the restaurants by the bay. I’m craving some seafood. It’s been a crazy week.”