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***


I'd just finished packaging the last of the custom bath fizzies for the wedding shower when the doorbell upstairs chimed. I hurried up to answer it.

Barr stood on the other side of the screen. "I'll trade information for food," he said.

"Funny man." I gestured him inside. "It's a deal. Tonight's dinner selection has an Asian theme. But first you have to hang out in the workroom while I clean up. Meghan's gone to pick Erin up from math camp."

"I love watching you fuss around down there," he said, and laid a big smacker on me before I could bristle at the term "fuss"

He followed me downstairs and settled onto a stool at the end of my work island. I went back to gathering small cellophane bags together and organizing the short lengths of satin ribbon used to tie them shut.

"Information before food," I said.

He laughed. "It's nothing much." Still, there was satisfaction on his face.

Intrigued, I continued to tidy the packaging materials and tried for nonchalant.

He fingered his string tie, this one a round sand-colored stone with the imprint of a tiny fish fossil in it. "We may have figured out who the killer is," he announced.


Nothing much, indeed.

"Who?" I leaned my elbows on the counter. "Stop teasing."

"We questioned Zak Nelson this afternoon. We hadn't before, at least not in enough depth. After you found out from Lindsey Drucker that he and Ariel had been dating, we decided to go back and have another conversation with him."

"Flatterer," I said. "Does he have an alibi like everyone else?"

He grimaced. "Hard to tell."

I pushed aside the ribbons I'd been sorting. "Meaning?"

"He told us he was at home. But then he changed his story and said he'd seen Ariel on the night of her murder." He paused for effect. "He met her at CRAG"

I sank onto the stool next to him. "Ohmygod. He was there?"

"He insists she was alive when he left"

Something wasn't quite right, but I couldn't put my finger on it. "Did he admit to doing anything to my brakes?" I asked.

Barr shook his head. "Robin asked him point blank. He seemed confused by the question, but then again, he could be a good actor."

"Yesterday Zak told me he'd been seeing Ariel, but she broke up with him. That he didn't mind because he likes Daphne Sparks, her roommate."

"He told us the same thing. Only he admitted Ariel broke up with him that night. The night she was killed."

"Oh, wow. Really?" I frowned, trying to take it all in. "You did say strangulation is a crime of passion. And he could have killed his rival, too. He had the perfect access to Scott's patrol car."

"It's a pretty tidy package," Barr said. "But listen to this: Irene Nelson came in when we were talking to Zak and threw an absolute fit about him answering our questions. Then she told us Zak had been home with her during the timeframe of the murder. She said he'd been at CRAG, but that he'd gotten home before eight o'clock."


Shaking my head, I said, "But Irene is Chris' alibi. She can't be both, not unless Zak was with her at Chris' house." I scooped up my neatly arranged packaging materials and took them into my storeroom.

Barr followed on my heels. "When I pointed that out, she said she was lying about being at Chris' house"

"Was she?" I asked. "Or is she lying now to protect her son?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

We clomped up the stairs to the kitchen. "My guess is that she's trying to protect Zak. After all, Ruth confirmed the group alibi at Chris' It's too bad. I like the kid, even if he does look like a walking magnet."

The screen door slammed, and a few moments later Meghan and Erin came into the kitchen.

"Hey, just in time," I said. "The rice'll be done in a jiffy, and the chicken and veggies are ready to hit the wok."

Erin looked horrified. "You're cooking chicken?"

"Uh, well, yeah. I thought you loved stir fry."

"Not chicken. God, Sophie Mae." She was still shaking her head in disbelief as she went out to the backyard to gather eggs.

I turned to my housemate. "What was that all about?"

"She won't eat chicken anymore. Don't tell me that surprises you." Meghan's tone was wry.

"Ah. Got it. The girls have made her a convert. She's a vegetarian now." I scrambled for recipes in my head that might pass muster with the newly militant member of the household.


"Oh, she's not a vegetarian." Meghan grinned. "She just won't eat chicken."

"I'm not sure whether I'm relieved or disappointed."

"Well, I'm glad you're not going to foist a bunch of rabbit food on me," Barr said.

Meghan laughed. "There's tofu in the fridge for her stir-fry. And I hope she likes it, because she's eating it."


TWENTY-EIGHT | Spin a Wicked Web | TWENTY-NINE