Jewels in the Juniper - Dale Mayer Page 0,45

crimes on a case so cold as this? It will be really hard to find enough evidence to bring charges.”

“Unless somebody confesses,” she said.

“True enough.” Mack tilted his head. “And, for whatever reason, people tend to open their mouths and tell you all kinds of stuff.”

“Too bad I couldn’t get Aretha to talk to me.” Doreen brightened. “But tomorrow is a new day, and I’ll go talk to Mangus.”

“Keep me informed,” he said, then walked his cup to the sink. “I’m gonna head home.” Looking at the mess, he frowned. “But I should help you with these dishes first.”

She shook her head. “Go on home. You did enough work today.”

When he glanced at her suspiciously, she gave him a bland smile.

“What are you up to?”

“Nothing.” Inside she was itching to figure out who Zachary Winters was. “Besides, there are hardly any dishes to wash.” Doreen carried their plates in from outside, while Mack hesitated. “Go on,” she said gently. “I’m more than grateful that you cooked, not to mention all the outside work.”

“Fine,” he said. “Have a good night.”

“Yes, I will.” She walked with him to the front door. As he stepped out, she said, “What about your two old lady deaths? Are you about to find out any more about them?”

“Waiting on the autopsy reports,” he said. “So far we can’t tell if they’re suspicious. Remember? We get called in for any unusual death.”

“Makes sense, particularly if they’re older,” she said.

“We all die sometime,” he said, and, with a small wave, he walked to his truck and hopped in. With all the animals at her feet, Doreen watched as he drove down the cul-de-sac and took off.

Chapter 15

Monday Morning …

Monday morning Doreen hopped out of bed and had her shower, happy to ignore the aches and pains from the heavy gardening yesterday, as she realized how much closer they were to getting the deck started. And, with the added contributions yesterday, she was seriously thrilled.

As she headed downstairs, thinking about breakfast, her mind immediately went to her dinner leftovers. She winced. “I certainly can’t have dinner right now,” she muttered to herself. She put on her coffee, opened her fridge, and saw the pasta. Determinedly she shut the fridge, put several pieces of bread in the toaster, and had peanut butter and jam with a chunk of cheese on the side. If nothing else, she would have this for breakfast and save the pasta for lunch. As soon as it was nine o’clock, she dialed Nan.

“Good morning, dear. How are you?” Nan said in her gentle voice, a reminder of all Doreen had missed during those years when she had been so unhappily married.

She smiled. “I’m good. I had a good night’s sleep. I was wondering if it would be a good time to come and talk to Mangus.”

“Most likely,” Nan said. “We’ll be leaving for lawn bowling practice in an hour, so he’ll be eating and then getting ready.”

“Could you contact him?” Doreen asked cautiously. “Just to see if he’d even be willing to talk to me?”

“I can do that. Let me call you back.” Nan hung up. By then the coffee had dripped. Doreen had had one cup when Nan called back. “He’s just about to sit outside for tea in the garden and wants to know if you’ll join him.”

Doreen glanced down at her coffee. “Yes, of course I will.”

“Good,” Nan said. “Come to my place, and we’ll both head out.”

“Perfect,” Doreen said with a laugh. She hopped to her feet, added a dash of cold water to the little bit of space in her coffee cup, then guzzled down the coffee. The last thing she wanted was a caffeine headache. She had no intention of examining why she continued to drink something guaranteed to give her a headache if she didn’t have enough.

Juggling the refilled cup and a bottle of water in one hand and the toast in her other hand, she walked to the creek, still eating. The animals were happy to be out and about, with Goliath racing ahead and then stopping until they passed him, then racing ahead again. Mugs just seemed to trot along quite happily. Thaddeus even kept up a rambling conversation the whole time. Basically he had been telling her how he was there for at least two minutes solid. When he finally ran out of steam, she reached up, gently caressed his forehead, the back of his head, and whispered to him, “Thaddeus is gorgeous.”

He burst into his