judge she’d interned for that she really knew how to listen and draw people out. Time to put what Judge Vena said to the test. It would be easier with people who recognized her. She’d play the family card, see if she could open them up. Of course, Chief Wilde would probably be her most valuable source, but she wouldn’t bring him in yet, didn’t know him well enough to know how he’d react or what he’d do. She wanted to be very sure about him first. This was her show until she nailed something down or needed his help.
Pippa looked up at a loud harrumph. Oh dear, she hadn’t heard Mrs. Trumbo, too deep in her plans. Her mouth watered when she saw a plate piled high with scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, and wheat toast. She took the cutlery and spread a white napkin on her lap. “That looks wonderful, Mrs. Trumbo. Thank you.”
“Major Trumbo always liked my scrambled eggs. It’s the pinch of dill, you know. You’ve got nice long legs, time to fill ’em up. Be a good girl and clean your plate.”
Pippa crunched on a piece of bacon and looked around at the mix of guests—several older couples, two families with a total of five kids, the kids too busy eating to make much noise yet, and a young man and woman who looked barely old enough to vote. The young woman was yawning, probably wishing she were still in bed with a damp cloth on her forehead and four aspirin down her gullet. Pippa heard her say to an older couple next to them during a brief lull, “This is our third year coming back to visit Barry’s parents and go to Leveler’s Inn with them, and every single year I swear I won’t go swimming in that awesome punch. But the devil whispered in my ear again and won. Again.”
Her husband had a bad case of bed head. He stopped shoveling down his scrambled eggs and said, “Before I got wasted on that Halloween punch, the local police chief warned me he never touched the stuff, said he never knew when he’d have to deal with ghosts stringing toilet paper all over town. I wanted to ask him who cared, it was Halloween, but then a guy dressed as Frankenstein handed me another glass of punch. Shelly, what was his name? Not Frankenstein, the police chief?”
An older woman called out, “Wilde, Matthew Wilde. He’s a nice boy. He spent three years in the Philadelphia Police Department before he took over from Chief Cosby. I wonder why he left?”
“Got to be a woman,” said a gentleman with a huge mustache decorated with some whole wheat toast crumbs. “Always is.”
“Or a man.”
“Nope, not Wilde. The chief shoots straight arrows.”
“No, I meant it works both ways,” his wife said, exasperated. “If the chief were a woman, it would have been a man.”
On it went. Everyone seemed content to stay in the dining room, talking and sharing stories. And Pippa listened. You never knew what nugget might drop into your lap.
Pippa ate two pieces of toast slathered with strawberry jam and finished up her scrambled eggs.
Mrs. Trumbo appeared in the doorway. Arms crossed, she waited until everyone was quiet and announced, “Services begin in twenty minutes at St. Mark’s on Columbo Square, on the back side of General Columbo’s statue. And no, for those of you who don’t know, our Columbo isn’t named after the old Peter Falk character. Our Columbo was a buddy of Theodore Roosevelt’s, rode up San Juan Hill with him way back when, before even I was born. Father Theo can assist you to repent your Halloween sins, and then you can have a nice walkabout, digest your wonderful breakfast, and clean the rest of the vodka out of your heads. Many of our shops are closed on Sundays in the off-season, but most will be open today with so many people in town this weekend. You might want to visit Harry’s Pawn Shop on Big Bass Street. His specialty is old handguns, strings of tatty pearls—the kind your mother-in-law used to wear—and old guitars, including one Harry claims belonged to Elvis. Then there’s Maude’s Creepy Puzzles. Maude Filly’s got snake puzzles and all sorts of monster puzzles your kids and grandkids will like. It’s on South Looney Street. If you take North Looney, you’ll go straight to Sleeman’s Used Cars, one of the son’s dealerships, though daddy did give it to him. They’re