Page 49 of Murder By the Millions

—Meyer Wolfsheim in F. Scott Fitzgerald’sThe Great Gatsby

On the way back to Feast for the Eyes, feeling edgy and hungry, I swung by Ragamuffin and picked up a trio of pita sandwiches packed with curried chicken salad. When I walked into the bookshop and announced I had lunch, Chloe blessed me and jumped off the rolling ladder. Noeline had stopped in earlier with sixteen-by-twenty framed quotes fromThe Great Gatsby.Chloe was posting them. Tegan was too busy slamming cabinets to notice my entrance.

I hurried to her, plunked the bag with our lunches on the counter, and grasped her arms. “Stop!”

She wriggled free and smacked a few more cabinet doors.

“Really, stop,” I ordered. “You’ll scare the customers.”

“We don’t have any.”

“We will in five, four, three, two …”

The door to the shop opened, and the pair of women I’d stood ahead of in the queue at the coffeehouse entered. They’d told me their destination.

“Welcome!” I cried.

They waved and made a beeline for the romance aisle, paused, and looked back at me.

“We swapped shelves,” I informed them. “For a change of pace. Third row for romance.”

They smiled and disappeared down that aisle.

I said to Tegan, “Why are you so mad?”

“Because I’m ticked at my mother for wanting to purchase another property. She’s in over her head. And getting older.”

I smiled. “She’s not old. She’s sixty, which is the new forty.”

“What does that make us? The new ten?”

“You’re acting like it.”

She shimmied off her anger. “What happened with Reika?”

“Zach showed up and curtailed my conversation. He wasn’t pleased to see me. I’m sure he thought I was inserting myself into his investigation. Which I wasn’t. I was merely gathering evidence to share with him, but knowing he wouldn’t believe me, I lied and told him I was there about the tea Reika had hired me for on Thursday.” I groaned.

“Why did you make that sound?”

“Because I lied.” I plucked three sandwiches from the bag, handed one to her, kept one, and placed the last one and empty bag on the counter. My stomach gurgled in anticipation as I unwrapped the top half of my sandwich and bit into it. Around a mouthful, I added, “To Zach.”

“OMG. Chloe!” Tegan shouted.

Chloe scuttled to us. “What?”

“Alert the press. Allie lied.” Tegan sniggered.

“I don’t lie.” I huffed. “I never lie. I hate liars.”

“And I hate that you might be framed for murder.” She handed the third sandwich to Chloe and bit into her own. “Perfection.”

As I enjoyed the curried goodness, Finette strolled into the store in a black pantsuit and a silver-gray silk blouse fitted with a bow. Why had she put on such a somber getup? Had she heard the news? She’d liked Jason. Was she in mourning? She glanced in my direction and frowned.

If looks could kill.Ouch!Did she know I had found Jason’s body and was a suspect?

“I got your message, Tegan,” Finette said, ignoring me. “I’m here to pick up my copy ofThe Great Gatsby.” She perused the few quotes Chloe had hung up. “That’s one of my favorites.” She pointed to the one above the fiction endcap and recited it. “‘Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.’” She faltered. Her face drained of color. “Oh, no!” She covered her mouth. Her eyes brimmed with tears. “I … I … I’m sorry. How insensitive of me to utter those words aloud when Jason Gardner’s dead. You must have heard he was murdered.”

“Yes,” Tegan acknowledged as she wrapped Finette’s copy of the book and inserted it into a shopping bag.