Page 19 of Poison Apple Crisp

Ginger barks as if agreeing. “Lottie? Should you have said all of that in front of our first suspect?”

I sink a little in my seat as I grimace at Cokie.

Amateur Sleuthing 101 calls for ambiguity during the questioning phase, and I’m afraid I just blew the lid right off of anything ambiguous.

Cokie shakes her head my way. “Don’t worry, Lottie. I have no qualms about you coming to campus and speaking to a few parents. I don’t see any harm in it so long as you don’t tell anyone you’re investigating.” She gives a little wink, and suddenly it feels as if the killer, aka Noah’s red dress floozy, is about to turn my investigation on its ear before it ever begins.

Ginger is right. I shouldn’t have said anything. But it was like a river was bursting through the dam and I couldn’t stop myself if I tried.

I grab another slice of pizza and shove it into my mouth in an effort to get a far better dam in place.

Everett pulls a breadstick to himself. “Cokie, we’d appreciate it if you can keep an ear out for any more rumors, and for whoever may be starting them. I’m afraid Lemon has her hands full with the bakery and—”

“And my daughter.” I nod his way with wild eyes. “Cokie, I’ll be on campus plenty. I’m predicting you’ll grow tired of me sooner than later.”

Her lids drop a notch, and Ginger howls as she floats around the woman.

“Dare I say, Lottie, she’s looking tired of you already.”

Lovely. If I didn’t already have a complex about people not liking me, I now have a dearly departed dog filling me in on it.

Wait, I don’t have a complex. I rarely care what anyone thinks of me. If I did, I certainly wouldn’t be running around with a man on each arm.

Everett stares at me a good long while.

“Cokie?” He turns back her way, and I’m curious to see where this might lead. “Do you know of anyone who was angry with Brenda? Did she have any financial troubles? Did she seem fearful these last few days?”

I reach over and give his thigh a squeeze, assuring Everett he’ll be rewarded properly later this evening. For as ornery and nauseated as I’ve been, I’ve also been insatiable, too.

Cokie thinks about it a moment. “She never mentioned anything about owing anyone money. And Brenda was a lot of things, but she was never fearful. As for the enemies”—she says that last bit under her breath—“Brenda knew how to rack ’em up by the dozen.”

“Knew it,” I hiss, and Ginger barks my way as if she were trying to keep me in line. “Cokie, what about her fiancé? I met him last night. He seemed to be acting a little odd to me.” I leave out his cryptic words or the fact I saw him having a heated discussion with Cokie herself.

She glances to Noah and gives a few unsettled blinks.

Noah reaches under the table and gives my thigh a pat, and I bite down on a smile because I’m sure that means he appreciates the investigative path I’ve taken us down.

Cokie blows out a breath. “Okay, here it goes.” She tosses a hand up. “Now that I know I’ve got two investigatorsanda judge at the table, I guess I’d better come clean.” A staccato laugh claps from her. “Martin Smulder, Brenda’s fiancé, and I had a past. It was a blip on the screen, but boy, did she like to lord it over me.”

I lean forward, suddenly very interested in this new revelation. “Were you engaged to him, too?”

“Heavens no.” She averts her eyes. “I was too smart for that one. He was my rebound after my divorce. He’s a single dad. His son is headed into triple H as a sophomore this year.”

By triple H, I’m assuming she means Honey Hollow High.

Noah taps his glass. “How long did the two of you see each other?”

“Oh, it was a year of on-again, off-again. Nothing serious, just fooling around. We were a lot like you and Lottie. Martin was engaged to Brenda before I knew it.”

As much as I want to protest the idea that they were anything like us, there is a ring of truth to it. But there’s that river again, trying to burst its way through the dam. It’s as if I can’t control my emotions in any capacity. It’s going to be a very long pregnancy if this keeps up.

“What Noah and I have is unique and special,” I snip without meaning to. “He is one of the great loves of my life, right up there with Everett. In fact, if he hadn’t kept that wife of his under wraps for so long, I might have even married the guy. That little detail would have made him a bigamist, but that just goes to show how much I meant to him. Apparently, I was worth bending a few matrimonial rules.”

Cokie’s forehead fills with lines as she takes a moment to study me.

“Dear Lottie.” Ginger groans and spins in a circle. “Don’t you think a bit of restraint could go a long way? This woman knows something. I can feel it in my tiny little bones. If you keep this up, she’ll clam up. She might even try to avoid you the next time you’re around. Now that wouldn’t help Brenda, would it?”

My lips cinch in a knot. Ginger is right.