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Sanjay twirled a coin between his fingers. Without his hat, he didn’t quite know what to do with himself. But it was necessary for Gideon to look enough like Sanjay to draw Officer Kwan away when Gideon drove Sanjay’s truck from Fiddler’s Folly, and the hat was key. Sanjay had no trouble handing over the keys to the expensive truck that he used to transport his magic gear to shows. It was parting with the hat that pained him.

The plan was to learn more about Lucas, which they couldn’t do with a tail. Lucas didn’t have a significant other or a roommate, so they had to start elsewhere.

“Blaze?” asked Sanjay, looking up from his phone. “What kind of name is Blaze?”

“A hero from a romance novel?” Tempest answered. “Just what are you reading on your phone? We need to focus.”

“According to Lucas’s social media, that’s the name of his landlord.”

From the contract for the murder mystery play, Tempest had Lucas’s address. He lived in a studio apartment in-law unit behind a larger house in Hidden Creek. It wasn’t far from Gray House, so he’d walked to get to the rehearsal and hadn’t left his car there.

Ivy had left for work, so Tempest and Sanjay were on their own as they headed out on foot for Lucas’s house, only a few minutes’ walk away.

“I think we’re here.” Tempest pointed to an ancient Honda parked in the street with a bumper sticker that read OSCAR-WORTHY DRIVER . Lucas’s car. Tempest felt a pang of sadness, knowing he’d never drive the well-loved car again.

The door of the front house was opened by a guy in his forties with sandy-blond hair, an easygoing smile, and a fitted T-shirt that casually showed off a toned physique. He held a fluffy white cat in one of his muscular arms. Yup, he could easily have stepped out of a second-chance romance novel.

After they explained they had known Lucas and wanted to talk with him, he offered his condolences, invited them inside, and told them he had fifteen minutes to spare before a video conference call.

“Can I get you something to drink?” He offered them water or a sports drink from the fridge, which they declined, and they sat down on an oversize couch next to a wall with an assortment of plants that would have looked more at home in a trendy plant store. A desk sat opposite the wall of greenery. The plant wall was positioned to make a good video backdrop.

Blaze—his real name, or at least the name he introduced himself with—asked what he could do for them.

“I know the police have already spoken to you,” Tempest guessed, but luckily, Blaze nodded. “But we’re concerned because we think Lucas played a joke shortly before he died that makes Sanjay look guilty.”

Blaze turned to Sanjay. “You’re surprisingly calm for someone who’s being framed for murder.”

“Thank you,” said Sanjay in all seriousness. “I’ve learned how to control my outward emotions. I’m a stage performer.”

“Like Lucas was,” said Blaze.

“And he’s not being framed ,” Tempest added. “But we’re concerned that the police are overly interested in Sanjay.”

“Got it,” said Blaze. “Did you do it?”

“I barely knew the man,” Sanjay answered.

“That’s not a denial. And didn’t you say you were friends?”

“I didn’t kill him.” Sanjay put his hand over his heart. “And we said we knew Lucas. That’s different.”

Blaze nodded. “Maybe I offered you the wrong kind of drink. I’ve got ten more minutes, but that’s enough time for a whiskey.”

“We need to keep clear heads,” Tempest cut in when it looked like Sanjay was about to accept. “But thank you for the offer. I know you don’t have much time, but we were wondering if you noticed Lucas acting strangely in the last week.”

“The police asked me the same thing. Honestly, Lucas was always overly dramatic. About everything. He was really into the role he was going to play in the murder mystery play he was part of for the summer stroll and was really excited to be part of saving that new library coming to town.”

“He was?” Tempest asked. That was news to her.

Blaze shrugged. “With Lucas, you could never really tell. But even if it was just for show, he still got more signatures on the petition to save the library than anyone else. At least, according to him. He loved being the center of attention.”

“I know,” Sanjay grumbled.

“I didn’t realize he was gathering signatures in support of the new library,” Tempest said.

“Lucas made videos about everything in his life, not just his attempt to make it as an actor, so he shared how he was part of saving this important new library for Hidden Creek. He said he had an exciting new video planned to rally support for the library. I guess his library content was getting a lot of views, but I didn’t watch many of his videos. I can’t be bothered with social media that doesn’t involve cats.”

Blaze stood up, and Tempest thanked him for his time.

“Any time.” He scooped the white cat back into his arms as he saw them out. “Noon will try to escape if I don’t hold on to her.”

“Noon?” Sanjay asked. “Is that like a philosophy to make the best use of time?”

“I think he means the cat,” said Tempest, eyeing the fluffy beast. It eyed her back with disdain, as if it was fully aware she was a rabbit person.

“My ex got Midnight, our scrawny black tabby,” said Blaze. “I knew I needed to do things differently after that breakup. I got in shape, learned to take care of plants, and I thought about getting a dog… but just couldn’t do it.”

“So you got a fluffy white cat and named her Noon.”

“Hey, good luck finding out what happened to Lucas. He was a lot, but he was a good guy.”

Out on the sidewalk, Sanjay swore in Punjabi. He’d never swear in English. Neither would Tempest. They both knew it was too risky to let yourself swear even when you were upset. If you did, it might accidentally slip out on stage when something went wrong. And things inevitably went wrong when you performed live on stage. Most of the time, mistakes could easily be covered up and the audience would never know something had gone wrong. But they were human. Mistakes happened.

“Why did he have to involve me in this mess?” asked Sanjay. “I don’t think I like investigating, even with my own neck on the line. In theory, it’s great, and we’d get leads everywhere we went, but in reality, all I’m left with is an inferiority complex that I’ll never be a cover model for a romance novel.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. And didn’t you notice what we learned?”

“Nothing. We learned nothing. Aside from the fact that romance-novel guy is a cat dude. So unless you’re going to tell me he dresses up in a cat costume at night to creep unnoticed into Gray House—or are you calling that house a library already, even though you’re not done with the renovations and opened it to the public? Who names their houses, anyway? I mean, without extenuating circumstances or living in Britain. I know there’s a good reason your parents named your house Fiddler’s Folly , but—”

“Sanjay. Focus. We learned a lot more than that from him. Blaze gave us another good motive for why Lucas could have been killed.”

Sanjay stopped abruptly on the sidewalk. “Tempest. What are you talking about? That was a bust.”

“Don’t you get it?” Tempest waited to see if he did. “If Blaze is right, Lucas was doing more than anyone else to get support for the Gray House Library of Classic Detective Fiction.”

“That name is a mouthful. And the acronym is terrible as well. GHLCDF? Maybe if you tried—”

“Sanjay. Truly. I know it’s a lot to be a murder suspect, but you need to focus. Lucas had a new video planned that he thought would get support for the library. What if someone opposed to the library wanted to stop him? ”