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Greg came home early Wednesday night. I hadn’t started dinner because he’d said he would be late, but I’d kept my promise to Emma and we’d gone through ten wedding gifts. The thank you notes I’d written were sitting on the coffee table. I thought it would make it look like we’d done them together if he at least s igned the card.

“I thought you were working late.” I muted the cooking show I’d had on for company as I read with Emma. Well, I’d read while she’d cuddled and watched them cook food on the television. It worked for both of us.

He leaned down and kissed me. “Someone took my best suspect off the list. And thank you, by the way. I don’t think Sadie would ever have forgiven me if I’d arrest ed her fiancé.”

“I was just trying to fill my day by visiting the beach. I can’t help it if people interrupt my relaxing.” I rubbed his arm. “Thank you fo r saving Bill.”

“I’m sorry I had to have him on the list to begin with. Do you know how many calls I got telling me what a good guy he is and conversely what a butt I was for even questioning him?” He held out a bag he’d been hiding behind his back. “Fish and chips, stuffed meatloaf, and a mini cake from Tiny. He called me just before I left the station and asked if we’d eaten. I said no. I hope I wasn’t wrong.”

“I hadn’t planned anything, so this is amazing. And we can do ten more wedding gifts and thank you cards.” I reached for the bag and stood. “Go get out of your uniform and meet me in the kitchen. I’ll be the newlywed standing by the home-cooked meal she slaved over all day.”

“You’ve been reading too much fiction. It’s starting to seep into your everyday world.” He laughed as I threw a couch pillow at him. He reached down and threw it back. “You know playing with them gets Emma interested again. She hasn’t eaten a pillow in wh at, six weeks?”

It was more like three, but she had been better. I grabbed the pillow before she could and tucked it on the couch. I shook my finger at her. “No pillows. Come in the ki tchen with me.”

When Greg came back into the kitchen, I had dinner all set up, with the food on our fancy china plates. “What do you want to drink? Soda ? Tea? Coffee?”

“I’ll just have a glass of water.” He let Emma outside as he walked past the back door. “I called Bill to let him know that Molly came in on her own, and he broke down and cried. I felt like a bully.”

“You’re doing your job. Good or bad, you have to go where the evidence leads. I’m just glad I took a beach moment. You know, when I first moved here, I promised myself I wouldn’t let my workaholic habits follow me. I don’t think I’ve been very good at fixing that tendency. I was all anxious because I didn’t have school or the wedding planning to keep me busy. I need to take a breath on a daily basis.” I filled a water glass for him and put the kettle on for hot tea for me.

“Well, one other good thing happened today. Vince’s alibi went away with Molly’s confession. I guess she didn’t know he used her as his alibi for Sunday morning. I get to chat with him tomorrow morning. He’s coming in with an attorney.” Greg let Emma inside before sitting down to eat. “And he asked if Mom was still in town.”

“What did you say?” I worried that tomorrow’s interview might not b e very cordial.

Greg shrugged. “I told him we weren’t talking about her. But that I did have some questions about how Molly go t a black eye.”

“He probably won’t show up.” I sat down to eat. I didn’t want the fo od to get cold.

Greg took a bite of his meatloaf. “If he doesn’t, I might just throw a warr ant out there.”

“Do you think h e killed Kane?”

He focused on his meal, pausing to respond. “No. I wish I could charge him for that. But I’d love to get him to admit on the record that he hit Mom or Molly. It might keep him from doing it again, knowing he confessed to doing it once. Sometimes a little fear go es a long way.”

“Speaking of your mom, did they get home yet?” I thought changing the subject might b e a smart idea.

“Jim called on my way home. They’d just landed.” He finished off his meatloaf. “It was a good vi sit with them.”

“It was.” We ate in silence until the teakettle started shrieking, causing Emma to run for her bed. I wasn’t sure why we were so quiet with each other, but maybe he was just trying to keep from talking about the case. I stood and poured the water for my tea. “So you interview Vince tomorrow. Is anything else planned? I’ve got lunch with Amy. Should I make dinner?”

He nodded. “Until I get ahold of another suspect and motive, I’ll probably be home early. I’m still waiting for the lawyers to release the full financial records of the church and the Matthewses. They’re being a little less tha n forthcoming.”

“I think New Hope is going to lose a few parishioners with Kane gone. He was very charismatic.” I thought about the clip they had shown at the funeral.

“You’re saying Roger isn’t?” Greg’s gaz e landed on me.

“Not even close. They showed a collage of Kane’s sermons at the funeral before Roger spoke. It was night and day. I watched Maryanne watching the group and making notes.” I realized I still had Beth’s thesis to read. “After lunch tomorrow, I’ll scan what Beth sent me and see if there’s anything you need to know.”

“Send it to me if there is.” He stood and rinsed his plate. “I’ll go sign those cards and get us another load of gifts to open. Might as well get somethi ng done today.”

* * * *

Greg was gone the next morning when I got up for work. Emma and I went to the beach and ran, then I got ready to open the store. My thoughts were on Kane and his effect on the world. Maybe it was something easy. He’d angered the wrong parent or spouse of one of his followers and that had gotten him killed. But why now? From reading the Facebook posts, they’d been angering people since they opened New Hope. There had to be a di fferent reason.

There was a lull after all my commuters left. I opened the laptop we kept at the shop and opened Beth’s thesis. It had chapters, so I went right to the one on New Hope and the Mat thews brothers.

Beth had a lot of information about their early lives. For years, their parents had dragged them from town to town setting up tent revivals, until they found the abandoned church in Oregon. When their parents died, they were fostered by a member of the church. Then the church provided scholarships to the missionary college. Kane had never married. Roger and Maryanne married as soon as they graduated. Beth had found the same article about the wedding that I’ d found online.

Then, Beth wrote, the rumors started. Kane was a popular minister, but the three kept moving from town to town. Money, women, power. It seemed to be a pattern. But as the three moved, so did many of their parishioners. Finally, when they left Oregon to start over in South Cove, they had over a hundred full-time disciples. And what appeared to be a big war chest. Beth had searched the property records and found the land had been donated to New Hope by the former owner, a widow in her eighties. The church was also named in several will -probate cases.

A whole lot of smoke, but no fire I could pin Kane’s murder to. Had someone gotten tired of Kane’s money-making process? I went back to Facebook to see what Maryanne’s page looked like, but she didn’t have one. New Hope had a Facebook page, but none of the women’s faces were shown in the posts—until last week, when Roger and Maryanne made a joint post. Arms around each other, they smiled into the camera. It was tagged, “A new day at New Hope in honor of our f allen brother.”

Change was afoot. Had that been the plan?

Amy was waiting for me when I arrived at Diamond Lille’s. She had milkshakes already on the table for us. “How is the first week of m arriage going?”

“Fine, I guess. We had dinner together last night. He’s been busy with the investigation since the day after the wedding. The only thing I’ve got on my planning calendar is getting the thank you notes done.” I tucked my t ote next to me.

“And the upcoming honeymoon,” A my reminded me.

“If we ever get to go.” I glanced at the menu, then pushed it away. I was going with my favorite, even though I had it last night. I needed to refocus my eating before that had to go on my to-do list as well. “Wow, I’m a Debby Downer today.”

“You’re on the opposite side of a big high. You did the same thing when you got your degree. Big events lead to a letdown when they’re over. And it’s January. Deaths always go up in January.” Amy set her menu down. “It’s a sta tistical fact.”

“Is it? Or did you read it online?” Amy could always make me feel better. “Anyway, I’m thinking of taking up a hobby. Do you want to learn a craft or something?”

Amy spit out some of her milkshake onto the table. She grabbed a napkin to wipe it up. When she stopped laughing, she looked at me. “You? Crafting? Have you even looked at the baby blanket you didn’t finish for the ho spital babies?”

“I finished one.” It hadn’t been pretty, but it had been done. “I guess I could pull out that stuff and work on the other two blankets.”

“Sure. That’s a goal. What a bout the shop?”

I shrugged. “Everything is going well. Deek is dealing with the author visits. Evie’s handling the accounting and most of the business stuff. It’s running l ike clockwork.”

Carrie stopped at our table. “Tiny wants to know how you l iked the cake.”

“It was amazing. Thank him for me.” I looked over at the window to the kitchen and waved at him. He smiled and waved back. I ducked my head. “I should have stopped there as soon as I arrived. I’m s o bad at this.”

“You’re not bad at being grateful.” Carrie pulled out her notepad and pen. “Some people are just not very patient. I overheard you talking about getting a hobby. What about leading a book club? There’s one at the Bakerstown library, but it’s usually during the day when I’m working. I love sitting and chatting about a boo k we all read.”

“Carrie, that’s not a bad idea. Deek’s been having writer nights. I’ll have to see what nights are open and we’ll get one set up.” I made a note on my phone for later that day. I could build a book club. Easy. And I wouldn’t have to learn to cook or quilt. Or find where I stuck the yarn for those baby blankets.

We ordered lunch and as we were eating, a man came in with two boys. Amy kicked my foot to get my attention and nodded toward them as Lille sat them at a window booth. “The smaller boy is one of the kids they took from New Hope. That’s his dad. I helped Esmeralda keep the parents busy in the conference room with coffee and treats until the child protection people brought the kids t o the station.”

“That’s Tanner O’Dell and his son Jimmy,” I said as I watched the three s tudy the menus.

“Yeah, how did you know?” Amy turned away from watching the family and focused on me. “Did Greg tell you?”

I shook my head, trying not to stare in their direction. “I was doing some Facebook research. His wife cashed in her 401(k) and their joint accounts and gave the money to Kane.”

“Well, the money might be gone, but at least the kid’s home.” Amy leaned back as Carrie delivered our food. “You can always ma ke more money.”

“I wonder why they’re still in town?” I texted Greg and asked if he had an interview with Mr . O’Dell today.

He called me rather than texting. “Who told you? Amy or Esmeralda. I swear, I’m going to f ire them both.”

“Calm down, Greg. No one told me. Tanner’s here at the diner eating lunch with his kids. I wouldn’t be here if I was him after all that happened, so I figured he must be talking to you.” I rolled my eyes at Amy, who was laughing at my side of the conversation. “Oh, and I think you should look at Beth’s stuff. The brothers had an interesting childho od and career.”

“No smoking guns, though?”

I twisted my lips. There was something I was missing but I couldn’t put my finger on it. “I think there’s more going on with the church and the brothers. Especially after we saw Roger and Maryanne out spending money. I guess they could be celebrating their anniversary, but not according to this thesis of Beth’s. It’s in the su mmer sometime.”

“You’ve got a fe eling, though.”

I sipped my milkshake. “Stop teasing me. I’ll se e you tonight.”

“Sounds good. I love y ou, Mrs. King.”

Before he hung up, I responded, “I love you too.”

Amy glanced at the family. “Greg brought him back for m ore questions?”

“Yeah, I think it’s weird too.” I focused on my fish and changed the subject. “So, what’s going on w ith the house?”

Amy got me all caught up on her life, which had been going on around the wedding and festivities. They’d finished a guest bedroom in their new-to-them house and were making plans to upda te the kitchen.

We spent the last of our lunch just talking, and Amy took the check when Carrie brought it. “Wedding celebrations should be longer than ju st a few days.”

I hugged her as we left. She was going back to city hall to answer phones and deal with the mayor’s tasks. I was heading home to go sit on the beach again with Emma. I’d take my notebook with me and work on an idea for a book club. I felt like they did better with a theme. Maybe books written in or about California? That seemed a little limiting. Maybe I’d do a suggestion box for two wee ks at the shop.

Suggest a theme for a new book club .

If there were two front-runners, we could do two. And one of my employees could run the second one.

I hurried home to get Emma and my notebook. This was g oing to be fun.

As I doodled on my page, I realized Deek was walking across the sand to where I had set up my beach chair. Emma lay next to me, watching the waves. I think she was learning how to relax with me.

“Sorry to bother you, boss.” Deek came over and sat across from me, where he could still see the ocean. “I stopped by the house, then took a chance that you migh t be out here.”

“Not a bother. Wh at’s going on?”

“I just had a feeling you needed me. And I’ve got a favor to ask.” He leaned back on his hands, his face tilted up to the sun.

His arrival didn’t surprise me. Not after working with him for a few years. Deek had a bit of psychic in him. His mom was a fortune teller, and his godmother was Esmeralda. The sight was in his blood. And he was a true believer. “I did have a question. What do you think about us starting a book club? O ne for adults?”

“Wow. I hadn’t thought about anything like that. I should have. I guess with us being a tourist town, I didn’t think about the people who live close by. We could do bestsellers. Or maybe books that should have been bestsellers.” He leaned forward, excited about the idea.

“I was thinking about a contest.” I told him about my idea of putting a jar on the counter. “Maybe we give out a gift card for the shop for the winning idea. Or raffle it off if more than one person suggests the same idea.”

“I’m working tonight, and I’ll get something set up. This will be really fun. And maybe this summer, we could do a kids’ club. Maybe on Thursdays. We’d have to let the rooming houses know. Maybe they could have a copy of the weekly book on hand to sell, then the kids could get reading early. Especially since we’re closed on Mondays.” Deek kept brainstorming and pulled a small notebook out of his pocket to write down the ideas. He’d told me before that he always had something to write on just in case inspiration hit him. He’d gotten the idea from Greg. “I’ll bring it up at the next staff meeting and see if there’s anything else they can add.”

As we stood to walk back to my house, I paused as we climbed the stairs. “Wait, you had a qu estion for me?”

He grinned, the smile covering his face. “I just need some time off in a couple of years. Most likely spring.”

I knew I was missing something from what he was saying, but I couldn’t put it together. “Sure. Are you traveling?”

He nodded, and if anything, his smile grew. “I’ll be on tour with my first book. I got a call from my agent. She sold my manuscript!”