Page 24 of Wild Wolf

"Nothing happens in Stingray Bay without me knowing about it.”

"What are you? The head of the Stingray Bay Mafia?”

She laughed. "Well, now that you put it that way, maybe I am.”

I smiled. "I just have some standard questions for you.”

"Ask away. I'm an open book,” she said, letting her sheerrobe fall open slightly. Not too much, just enough. She let it linger a moment before adjusting her attire.

"When was the last time you saw Hannah?”

She pretended to think about it and took a deep breath. "Oh, I don't know. Don't hold me to this, but I think I saw her a few days ago in the grocery store."

"You do your own grocery shopping?”

"You can't always rely on delivery services. They get everything wrong. All the time. Plus, I needed something right away.”

"Did you happen to go by her house earlier tonight?”

"No. I've been home all night.”

"By yourself?”

Her seductive eyes narrowed. "Yes. My husband is out of town at the moment.”

"No other visitors?"

"What exactly are you getting at, Deputy? What kind of woman do you think I am?”

"You’ll forgive me. I just have to ask.”

She sighed. "You're forgiven.”

"Did you murder Hannah Quinn this evening?"

She chuckled. "While there are many times where I would have liked to, sadly, I did not.” She forced a frown. "I guess that makes me a shoo-in to win the competition now. Which is kind of sad because I wanted to see the look on her facewhen I beat her fair and square. But knowing Hannah, there was nothing fair about that competition.”

"What do you mean?”

"My God. She was insufferable. I hate to talk bad about the dead, and I wouldn't do it about anybody else other than Hannah.”

"Of course,” I said, going along with it.

"I don't know why the competition was so important to her. It really didn't mean all that much to me,” she said, trying to dismiss it, but it meant a lot. “That girl would do anything to win, and I do mean anything,” she said with dramatic eyes.

14

“Care to elaborate?”

“Well, she was sleeping with one of the judges, Dalton Riggs. Married. But I think that's what drew her to him. She knew he'd be an easy target. If he didn't do what she said, she could always tell his wife.”

“Sounds devious.”

“That was Hannah. She loved to dig up dirt and get leverage on people. She found out about Blair's past and threatened to expose her.”

"Who's Blair?”

"Another judge. Hannah did the same thing to Elise, too. If you ask me, you ought to look into all three of them. They all had a motive. Much bigger than mine. But probably not as big as her ex-husband's.” She let it hang there. “Every one of them had a secret they’d kill to keep hidden.”