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“Oh, sure. Misty told me two nights ago how she overheard Jaqlyn tell her human that Tex was past his prime and making so many mistakes it was a miracle he hadn’t killed a patient yet. And Buster said his human had stopped going to Tex after meeting Jaqlyn on the street and being told that Tex never even finished medical school. Can you imagine? Jaqlyn said Tex was entirely self-taught and had learned the trade by dissecting rats.”

“But… why didn’t you tell us?!” Harriet cried. “You should have told us, Kingman!”

The cat looked at us dumbly.“But… I thought you knew. I thought everybody knew.”

Oh, boy. If this was true, and Tex knew, he had a big fat motive for murder.

Chapter 27

Vesta, who’d decided to stay home from the Jones garden party, heard the news the way most people in Hampton Cove heard it: through the grapevine. In her case she’d been removing greenfly from her precious roses when suddenly she became aware of the sound of heavy breathing. When she looked up, she saw that the breather was none other than Marcie Trapper, and judging from the woman’s sparkling eyes, flushed face and flaring nostrils, she was about to spill some particularly startling piece of news.

Without awaiting permission, Marcie burst out,“Tex has been arrested for murder!”

Vesta narrowed her eyes at her neighbor, then sniffed the air, trying to determine if Marcie had been hitting the bottle a little too hard. She knew Marcie and Ted had planned to go to the Jones bash, and knowing her neighbors also knew that their capacity for imbibing alcoholic beverages was above the norm.

“Have you been drinking?” she asked therefore.

“Yes, but who cares? Didn’t you hear what I just said? Tex has been arrested for the murder of Jaqlyn Jones! Odelia herself found him in the trunk of her dad’s car. Dead! Apparently he’d been hit over the head and the body was still warm when she found him!”

“Huh,” said Vesta. This was news. “They arrested Tex?”

“Chase did. Carted him off to the station housetout de suite, as the French say. Can you imagine what Marge must be feeling right now? She looked devastated. I tried to talk to her but she only spoke in monosyllables. Poor Marge. I’ve never seen her like that.”

“Right,” said Vesta, removing her gardening gloves, her gardening apron and her gardening scarf. Then, without another word, she made for the great indoors.

“Where are you going?” Marcie yelled, clearly disappointed with her neighbor’s tepid response.

“To clear my son-in-law’s name!” Vesta yelled back. “He didn’t do it, Marcie.”

“Are you sure?”

“As sure as I am that you’re blotto!”

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Odelia, under normal circumstances so rational and sane, was shaken up. She was used to investigating all manner of crime, but suddenly felt unequal to the task of investigating this particular crime. Her dad? A murderer? It was hard to fathom.

“I should have seen it coming,” said her mother. “He told me just the other night that something had to be done. But how could I have known he planned to kill Jaqlyn!”

“He’s been under a lot of pressure lately,” Odelia agreed. “But did he think he could get away with this? I mean, he asked me to get his bag from the car. Did he think I wouldn’t see the body?”

“He hasn’t been thinking straight. He must have killed Jaqlyn in a moment of insanity, stuck him in his car and forgotten all about it.” Marge directed an anxious look at her daughter. “I hope the judge will be lenient when he sets your dad’s sentence. I hope he’ll understand that undernormal circumstances Tex would never do something like this.”

“We have to get him a good lawyer.”

“The best.”

“I’ll chip in if you can’t afford one, Mom,” said Odelia. “We’ll all chip in.”

“Financially it’s been a tough couple of months,” Mom agreed, “but I can always sell the house, or take a second mortgage.”

“We’ll get through this,” Odelia promised her mother.

The ambulance had arrived twenty minutes earlier and taken care of Francine and Monica. More police officers had been dispatched, and had undertaken the task of taking witness statements from all of those present, which was an undertaking that was still ongoing, as half of Hampton Cove had shown up for Jaqlyn’s and Francine’s party.

And as Odelia and Marge sat commiserating, suddenly Gran walked up, a resolute look on her face.“Well?” she said, taking a wide-legged stance in front of her daughter and granddaughter. “Why aren’t you talking to people? Finding out what happened?”

“We know what happened,” said Odelia. “Dad snapped and hit Jaqlyn over the head with something and stuffed him in the trunk of his car.”

“Bullcrap!” said Vesta. “Tex didn’t do diddly squat. That man is incapable of murder. No, someone else killed that no-good piece of human trash and is trying to frame Tex.”

“As much as I appreciate your faith in my husband,” said Mom, “I don’t think—”