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“Why not?” asked Tex. “He’s the one with the blood on his hands.”

“And the one who’s in the pictures this Jack Palmer took,” said Chase.

“What pictures?” asked Alec. “We still haven’t found his damn camera.”

“Jeb is such a sweetheart,” said Marge. “I’m sure he’s innocent. Remember that movie where he took such good care of his dear old mother? A man like that can never raise his hand in anger at anyone, not even a horrible person like Camilla Kirby.”

“So you thought she was pretty horrible, too, huh?” said Gran.

“Oh, yes, for sure.”

Odelia wrote at the top of her whiteboard the name Jeb Pott. In her effort to write as legible as she could, she stuck her tongue out, which I thought was pretty cute.

“Next,” she said. “Who else could have done it?”

“Well, this man across the street,” said Gran. “This reporter fella.”

“Jack Palmer. But why would he kill Camilla?”

“Because… he disliked celebrities and wanted to teach Jeb a lesson?”

“Unlikely, but I’m still going to write it down,” she said. Chase was rolling his eyes again.

“I saw that!” Gran said.

“You saw what?” asked Chase, feigning innocence.

“You were rolling your eyes at me!”

“It’s called yoga for the eyes. It involves rolling the eyes and palming them and other things that are highly beneficial for your long-term eyesight.”

“You are such a smart-ass. But you’re a handsome smart-ass and I like you.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” he said with a grin.

“So we have Jeb and Jack Palmer,” said Odelia, visibly proud of her work. “Next?” Instead of waiting for her audience to come up with more names, she decided to speed up the process and do it herself. After all, everyone was tired, and wanted to go to bed.

“Prunella Lemon, because Jeb ruined her career. Fitz Priestley, because Jeb ruined his career. Tino Krawczalis, because Jeb owed him money and he wanted to coerce Jeb to pay him. Conrad Jenkins—”

“Who’s Conrad Jenkins?” asked Marge, who’d missed big chunks of the investigation on account of the fact that she’d been busy prepping monthly book club night at the library.

“He’s Mom’s drug dealer,” Uncle Alec said.

“Vitamins!” Gran cried. “They were vitamins!”

“Oh, right,” said Marge, nodding. “The vitamin dealer.”

“How are you feeling now, Vesta?” asked Tex.

“I’ll feel better if you tell me I don’t have to give blood in the morning,” she snapped.

“Looks to me like she’s fine,” said Alec, and Tex nodded emphatically.

“So who else is there?” asked Odelia, studying her board.

“There’s Helena Grace,” I said.

“Helena Grace?” Odelia didn’t seem convinced. “Why would she want to kill Camilla?”

“Because she stole her husband?”

Odelia nodded slowly.“Uh-huh. Okay. And she would implicate Jeb, why?”

“Because Jeb left her and she wanted to get even.”

“He’s got a point, Odelia,” said Gran.

Chase, who had only heard meowing, frowned.“Who’s got a point?”

“Odelia,” Gran was quick to say.

“What point? I’m not following.”

“That’s because you’re not taking your vitamins,” said Gran, patting the cop’s arm.

“I said that Helena is also a suspect,” said Odelia, jotting down the woman’s name.

“I must have missed that part,” said Chase, and rubbed his eyes.

“And you can add Fae, too,” I said. “After all, she might have held a grudge against her father’s new wife, too.”

“Fae Pott,” said Odelia, and wrote down the name.

“Why Fae?” asked Chase.

“Because she was harboring a grudge against Camilla,” said Odelia, repeating my words.

“Right,” said Chase. “Unlikely, though. The girl is clearly crazy about her dad. And she hired you to investigate the murder. Would she do that if she was guilty?”

“Unlikely,” Odelia agreed, and put Fae’s name between brackets, and then Helena’s name as well. “Helena is clearly very sad that Jeb is in jail,” she explained. “And that kind of sadness can’t be faked, no matter how great an actress she is.”

“She does look very sad,” Dooley agreed. “In fact she was crying even more the second time we saw her than the first.”

“Can we speed this up?” asked Harriet. “I need my beauty sleep.”

“I’m not following,” said Brutus. “Are you following, Max?”

“So far, so good,” I said, though I had to admit the case was pretty complicated.

“Okay,” said Odelia. “Now for the other suspects. Conrad?”

“Has an alibi,” said Uncle Alec, who sat slumped in his chair, clearly ready to nod off. “He was being ‘entertained’ by one of his customers at her place, and she swears up and down that he didn’t leave the house at any point during the night.”

“Tino Krawczalis?” asked Odelia, going over the list from bottom to top.

“Also has an alibi,” said Uncle Alec. “He was in New York that night, opening a new club. Plenty of people saw him.”

“Was he dressed in his Kermit costume?” asked Odelia with a giggle.

“He was,” Alec confirmed. “He seems to like that particular outfit.”

“Okay, moving on. Fitz Priestley.”

“His wife says he was with her all night.”

“Prunella Lemon. Husband provided her with an alibi.”