Free Oven Baked Secrets (Eugeena Patterson Mysteries Book 2) by Tyora Moody Page A

you.”
    “Oh.”
    “On Sunday, you mentioned that Mr. Hopkins and Ms. Miller met each other.”
    “There weren’t any official introductions, but they saw each other.”
    Detective Wilkes leaned in. “I need you to answer this honestly. Did you get any sense that Mr. Hopkins knew Ms. Miller?”
    I sucked in a breath. Sometimes I couldn’t stop my reactions if I tried. I had sense enough not to blurt out what first came to mind.
    Detective Wilkes looked at me intensely. “Eugeena?”
    I let out a sigh. “I don’t want you to take anything out of context.”
    “I’m here to pull facts and clues together so I can solve a murder. The tiniest of details can determine if a killer is caught.”
    I swallowed. “William was interested in Jocelyn, I thought because he wanted to know who she was. I mean if some strange woman was visiting my mother’s bedside, I would ask the same thing.”
    “What did Mr. Hopkins ask?”
    “He asked who she was and then a few minutes later he asked if he’d seen her some place before?”
    Detective Wilkes seemed to come alive like the Energizer Bunny. “He recognized her?”
    “He seemed
to think
he recognized her, but I told you Jocelyn was not the woman at the house on Sunday night.”
    “But neither you nor Mr. Jones saw anyone in the dark.”
    I desperately wanted to make sure the detective wasn’t going to continue spinning down this path. “I did hear a woman’s voice and I’m pretty sure I would have recognized Jocelyn’s voice.”
    Detective Wilkes shook her head. “I’ve dealt with a lot of witnesses and you would be surprised what you remember or don’t remember.” The detective extended her arm to shake my hand. “Eugeena, once again I appreciate you stopping by. Having citizens assist with finding clues really helps solve crimes.”
    I looked down at the detective’s hand and shook it. I wasn’t finished yet although I doubt she would tell me. “Do you have something that proves William and Jocelyn met each other before Sunday?”
    The detective looked at me solemnly. “Eugeena, I don’t need to tell you that people aren’t always how they appear.”
    With that the petite detective walked off leaving me wondering what in the world had the detective found out.

Chapter 13
    After returning home, I was even more anxious that Jocelyn hadn’t returned my message on Facebook.  I imagined she chose to ignore my message. I’m not sure if that was a good thing or not after what Detective Wilkes told me. Or rather didn’t tell me. Why did William think he recognized Jocelyn? What did Jocelyn do that she would post such a foolish status on Facebook?
    Based on my conversation earlier with Junior, I tried to search for companies in Charleston to get an idea of what technology companies were here. I had no idea that Charleston had become more than a tourist town with its deep history and ghost tours.
    I eventually grew tired of surfing. As I slept, another fit of dreams involving Louise, William and Jocelyn haunted me. In the dream, Louise was standing on her porch like she used to with her hands clutched over her chest. She kept looking back and forth down the street. William was approaching from one side and Jocelyn from the other side of the street. They were walking down the street like they were in gun fight to see which one of them would draw their weapon first. When Jocelyn reached for her gun, that’s when the phone woke me up.
    I peered at the big numbers on my clock displaying it was seven o’clock in the morning. It wasn’t quite daylight yet, but I could tell the sun was trying to do something. I reached for the phone which by now I suspected was on the fourth ring, right before it goes to voicemail. I hated when that happened because sometimes I forgot to check the voicemail. Usually when I did remember to check voicemail it was one of my children leaving a frantic message about me not picking up the phone.
    I picked up the phone.