Free Deadly Notions by Elizabeth Lynn Casey

party.”
    “You’re right, someone did it. But let’s not forget the fact that two of the women at that party are not in this room right now.” Debbie unraveled a piece of the baby pink thread and threaded it through the eye of her needle. “And they were every bit as fed up with Ashley Lawson as the rest of us.”
    Beatrice bristled. “Caroline Rowen and Samantha Smith are no more capable of murdering someone than any of us are.”
    “That might be true if Ashley hadn’t insulted Caroline’s daughter.”
    “But if you follow that logic, then you’re just as much of a suspect,” Melissa pointed out.
    Debbie set her needle and thread down. “How do you figure that, Melissa?”
    “Ashley may have commented on little Zoe’s red hair, but she also called your son a troublemaker. Even refused to let her daughter sit anywhere near him during the party.”
    Debbie’s face turned crimson. “Can you imagine anyone saying that about my precious Jackson? That woman was out of her mind.”
    “I seem to remember you were, too, after you heard what she had to say about him.” Dixie scooted to the edge of the rattan chair and struggled to her feet. “ And your cake.”
    Margaret Louise turned and looked at Debbie. “She said something about the cake? I didn’t hear that.”
    “Neither did I,” Tori said.
    Gritting her teeth, Debbie flashed a look of annoyance in Dixie’s direction. “It wasn’t a big deal.”
    “Oh no?” Dixie’s stout frame moved across the sun porch. “Then why did you point to the rope the kids were swinging from and speculate how much it would take to wrap around that woman’s neck?”
    Margaret Louise clapped her hands sharply. “Dixie, that’s enough.”
    “Seems to me you’d like me pointing that out on account of the fact it deflects attention from the things you said.”
    “It’s already been established I wanted to strangle her,” Margaret Louse reminded Dixie in a voice that was uncharacteristically sharp for a woman who seemed to smile twenty-four/seven.
    “But has it been established that you talked about the best way to untie the kind of knot Milo used to secure the rope to the tree in the first place?”
    More gasps erupted around the room.
    “Dixie, why are you doing this?” Tori pleaded, her heart sinking at the fear in her friends’ eyes. “You made a comment or two yourself that night.”
    The elderly woman stopped just short of the hallway that led to the bathroom. “You’re right, I did. And I suspect those words will come back to bite me just as all of yours will do for you. But knowledge is power, Victoria. And knowing what can be used against us will help us to prepare.”
    Leona tossed her magazine onto the coffee table and swiveled to face Dixie. “Prepare?”
    Dixie nodded then offered an explanation that made perfect sense. “To prepare a defense.”
    “A defense against what?”
    “The kind of scrutiny that comes with a murder investigation. The kind of scrutiny each one of us is going to be under until Ashley Lawson’s killer is finally caught.”

Chapter 8

    She wasn’t sure how long she’d been sitting there in the dark. Maybe a half hour, maybe more. It was hard to know exactly without getting up off the couch to check her cell phone—an effort that seemed too great.
    In fact, if Tori was honest with herself, she knew the effort to do much of anything at that moment seemed too great. Especially when the events of the past twelve hours were weighing on her shoulders like a pile of bricks.
    The moment she’d heard of Ashley Lawson’s death, she’d known the offhand comments made during Sally Davis’s birthday party would come back to bite them. But it wasn’t until that evening’s circle meeting that she’d truly begun to realize just how ferocious that bite might be.
    There was no doubt about it, Dixie had gotten the circle riled up, her stick poking offending more than a few members. But when Tori had allowed herself to step back