Free Truffled to Death (A Chocolate Covered Mystery) by Kathy Aarons Page A

“murder quotient” of anyone involved with the professor. Erica had come up with an equation to establish the percentage chance of each suspect actually being the professor’s killer. Knowing Erica, she’d write a paper and police departments across the country would start using it.
    I didn’t care about her “MQ” and put vindictive Lavender Rawlings first. According to every cop show I’d ever seen, anyone who tried to cast blame onto other innocent people was probably trying to deflect attention from their own guilt. Given how much she disliked Erica, I doubted she would talk to us directly, unless we came up with some serious motivation.
    We agreed that all of the Rivers except Rose were toward the top of our list, even though I couldn’t imagine what they had to gain. They had a ton of money. They seemed very committed to making the donation, and surely, it was embarrassing to have it stolen right under their noses. What could make them risk their social standing for some ancient pottery? The “motive” column was empty for all of them.
    We still wrote in what we knew about each one. Adam was ambitious and smart. He was quickly climbing the corporate ladder; maybe he made some enemies on the way up. There was also some lingering anger about a big layoff at one of the River manufacturing plants that had occurred as soon as he’d taken over. Maybe the theft was more about payback than the art.
    Gary was a slacker who wanted to slide by in life. Jennie was a confused kid with a drug problem, but not so far gone that she was robbing people.
    “I wouldn’t put anything past Vivian,” I said. “She’d knock off her mother to make sure the family reputation stayed intact.”
    “But killing the professor would have to outweigh the possible damage of something he could reveal,” Erica said, taking me more seriously than I expected.
    “I talked a little to Gary at the party and he definitely has issues with his mother,” I said. “Maybe I can stop by the coffee shop and see if he’ll tell me something that will help.”
    The security guard was moved ahead of the Rivers. “Even though he was drugged,” she said, “he could’ve been part of an inside job.”
    “What about Carlo Morales and Santiago Diaz?” I asked.
    Erica’s face immediately grew concerned.
    “What?” I asked when she didn’t answer.
    “I think we work on everyone else before we look into these two.”
    My stomach flipped a little. “Do you think they’re dangerous?” I remembered the predatory feeling that Santiago gave me, even with that silly ponytail.
    She shook her head like she didn’t know. “They could be.”
    “Okay,” I readily agreed. “Let’s not get crazy. But write down that Dr. Moody seemed to know that Carlo guy, no matter what he told Lockett.”
    I moved the subject back to people who didn’t scare the hell out of me. “We definitely have to put El Diablo there,” I said. “Gary said his mother loved his food, but maybe Aviles was into something she didn’t know. If his store wasn’t doing well, he may have needed the money.”
    Erica wrote in her computer. “We should ask Zane to see what he can find on him, and everyone on the list. As long as he does it all on the up-and-up.”
    “And maybe we need to take a road trip to Frederick and check out the El Diablo Restaurant,” I said.
    Thinking about Juan Aviles’s crab tamales made me realize how hungry I was. “What do you think about eating dinner at the Ear?”
    Erica perked up. “Really?” She knew what that meant. The Ear was the best place to hear the town gossip. Too much of it would be about us, but maybe we’d learn something helpful. We didn’t even bother to change before we left.
    “I’m sure Jake would love to tell us what he knows,” I said.
    The Ear got its nickname back in the sixties when the neon stopped working in the curves of the
Bar
sign ofO’Shaughnessey’s. It was a West Riverdale landmark, welcoming anyone who