Free Wreath of Deception by Mary Ellen Hughes

suggestion here and there. Ina Mae, she saw, planned to do scrapbooks on her vacations, starting with a recent one to the Southwest. When Jo eventually returned to her own station, Ina Mae, barely glancing up from her work, asked, “So, what have you learned about Kyle so far?”
    All the heads around the table popped up, faces full of interest. Jo wasn’t sure if she should feel touched or pressured. Either way, they were obviously not going to let her off the hook.
    Loralee explained to Mindy, who had not been at the wreath workshop, “We’ve encouraged Jo to do a little side-investigating, to supplement what the police might be doing.”
    A diplomatic way of putting it, Jo thought, since what they had really hinted was that she needed to save her own skin.
    “Well, I did talk to two of Kyle’s coworkers at the tennis desk,” Jo said.
    “And?” Deirdre asked.
    “And, neither seemed to find Kyle very likable, which was pretty much my own opinion, though I thought he might just have been having a bad day.”
    “Coworkers often have the clearest view of a person,” said Ina Mae. “The best and worst of one’s character come out at the workplace.”
    “Oh, I agree,” Mindy jumped in. The sorting of her photos was going slowly, as Mindy couldn’t seem to handle any snapshot without taking a long, loving gaze at it. “I once took a job working for a friend of mine in a bridal shop, more as a favor to her than anything else. Whooo, was that a mistake. I saw a side of her I never knew before. Talk about ‘bride-zillas,’ she was definitely boss-zilla. When she—”
    “What,” Ina Mae interrupted, “exactly did Kyle’s coworkers say about him?”
    “They claimed he spent more time spying on the clientele than working, and turned every situation into a soap opera. He apparently felt his job there was beneath him and that he was just marking time until his acting career took off.”
    “That must have annoyed them. Do you trust their judgment?”
    “I’d like to talk to a few more people at the country club and see if I get similar stories.”
    “Good idea,” Deirdre piped up. She had edged away from Mindy and her spreading project. “But since Kyle was so interested in acting, I’d check with the group at the playhouse too.”
    Mindy agreed, nodding. “I know they were starting work on their next production at the playhouse, some kind of fairy-tale story, I heard. Kyle must have been part of it. I bet you’d get a lot of dirt on him there.”
    “Absolutely,” Deirdre said. “And,” she added, as if anticipating Jo’s question of how to approach the playhouse group, “you could offer to do a little set designing, or costume accessorizing, or something as a way in.”
    “Wonderful idea, Deirdre.” Loralee fairly bounced on her seat with approval.
    Jo looked at the group, dryly noting how ready they were to send her off on more expeditions with no thought as to how she was going to fit this all into her already bulging schedule. Between minding the store, craft classes, and now the craft show to set up at the country club, Jo barely had time left, lately, to eat and sleep. But then, she reasoned, if she didn’t find a way to stretch her time now, she might have nothing to fill it with later on.
    Except, she thought wryly, making license plates.
     
    The group made a good start on their scrapbooks and were packing up their materials for the night, when Jo heard Deirdre cry out in exasperation, “Shoot!”
    “What’s wrong?”
    “My bracelet. I took it off tonight so it wouldn’t get in my way, and now, when I tried to put it back on, I see the clasp is broken. Darn! I wanted to wear it to a lunch tomorrow.”
    “Oh, what a shame,” Mindy said.
    “Let me see,” Jo said, reaching for it and looking it over. “I can fix that if you like. But my jewelry tools are at home. If you want to follow me there, I can have it done in two minutes.”
    “That would be so nice! Are you sure you