Free Murder at Catfish Corner: A Maggie Morgan Mystery by Michelle Goff Page B

see if I have this straight. Are you suggesting that
Stella harbored resentment for years over Dennis’ housing situation and decided
to finally exact her revenge early one morning beside a pay lake?”
    “No, I’m just
pointing out that Stella had about as good of a reason to kill Hazel as I did.”
    Maggie stared at
him, thinking to herself, he doesn’t realize he just admitted that he had
motive to murder Hazel. After he left, Maggie remained in the booth and looked
over her notes. She had documented how his hands shook during her and Stella’s
surprise visit to his house and made note of how they trembled during lunch. She
wondered if it was due to a medical condition and wrote a reminder to ask
Stella about that as well as what she considered his self-satisfied demeanor
and his accusations against Stella. Just as she closed her notepad, Seth slid
into the booth across from her.
    “Was that a
working lunch?” he asked.
    “That’s none of
your business. And where did you come from?”
    Seth gestured to
the back of the diner. “I’ve been here the whole time. I figured a crack
investigator such as yourself would have seen me.”
    He has me there,
Maggie thought to herself.
    “How’s the
investigation coming along? You need some help?”
    “No, I do not.”
    A crooked smile,
the feature that had first attracted Maggie to Seth, appeared on his face. “I
know you can do this. If there’s something to find, you can find it. Heck,
you’ve done it before. But you’ve already been accused of trespassing. If you
don’t stop this now, what else is going to happen?”

Chapter Eleven
    “What do you
think?” Edie asked as Maggie tried a bite of the broccoli casserole she had
prepared for dinner.
    “It’s good,”
Maggie said.
    “I was worried.”
Edie said. “The recipe called for frozen broccoli, but I thought fresh broccoli
sounded, well, fresher.”
    “Good call,” Ben
said as he gave his wife a peck on the cheek.
    “Count me as a
fan, too,” Luke said.
    When that course
was consumed, Edie sprang from her chair and asked, “Who’s ready for lemon
pie?”
    “Lemon pie?”
Maggie repeated.
    “I thought you
liked lemon pie,” Edie said.
    “I do, but I
know you’re all about theme meals and I can’t connect broccoli with lemon.”
    “Can you connect
zesty broccoli casserole to zesty lemon pie?”
    “Ah,” Maggie
said to her friend. “I should never doubt you.”
    The two couples finished
their dessert, cleared the table, and started playing Pictionary. When Maggie
pulled the Great Lakes on one of her turns, she interpreted it as a message
from the universe. After Luke successfully guessed her sketched clue, she put
the card in the used pile and asked, “Do you all remember hearing about a woman
who drowned in a pay lake over on Sassafras a few weeks ago?”
    “Your dad told
us about it that day you made dinner for us,” Luke reminded her.
    “You cooked a dinner
and we weren’t invited?”
    “Hush.” Edie
elbowed Ben in the ribs. “I heard about that drowning on the news. Such a
tragic accident.”
    “Well, her
sister doesn’t think it was an accident and she’s asked me to look into it.”
    Ben cleared his
throat. Edie picked up the die and rolled it in her hands. Luke sighed. No one
spoke.
    The silence made
Maggie feel uncomfortable. “It is suspicious. She behaved out of character that
night and –”
    Edie patted
Maggie’s knee. “You don’t have to explain yourself to us, but please be
careful. Remember what happened last time.”
    “I’ll never
forget that somebody kidnapped Barnaby. And, don’t worry, I will be careful.”
    Although Maggie appreciated
Edie’s encouragement, she was more interested in knowing if Luke’s silence
indicated a lack of support. On the car ride home, she asked him, “Do you have
anything to say about me looking into Hazel Baker’s death?”
    “Yeah. I’d like
to know long has this been going on.”
    “When you put it
that way, it sounds