Free How to Succeed in Murder by Margaret Dumas Page A

spin. I reached for a washcloth from a stack on the bench and wiped my face before answering her.
    “We’re not going anywhere. And even if we did, we wouldn’t come back because of a house full of furniture. We’d come back because of you, and Eileen, and the Rep, and—God help me—even Harry. Okay?”
    She sniffed. “Okay.”
    Good grief. You just try to do a little simple detecting with someone and all of a sudden your entire life comes under scrutiny.
    Brenda spoke up. “I’m sorry for yelling, Charley. I’m just feeling a little fragile. I mean, when I read Clara’s obituary and realized how we’d lost touch… I just don’t want that to happen with you.”
    “That’s so not going to happen with me,” I assured her. “Unless you start talking about babies again.”
    She didn’t, thank heavens. “Okay. I’ll give you a year or so on that one.”
    Definitely time for another change of subject. “What did the obituary say?”
    “About what you’d expect. ‘Brilliant, successful’…the funeral is on Saturday.”
    “Are you going?”
    “Will you come with me?”
    “Absolutely.” Funerals are not exactly my thing, but I’d go to support Brenda, and maybe just to check out the crowd and see if anyone looked suspicious or guilty.
    “Thank you.” She looked around the room. “What time do you think it is?”
    I didn’t have to answer, because Tiff chose that moment to throw open the door.
    “Hey, you sillies! Didn’t you hear the announcements? It’s midnight! You’d better get out of here! You wouldn’t want to be locked in all night, would you?”
    Thus endeth the stakeout.
    ***
    “Well, that was singularly uninformative.” I buckled my seatbelt as Brenda started the engine of her little Saab. It had started raining, and the car began to fog up almost immediately.
    “It wasn’t a complete waste. At least we found out how bad the security is, even if they have added a spot check to make sure everyone’s out at night.” She shivered, either from the freezing rain after the hot sauna, or from the thought of her friend having been killed.
    Tiff had told us that the spot check had recently been added to her night shift duties, because someone had had “an accident” a few days ago.
    “Charley, do you think the killer had to be a woman?” Brenda switched on the windshield wipers and looked at me.
    The same thought had crossed my mind. “Based on where Clara was killed, I suppose I’d assumed so before we went in there,” I told her. “But it was awfully deserted, wasn’t it?”
    She nodded. “I looked at the notice board, and the last exercises classes end at ten. So even if people hang out and take showers and saunas and everything, it’s probably just as empty every night at eleven as it was tonight.”
    “And the men’s locker room is right next to the women’s. I mean, it probably wouldn’t have been hard for the killer to slip out one door and slip in another after he’d given Clara enough time to get into the sauna. I don’t think Tiff, or whoever was at the front desk that night, can even see around the coffee bar to the locker room doors.”
    “The killer might even have asked Clara how long she was usually in there, and if she’s usually alone.” Brenda was getting more excited.
    “Especially if he was someone she knew.”
    “Do we think he was someone she knew?”
    “Oh.” We had no idea. But…“Aren’t most people killed by someone they know?”
    “I suppose.” Brenda was looking slightly deflated again, but she shook it off to sum up our findings.
    “So we’ve learned that the killer could have been a man or a woman, and that the gym has increased security since Clara died.”
    “At least that’s something.” I looked out at the empty parking lot. “But I think I’ve just realized something else.”
    “What?” Brenda pulled out onto a deserted street.
    “Morgan Stokes said Clara left for the gym around ten that night, but according to her