Free Suspicions with Murder (A Rilynne Evans Mystery, Book Four) by Jenn Vakey

thrilled to see Rilynne.
    “No,” she replied smoothly. “I’m not really shopping around for a man right now. I just thought I would check out the party. What’s it for anyway?”
    “No clue. They’re probably raising money for under privileged kids or something. Mrs. Lewis hosts one every couple of months for some organization or another. Usually they don’t have any creatures as cute as that one, though. He came alone; I wonder if he’s single,” she stated with a longing expression.
    Rilynne followed her gaze across the room. Standing just under the large chandelier in the middle, she saw Ben talking to the mayor and the chief of police. He had always been very sociable and that evening was no exception. He was so deep in conversation that it took several minutes for him to spot her. When he finally did, she could see him struggling to keep the grin off of his face.
    “Boy, is he cute,” she heard Nancy mumble. She had to agree. Ben looked incredibly sharp in his tuxedo, though she was amused that his hair still had its usual messy look.
    She was just thinking of ways she might be able to get him away from the crowd when a shrill voice came from just behind them.
    “Out,” Cyndi Lewis said as she pointed to the door. “Our guests don’t need to be leered at by the help.” She turned without another word and walked toward the stage.
    Nancy groaned as she stepped behind Rilynne and out the door. Rilynne rolled her eyes and shrugged to Ben before following. Since she wouldn’t be able to sneak in a moment with him, she decided to use the rest of the evening examining the rest of the staircases in the manor. Her plans were quickly derailed, though, when she realized Nancy was waiting for her outside the doors.
    “You’d think she would actually enjoy showing off how many people she has working for her,” Nancy said out of frustration. “It’s not like we were harassing anyone. I think she just likes to complain. She used to actually be very pleasant, if you could believe that.”
    “Really?” Rilynne asked in disbelief. “What happened to her?”
    Nancy shrugged. “If I had to guess, I think having money just went to her head. It doesn’t help that Mr. Lewis has lost his mind entirely. She’s not nearly as bad now as she was when Brittney first went missing, though. It settled down after it turned up that she was dead, and she hadn’t just skipped out. I think she was worried she might have stolen stuff and split.”
    “You would think she’d be more stressed about a member of her staff being killed when they were supposed to be on duty,” Rilynne said. She quickly gave up on the notion of being able to slip away to search the manor and followed Nancy down the north wing.
    Nancy shrugged again. “Lisa should have dinner ready by now. She always tries to do a little something extra whenever there’s a party. She says it’s just because she doesn’t have to cook for the family, but I think she really wants us to eat as good as the guests. She’s good like that.”
    They were the last to arrive in the kitchen. The table was covered in ten large plates, each filled with something different. Rilynne grabbed a little from each dish before sitting down between Sydney and Danny. “This looks like the same food they’re serving in the hall,” she said as she picked up a roll and examined it.
    “The caterer sent the menu for Mrs. Lewis to approve last week, so I decided to use it as our menu as well,” she said, motioning toward a small binder sitting on the island.
    Danny placed his fork back down and stood up. “Let’s see who we have this time,” he said, grabbing the binder and returning to his seat. Rilynne looked over as he flipped to a copy of the guest list. From the number of scratch-outs and names added to the bottom, she could see the list had been revised several times. The thing that really surprised her was that Ben’s name was on the original list. Judging by the date printed