Free Cold Turkey by Shelley Freydont

menus.
    Eric started to go after her, but Joe grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “Let her go.”
    “Ouch.” Eric flinched and grabbed the shoulder of the arm Joe had grabbed.
    “Sorry, man. That must have been some fall you took.”
    Eric grimaced at him. “It was.” He sat down and continued to rub his shoulder.
    Fall. Fall? Liv forgot about Eileen leaving. Eric was obviously in pain. His right shoulder. The night before he hadn’t shaken hands with Chaz like the others had. Not because he was being rude, but because his shoulder hurt. And she bet it wasn’t from a fall.
    “BeBe, what do you know about shotguns?”
    “Me? Nothing. Well, my ex tried to teach me to shoot when I first moved here. Knocked me on my butt. I thought for sure it had broken my collarbone. After that I decided to steer clear of all firearms.”
    “Kickback. I wonder . . .”
    “What? Did you think of something?”
    “I’m not sure. I gotta run.”
    “Why? Where are you going?”
    “First I’m going to follow the widow if she’s on foot, then I’m going to call Bill.”
    BeBe’s mouth fell open. “Darn. I really need full-time help.”
    Liv raced back up the alley, hoping she’d guessed correctly that Eileen would be walking back to the Inn. She came out on the street and a gust of wind nearly knocked her off her feet. Eileen had stopped at the corner and was talking on her cell phone.
    Liv ducked around the corner of the building and, peering out at the widow, pulled her knit hat out of her coat and shoved it down over her ears. Not much of a disguise but it would have to do. Besides, the wind was freezing.
    She did feel a qualm about all this clandestine spying she was doing. And she hoped that she wasn’t breaking the law or interfering with the investigation. But it couldn’t be helped.
    She just happened to be on the scene, and like every good event planner, she was thinking on her feet.
    Eileen was very intent on the conversation she was having with whoever was on the other end of the cell phone she had pressed to her ear. “What?” she said, practically yelling into the phone. “I can’t hear you.”
    The wind must be creating ambient noise, and that was lucky for Liv because the same wind was throwing Eileen’s side of the conversation right toward her.
    “Yes. He’s rattled, poor thing. It won’t be long before he cracks. I want to be ready to go when he does.” She listened for a while. “I’m on my way there now. See you, sweetie.”
    Sweetie? Hadn’t she just called Eric “sweetie”? It didn’t sound like she was talking to him. It sounded like she was talking
about
him. And since Joe was with him, that left Pudge.
    Eileen crossed the street, walking fast in spite of the wind and her high-heeled boots. She’d hung up the phone but kept it clasped in her hand.
    Liv reached for her own phone. She didn’t know who to call first, Bill or Chaz. She called Chaz. If Bill was waiting to move until Chaz had finished his search, they might all be out of town before he could stop them.
    She punched in speed dial. Listened until the machine picked up. “Not here. Call back.”
    What kind of way was that to run a newspaper? She called again. Same message. “If you’re there, pick up. Things are moving quickly. I mean it, pick up.”
    He didn’t pick up.
    She hung up and called Bill.
    “Gunnison.”
    “Bill, it’s Liv. Uh.” How was she going to explain? They were a block from the Inn now and she didn’t have time to think of a good excuse. “Don’t yell, but Eileen Bonhoff is on her way to the Inn. She says she’s leaving. I think I know who killed Max.”
    “I guess it’s useless for me to say stay away from her.”
    “Are you at the Inn waiting for her?”
    “No, I’m out following another lead.”
    “Then yes, it would be useless.”
    “I’m on my way.”
    “I’ll try to stall her until you get to the Inn.”
    “Liv, stay—”
    She hung up, pushed the phone into her coat pocket just