Death and Relaxation (Ordinary Magic #1)(40)

“Maybe Hera?” Jean suggested, getting some space between her words. “I heard Heim was taking his best fish to Chris’s place for his new cook, and giving the seconds to Hera’s bar and grill.”

I tapped her name into the suspect list. “We can check. Did she seem upset about it?”

“I overheard her calling him a lot of bad names,” Jean said.

“Okay, have we seen any other deit upset?”

She shook her head, and so did Myra.

“Creatures?” I asked.

“Chris?” Myra suggested.

“Because he’s getting the best fish Heim could catch? How does that warrant murder?”

“According to Dan Perkin, Chris is dead-set on winning the drink category in the rally. Heim was a judge. Maybe Heim told him he wasn’t going to vote for Chris’s beer.”

“Chris told me he doesn’t care about the award.”

“Still,” Myra said. “We should follow up.”

Jean unwrapped a square piece of pink gum and stuck it in her mouth. “Labs came back.” Her words smelled like blueberry. “Blunt trauma to the back of the head, salt water in the lungs.”

“So another water creature? Nymphs? Mers? Any other creats upset with Heim?”

We all looked over at Roy. He shook his head. “Not that I can think of.”

“We’ll check the waters people anyway. Which brings us to mortals.” I placed my fingers on my keyboard. “Go.”

Myra started. “We’ll want to talk to his ex Lila, and her sister Margot. See if there is any hostility there. Maybe Pete Bell? He was always trying to steal Heim’s whale-watching customers.”

It wasn’t much to go on. We all knew that. Heim had been easygoing and not the type to make enemies, which, while admirable while he was alive, made our jobs a lot harder now that he was dead.

“Maybe we should check in with Bertie,” Myra said. “She talked him into judging for the festival. Maybe he edged out someone else who got mad about it. She’d know who else was in the running.”

I nodded and put her in as an information source to follow up on.

“I’d like to take a look at his finances too,” I said. “Make sure he was on the up and up with what he was catching and shipping.”

“He was,” Roy said. “Clean as a whistle. Barbara’s firm does his accounts.”

Barbara was Roy’s wife. She owned the accounting firm in town. If she said he was clean, I believed it.

“Maybe we should add Dan Perkin to the list,” Jean said. “He’s made an enemy of everyone.”

It was sort of the office joke, although it was also true. Dan really didn’t have many friends. Any investigation from criminal mischief, lost newspaper deliveries, or missing socks always pointed to Dan.

Dan was never the actual perpetrator, though we had once caught him throwing rocks at tourist cars parked illegally in disabled parking zones.

Since Jean sympathized with his stance on that, if not his action, she let him off with a warning.

But since Dan had also been a target of explosives and he was tied into the Rhubarb Rally, I added his name as an avenue we should explore.

“I can’t believe you put him on it,” Jean said. “No-goes.” She touched her nose. Myra quickly did the same.

“Are you two kidding me? What are you? Five?”

“No,” Jean said, her finger still on her nose. “We are smart. Because we don’t have to interview Dan.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I’ll talk to Dan, you big babies. Is this it for the start?”

Jean and Myra dropped their fingers off their noses.

“All I can think of,” Roy said. “Well, we could check with his deck hand.”

“Heim had a deck hand? I thought he let Rufus go.”

“He did.” Roy looked up at the ceiling a moment. “I think the man’s name was Walter. Came hitching into town on his way to California. Fresno. Heim picked him up for a couple whale-watching runs.”

“Did he go out with him last night?” I asked.

Myra walked to her desk and plucked up a file folder. She flipped through a few pages. “Coast guard didn’t find anyone else on the boat. No missing persons report.”

I typed him onto the list. “Not that a hitcher working day jobs is really going to be noticed as missing.”

She frowned at the file and nodded.

We all knew we didn’t have much to go on. I found myself wishing we had a dime-store prognosticator on call.

“This is a good start,” I said, trying to bring up the mood. “Let’s divvy it up and cover ground, ladies. Roy, you got the fort?”

“I’ll keep the coffee on.”

“What about Ryder?” Jean asked.

Oh. I’d forgotten our fifth wheel. We all raised our fingers at the same time and jabbed our noses. Roy sighed like a veteran kindergarten teacher.

I glared at my sisters through my fingers.

“I already did ride-along,” Myra said around her palm.

“My shift’s almost over.” Jean had chosen to use her middle finger on her nose, of course.

“I am not going to drag him around behind me all day,” I said.

And then the door opened and a man walked into the lobby.