Beach Blanket Homicide (Lucy McGuffin, Psychic Amateur Detective 1)

“You better. Or I’ll sue your firm for being a bunch of idiots.”

Chapter Ten

After my visit to Derrick Delgado, I need to blow off some adrenaline, so I go to Will’s house. He owns his own home, a cute little one-story bungalow a few blocks from the beach. The living room is minimalistic—just a couple of dark leather couches, a coffee table, a desk, and two big bookshelves overflowing with classic literature.

Will is a reading snob, preferring the classics to popular fiction. He’s the only person I know who doesn’t own a T.V. That’s why we have to watch America’s Most Vicious Criminals at my place.

I pace around the room and tell him everything I know so far about Abby’s death, including the stuff about the video of Sebastian and Abby going into the rec center and my futile attempt to knock some sense into my brother.

“Sebastian refuses to tell me who Abby wanted the exorcism performed on. Only my money lands on Phoebe Van Cleave.”

Will ponders this over. “Go on.”

“According to Officer Fontaine, Paco doesn’t belong to Derrick Delgado. So I went out to see him. He didn’t know anything about a dog, but it was a big fat lie. You should meet this guy. He’s like a character right out of Deliverance. Oh, and the worst part? The guy has a trained squirrel.”

The corner of Will’s mouth twitches up like he’s going to laugh. Only he knows better.

When I turned seven, my parents threw me a pool party. My entire class was there (Mom’s rules: everyone in the class is invited, or no one is). To keep him from being bored, Sebastian, who is five years older than me, was allowed to invite a friend, so he asked Will. And thank God for that because who knows what would have happened to me if Will hadn’t been there to save me.

We’d just gotten out of the swimming pool. Mom had placed my ballerina cake with the seven pink candles on top of the picnic table, when out of nowhere, a pack of feral squirrels came flying out of the trees (Will and Sebastian like to say that it was only three, but honestly, when your life is flashing before your eyes, who takes the time to count?).

Those squirrels scurried toward my cake with every intention of stealing it.

No way was I going to let that happen, so I grabbed the cake and took off running. I could hear everyone shouting behind me, but all I could think about was those squirrels making off with my beautiful pink ballerina cake that Mom had baked from scratch.

I turned to see if the squirrels were following me (which they were!) when I tripped and began to fall. In one of those slow-motion clips of your life, I could see what would happen next. I was going to land face down on the patio tile, and worse, my cake would be ruined.

But then out of nowhere, a pair of arms grabbed me, holding me (and the cake) steady. “Get out of here, you grubby squirrels!” Will screamed.

Miraculously, they obeyed him.

By that time, Mom and Dad were also there to help. I didn’t land on my face and break my nose. My cake was all in one piece. And the squirrels were vanquished back to their evil hiding nests.

If that wasn’t a reason to fall in love with Will, (and hate squirrels forever), then I don’t know what is.

I proceed to fill Will in about the rest of my visit to Derrick, omitting the part where he held a gun to my head, because if I tell him that he’ll tell Sebastian and I don’t want my brother to flip out. Plus, Sebastian would tell our parents, and then everyone would make a federal case about nothing.

Will crosses his arms over his chest. “The brother sounds like a nut job. I don’t like it that you went out there to see this guy alone.” See what I mean? Good thing I left out the part about the shotgun. “What’s going to happen when he calls this law office and they deny knowing anything about you?”

“I never gave him my name, and I live an hour away. How’s he going to find me?” Before Will can answer, I say, “Don’t worry about Derrick Delgado. We have more important fish to fry, like figuring out the cause of death. We won’t know anything more until the autopsy results come back, but—”

“Wait.” He sits up. “Are you saying that maybe Abby was murdered?”

“Pay attention, Will! Why do you think the cops questioned Sebastian about what he and Abby were doing in the rec center? They didn’t come right out and say the M word, but you should see the way this Officer Fontaine character is acting. Someone needs to remind him he’s not in Dallas anymore.”

“Sounds like you don’t like Travis.”

“He’s a donut man.”

Will chuckles. “He joined my basketball league last night. He’s got an awesome three-point shot.”

All of which means that Travis has completely won Will over because Will goes nutso over basketball. Personally, I’ve never gotten into the game. It’s run down and make a basket, then, run down and make another basket. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Yawn.

I stop pacing and glance around the room. It’s suddenly occurred to me that something isn’t right. Will’s usually neat desk is cluttered with papers, and there’s an empty carton of Chinese on the floor next to his trash can like he went to toss it in and missed. Will is obsessively neat. It’s his only fault.

“Work been busy?”

“I’ve been off for a few days. Mini vacation.”