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

“You mean, Phoebe Van Cleave?”

Aurelia makes a face. “Pushy woman, that one. Susan wasn’t dead a day that she came sniffing around here trying to take Cornelius. She said that they belonged together. But Cornelius didn’t like her.”

“And he liked Abby?”

“He didn’t dislike her, but we would never have given Cornelius away without Miss Deborah’s consent. It wouldn’t have been right.”

“Then how did he end up with Abby? Deborah says that he ran away.”

Anthony sets down his teacup. “Hardly. Corneluis would have never run away. He was dognapped.”

I knew it! “For real?”

“We have security footage showing the culprit. But…Miss Deborah didn’t want to involve the police.”

So the whole story of Paco running away was just that. A story.

“Do you have proof that Abby Delgado stole Cornelius?”

“No,” Anthony says firmly, “Not Miss Delgado. It was a man who took Cornelius.”

“A man?” My heart speeds up. “Anthony, is there any way I can take a look at that footage?”

Chapter Fourteen

Holy wow. It’s just as I suspected. Paco was dognapped by my favorite sociopath, Derrick Delgado.

After viewing the tape and promising Aurelia and Anthony that I’ll keep in touch to let them know Cornelius’s fate, I get in my car and head back to Whispering Bay.

PTSD, my butt. Wait till Will hears about this.

He sits on his living room couch with Paco on his lap listening to my story.

“I knew he was lying to the police, but now we have him on tape.”

“You lied to the police, too. When you didn’t tell Travis about how Abby was upset with Sebastian. But that doesn’t mean you had anything to do with Abby’s death.”

I give Will the stink eye. “Whose side are you on?”

“I won’t dignify that with an answer. So the brother kidnapped the dog for Abby. All that proves is that they were in sync. He was probably doing her a favor.”

“Then why lie about not knowing anything about the dog?”

“Maybe because what he did was illegal?”

“Which means that he’s capable of doing other illegal activities. Like breaking and entering into the rec center.”

“What’s all this leading to?”

“We need to confront Derrick Delgado.”

“We?”

“Yes, we. I can’t just show up there on my own when he’s already reported me to the police, can I?”

“The police?”

Oops.