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

“This is a Pilates class?” he asks incredulously.

“Not exactly,” she admits.

“You all have five minutes to get out of here. Starting now.” The restrained fury in his voice puts everyone into motion.

Gloria snuffs out the candles and begins putting away the mats. Victor and Phoebe woodenly follow her lead.

“We need to talk,” Travis says to Derrick.

I follow Derrick over to listen to whatever Travis has to say. “Not you, Lucy,” Travis says.

“But I’m the reason he admitted to finding his sister dead!”

Travis turns away to block me from the conversation, but no way am I going to miss out on this. So I hang back to listen.

“What’s this about finding Abby dead?” he asks.

“You already know I took the dog,” Derrick says in a whiny voice.

Travis nods curtly.

“So, I promised Abby I’d do whatever she needed to keep him. She’d paid me two hundred bucks, and she promised me another hundred if I just showed up that night. Kind of like backup. Not that I would have done anything to that other lady.”

“What other lady are we talking about?”

Derrick points to Phoebe. “That one. She wanted the dog too. So they were meeting here that night to duke it out. Abby just wanted strength in numbers, you know? But I got to playin’ poker and forgot about the time. After I finished playing, I got here as fast as I could. Abby had told me the side door was going to be open. When I got inside, she was already dead.” His voice falters. “I swear on my life. I would never do anything to hurt my sister.”

“What time was this?” Travis asks.

“About two fifteen in slow time, I reckon.”

“Why didn’t you call the police the minute you found her?”

He groans. “You know why. I got a record. I didn’t want anyone thinkin’ the wrong thing. I swear, there wasn’t nothin’ I could do for her. She was stone cold dead. Besides, I knew they’d find her the next morning when they opened up the place.”

Travis gives him a hard stare. “Against my better judgment, I believe you.”

“So I can go now?”

“As fast as you can before I change my mind.”

Derrick takes Travis’s advice and hightails it out the door.

Gloria and the rest of her group brush past me without a word.

I get it. They feel deceived.

Anthony and Aurelia stop on their way out to confront me. Anthony looks down at me coldly. “We’d appreciate it if you never call us again. Any communication regarding Cornelius’s welfare can be made through Susan’s attorney.”

“I’m sorry. I never meant to…make anyone feel as if I was—”

“What?” Aurelia spits. “Poking fun at our beliefs?”

“No! That’s not it at all.”

She grabs Anthony by the hand, and they storm away.

This leaves just the four us, Brittany, Will, Travis and me, looking at one another.