Stranger Danger (Lucy McGuffin, Psychic Amateur Detective 4)

“Since everyone in town knows that you don’t own a TV, I couldn’t very well tell her that we were watching a movie. It was the first thing off the top of my head.”

“I’m afraid to ask, but what’s Betty Jean doing at your place?”

“A man was murdered in her house. She was going to go to some fleabag motel for the night. I couldn’t let her be alone.”

“You’re a nice person, Lucy.”

“You would have done the same thing.”

“Not if it was Betty Jean Collins.”

I can’t help but grin. “Okay, back to your story. You confronted Jefferson Pike at the beach house. Then what?”

“I told him I was J.W. Quicksilver. It never occurred to him that the real J.W. would show up. At first, he didn’t believe me, but then I proved it to him.”

“How did you do that?”

“I pulled out my phone and showed him a couple of emails from my publisher.”

“I bet he laid an egg.”

“Pretty much.” Will gets quiet. “I asked him why of all the authors in the world he picked me for this scam. And you want to know what he said? He said it was because I’d made it so easy for him. By being anonymous I was practically begging for something like this to happen. He said I deserved it.”

“That must have made you mad.”

“Yeah.” He blows out a breath. “This is where the too-stupid-to-live part comes into play. I told him I was going straight to the police and there was nothing he could do to stop me.”

I moan. “You never tell the bad guy that you’re going to turn them in to the police. That’s like something straight out of a bad James Bond movie.”

“First off, there’s no such thing as a bad James Bond movie. And tell me about it. The next thing I knew, I was tied up in a closet with the worst hangover of my life.”

“How did you get out?”

“After a few hours, I was able to loosen the ropes. I thought about calling the police right away, but I called you instead.”

“Was there anyone else at the beach house? Did you see Archie or Anita?”

“Just Pike. If anyone else was there, they didn’t show themselves.”

None of this makes sense. I try to put myself in Jefferson Pike’s head. “Okay, so you go to see Pike, and you tell him the truth. So now he knows the jig’s up and he’s going to be exposed. He hits you over the head, ties you up and drags you into a closet. Why not skip town then? Why still go to Betty Jean’s house for the book club meeting and risk getting arrested?”

“Maybe he was still waiting to collect money from some of his victims? Maybe he thought I wouldn’t be able to escape? Who knows how this sociopath thinks?”

“He must have told Archie about you, because Archie told the cops that you killed Jefferson.”

Will drags a hand down his face. “What a mess. I wish I’d listened to you and exposed the guy last night at The Harbor House. Now he’s dead, and his partner is trying to pin the murder on me.”

“Except … I wonder if Archie knows who you are.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, Jefferson Pike knows you as J.W. Quicksilver, but does he know that you’re Will Cunningham?”

Will thinks on it. “Now that you mention it, I never gave him my name. I just walked in guns blazing and told him I was the real J.W. Quicksilver.”

“You stood up at the reading to ask him a question.” I think back to last night. “I’m pretty sure Brittany introduced you as the town’s head librarian.”

“Maybe Pike didn’t remember that detail? There were a lot of people at The Harbor House last night.”