Murder By Muffin (Lucy McGuffin, Psychic Amateur Detective 3)

“Well, well, well,

look who’s a glutton for punishment!” crows Betty Jean. “Ready to get humiliated again by a bunch of geriatrics?”

“Why not?” I mutter, setting my mat down in the only empty space in the room, which just so happens to be next to her.

“Have you given any more thought to coming back to my book club?” she asks.

“I hear that you’ve invited my mother to join,” I counter.

“I was hoping that would nudge you back into the fold.”

“I’m not sure why since I was never actually in the fold. You kicked me out before my first meeting. Remember?”

“I’ve already apologized for that. I thought you’d forgotten about the meeting. How was I supposed to know you’d found a dead body and had been sworn to secrecy by the FBI?”

“Tell me the truth. Is it really me you want or my muffins?”

“The two of you are a package deal, right?”

Okay, so it’s my muffins she’s after. I guess I shouldn’t ask the question if I don’t want to know the answer.

“It’s like I told you before, if you can get J.W. Quicksilver to a meeting, then I’ll rejoin your book club. Otherwise … ” I shrug.

“As a matter of fact, I’ve just heard from him,” she says smugly. “He emailed me this morning.”

“So he’s coming here to Whispering Bay? Really? For a book club meeting? Or he is going to Skype it in?”

“We’re still discussing the details,” she dodges, “but I have every confidence I can convince him to come here in person.”

“Great. Let me know when, and me and my muffins will be there.”

Betty Jean doesn’t respond because what can she say to that? Normally, I would never be so obstinate, but it really chaps me that she’s only after me for free muffins.

The rest of the class members all want to know when The Bistro is going to reopen and if I know anything about the investigation into Tara’s death.

“We’re reopening Wednesday, and sorry, but no, I have no idea how Tara ended up dead in my kitchen.”

“It’s probably all the drugs she was on,” says Betty Jean.

“Drugs?” It sounds as if Betty Jean has been talking to my mother. “Where did you hear that?”

“It’s all over town. I overheard two of the cashiers at The Piggly Wiggly. What else could it be? That is, if you didn’t kill her,” she adds, smirking.

“Maybe Paco can help,” says Victor Marino. “I think it’s time for another séance.” Victor is what I like to call a triple threat. He’s a member of the Gray Flamingos, Betty Jean’s book club and the Sunshine Ghost Society. If there was some other club to belong to in town, I’m sure he’d be a member of that too.

“Fabulous idea, Victor!” says Phoebe Van Cleave, current president of the Sunshine Ghost Society. “You know, Lucy, it’s very selfish of you to keep Paco all to yourself.”

“I promised the cops I wasn’t going to investigate Tara’s death.”

“That’s never stopped you before,” says Phoebe.

True. But I want to keep my promise to Travis this time. Plus, there’s another reason I’m not too keen on the séance idea. Phoebe is right. I do want to keep Paco all to myself. The more people who know about his abilities, the more publicity he gets. What if his original owner gets wind of where he is and wants him back? Yes, it’s completely selfish of me, but I don’t want to risk losing him.

After class, I go to grab a smoothie from the juice bar and I run into Jim Fontaine.

“Lucy, I was just thinking about you,” says Travis’s dad. Like Travis, he’s tall with green eyes, only Jim gives off a much friendlier vibe. We find a table near the window facing the gulf. “How are you doing?”

“You mean considering I’ve just found another dead body and this time in my kitchen?”