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

“I thought you just said—”

“What we need to do is fast-track this.” The wheels in my head begin to spin. “The day of the meeting at The Bistro, Gilly handed out these papers with notes for the first episode. Like, Carlos was supposed to keep customers waiting for a table at The Burger Barn, stuff like that to create drama.”

His right eyebrow shoots up. “You mean the show was scripted?”

“Not exactly. These were incidents that Tara said were supposed to incite conflict to make the show interesting.”

“See why I don’t own a TV?”

“Tara was always making Gilly write down these notes for ideas. I wonder … If we can find that notebook, maybe we can find out who else had a problem with Tara’s vision of the show.”

“I’m for anything that keeps us from having to eat again. But how are we supposed to get access to the notebook? After the reception Gilly gave us this morning, I don’t see her handing it over. Maybe if we tell Travis—”

“Absolutely not. Travis isn’t going to be happy that we’re investigating this on our own. Plus, he would definitely not approve of the method we’re going to use to get that notebook.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask, but what method is that?”

“We’re going to have to break into the beach house and find it.”

Chapter Fourteen

“Tell me again why we need to break in?” Will asks. I’ve parked my car far enough down the street from the beach house that hopefully we shouldn’t be noticed.

“We don’t have to break in,” I say. “We can always just walk up to the door and ask Gilly for the notebook. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to just hand it over to us.”

“Point taken.”

“Gilly is leaving town tomorrow, so we’re on a deadline here. Besides, it’s not really breaking in.”

“How do you figure that?”

“It’s a rental, right? People come and go all the time. And it’s not like we’re going to steal anything. All we’re going to do is take a look at that notebook, which could help us solve a crime. If we don’t find some evidence ASAP, a murderer could be slipping right out from under our noses. In a way, we’re really helping the community.”

“It’s scary how your mind works.”

Paco barks like he agrees.

“Traitor,” I say to my dog, who looks at me like he finds our current situation amusing.

“I promise. If we find anything, we’re going to take it straight to the cops.” I reach over to the glove compartment to pull out some binoculars. I adjust them to get a good look at the front door to the house. Gilly’s car sits parked in the driveway.

“She could be here all day, Lucy.” Will slumps down into his seat and closes his eyes. “Wake me up when there’s some action.”

An hour later, the front door to the beach house opens and Gilly gets in her car. I punch Will in the shoulder. He sits straight up. “What?”

“There she goes,” I say triumphantly as we watch the car take off down the street, heading toward town.

“What if she comes right back?”

“Wherever she’s going, she’ll probably be gone at least thirty minutes. No worries. I won’t let her catch us.”

“You don’t know that, Lucy. Look, I have a better idea. Let’s call Travis and see if he can get a search warrant.”

“Are you kidding? Do you know how long that will take? Plus, to get a search warrant, we need to have some kind of proof.”

“Just tell him what you told me about this notebook.”

“I thought you didn’t trust Travis.”