Whack The Mole (Lucy McGuffin, Psychic Amateur Detective 2)

I think I’ve just found El Tigre.

Chapter Fourteen

I talk myself through it one more time.

Fact: Mike knows his way around The Bistro including the kitchen and the parking lot. When I think of how eager he was to take out our trash! It should have been a big fat red flag. I mean, how many delivery guys offer to take out your trash?

Zilch.

Fact: He lied to me about never having been around a crime scene. Ha! According to Agent Billings, El Tigre practically wrote the crime scene handbook.

Fact: He had plenty of time to whack Eddie “The Hatchet”, stuff the body in the bathroom, and have the valet bring him his truck all before Paco discovered what he’d done.

To think, there I was sipping on a mimosa trying to make small talk with a man who doesn’t even know the difference between a muffin and a cupcake. I should have known then he was a sociopath.

Fact: Agent Billings said El Tigre was from New York. Mike is from New Jersey. Same thing.

Fact: Mike keeps a gun in his glove compartment!

How much more evidence do I need?

My blood begins to boil. Here I thought he was flirting with me when all this time he was scoping out my café for one of his body dump sites.

Well, he’s not going to get away with it. Not any of it.

Paco and I head straight to Will’s place.

He looks surprised to see me. “I thought you were on a date with this Mike guy.”

I walk in and plop down on one of his leather sofas. “I was, but luckily I escaped with my life.”

“Sounds like the date from hell.”

“You have no idea.”

No use in beating around the bush. “Paco found another dead body in the outdoor bathroom at The Harbor House. And before you say it’s all a great big coincidence this makes the fourth body he’s found, which makes it statistically impossible. So see? He really is a ghost whisperer.”

Will collapses on the sofa next to me. “Four?”

“Before we begin, promise me you won’t tell Travis that I told you any of this. Or anyone else either.”

“What are we? Back in grade school?”

“This is really important, Will.”

“Okay, I promise.”

“I didn’t miss book club because of an after-hours delivery to The Bistro like I told everyone. I missed book club because on the way to Betty Jean’s house, Paco jumped out the car window.”

“While you were driving?”

“I’d just rolled to a stop.”

“He’s not hurt, is he?” Will picks Paco up and runs his hands down his back to reassure himself that he’s okay.

“No, thank God.”

“Why would he do something crazy like that?”