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

We pay our bill, and while I go to get my car, Will takes Paco for a walk along the grassy area next to the restaurant.

I hand my parking ticket to the same valet who was working on the day of the meeting. He looks at my YOU AIN’T SEEN MUFFIN YET T-shirt. “I remember you. You’re one of the contestants with that cooking show.”

And I remember him too. He’s the wannabe actor.

“How’s it going?” I ask.

He makes a face. “I tried giving my headshots to that new producer. You know, the one who was here the other day running the meeting. But she shot me down fast. Too bad the other one had to die.”

“Yeah, that was bad luck for you all right.”

He nods, oblivious to my sarcasm.

It occurs to me that maybe this guy might know something that could help me.

I look at his nametag. “Josh, did Tara—that’s the other one, by the way—tell you she’d take a look at your headshots?”

He glances around the parking lot like he doesn’t want to be overheard. “She told me not to say anything, on account of her job, but yeah, she said she really liked my look and maybe she could put in a good word for me.”

Tara offered to do something nice for someone? Naturally, this makes me suspicious. “What did you do for her in exchange?”

“Nothing.”

The hair on my neck tingles.

“That’s not exactly true, is it, Josh?”

His voice cracks. “I swear I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“No, of course not,” I say soothingly. “I’m just trying to help the police figure out what happened to Tara.” All of which is completely true. I am trying to help the police. They just don’t know it.

“You mean like an investigator?”

“Exactly.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter now, what with her dead and all, but she didn’t want it to come out that she was … you know, hanging around the restaurant a lot.”

“You mean, she and the film crew were here working?” This is confusing. Tara was filming all over town. Why wouldn’t she want anyone to know that she was at The Harbor House?

“Not with the film crew. Sure, they were here during the day sometimes filming. But I, uh, usually work till closing.” He says this with special meaning.

“Closing?” It takes me a few seconds to catch on. “You mean, Tara would come here at night? Without the film crew?”

“I’d park her car in the back where no one could see it. I mean what she and Mr. Dalton were doing in his office late at night is their business, right?” He frowns. “You’re not going to tell anyone, are you? Mr. Dalton would probably fire me if he knew I was blabbing.”

“No worries. My lips are sealed.”

Will comes back with Paco. He glances between me and Josh. “Everything all right?”

“Everything is just peachy.”

We barely get out of the parking lot before I burst with the news. “Tara and Mark Dalton were having an affair.”

“The valet told you that?”

“Pretty much. So, besides the great big yuck factor involved, Mark has just oozed his way up to the number one spot on my suspect list.”