Death on a Deadline

question, I had to tell John about running into Brendan.
    “Why are you asking me so many questions?” I’d patiently answered his. Surely he could answer mine. “Was Hank’s billfold stolen?”
    John snapped his lips together so definitely that I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d made a locking motion with his fingers by his mouth and pretended to throw away the key. Instead, he frowned. “I can’t say right now.”
    “How convenient.”
    “You’ve got the wallet with you?”
    I pulled the billfold out of my pocket, and John latched onto it.
    “What do you want with it?” I refused to let it go.
    “I thought I’d save you some trouble and get it back to its rightful owner.” He tugged.
    Yeah, right . “You don’t want me to talk to Hank.” I tugged back.
    “Look, Jenna, didn’t anybody ever tell you curiosity killed the cat?” He tugged again, but his eyes weren’t angry anymore. Instead something that looked suspiciously like concern clouded his gaze.
    That proverb kept cropping up in my life. Maybe it was time to go home. I let go of the wallet and left John regaining his balance as I crunched across the leaf-covered parking area to my car. Even the Quik-Mart across the road was overrun with cops. But it was hard to tell if that was because of the store’s proximity to the park or the appeal of the best doughnuts in town.
    I reached in the driver’s window and unlocked the door. Leaving the windows down about four inches probably wasn’t very smart at a crime scene, but my cat had to have air.
    “You don’t think I’m nosy, do you, Neuro?”
    She blinked at me from her travel carrier. But she didn’t make a sound.
    Okay, I admit I waited for a response. Maybe I needed to get out more.

    *****

    When I pulled into my driveway, I saw Carly relaxing on my porch swing, her feet up on the railing and her red-painted toenails peeking out of her brown leather sandals. The golden retriever lay on the porch next to her, looking way too at home. I tromped up the steps, clutching Neuro’s carrier in my hand.
    “You went by the park anyway, didn’t you?” Carly called.
    “Yep.”
    “And had a fuss with John.” It wasn’t a question. My sister obviously had no confidence in my diplomatic skills.
    I sat the carrier down to get my key out of my purse, ignoring Carly’s knowing look. “Actually, he was nice enough to take Hank’s wallet off my hands and save me the trouble of returning it.” The dog trotted over and looked into the carrier, his tail wagging against the wooden porch. Neuro hissed and spat. “But yes, we had words. And I’m pretty sure he had an ulterior motive for taking the billfold since he interrogated me about how I got it.” I slid the key into the lock and maneuvered Neuro inside. “Want to say I told you so?”
    “I would, but I’m too hungry.” Carly followed me in and for the second time that day, I shut the door in the dog’s face. Inside the house, I released the carrier latch, and Neuro jumped up on the bay window to continue taunting the canine from a safer distance.
    “Me, too. What do you want to eat?”
    “Do you feel like getting a pizza?” Carly grimaced. “Not that I can afford the points.”
    “Pizza sounds good.” I can’t believe she worries about dieting with her curves. Every male in the vicinity stops and stares when she walks by. With my boyish figure, if a man whistles when I’m around, I assume he’s calling his dog. But that’s life. We always want what we don’t have. “Let me get a quick shower and we’ll go.”
    As I twisted my hair up on top of my head and secured it with a bear-claw clip, I had an epiphany. Since I’d come back to Lake View after my meltdown, I’d actually been pretty happy with my life—a family who loved me, a low-pressure job I enjoyed, an undemanding social schedule.
    But then came my twenty-eighth birthday. I’m not sure why this insignificant milestone hit me so hard. Maybe I was still dealing with Colton’s death. Although, I think the counseling had helped me come to grips with that. Or it could have been because, even though Carly had been divorced forever, at least she had three wonderful kids, and they were her world. I was on a waxed slide to thirty with no hint of romance in sight.
    To celebrate that particular birthday, Carly and the kids had come up from Atlanta for the weekend. Mama baby-sat while Carly and I stayed up half the night at my place, watching an Elvis movie