“Hey,” he said, flashing her a grin.

  “Hey. I was just looking for you,” she said, returning his smile as he walked over to her. “I have some stuff that could help with the investigation into Conrad’s murder. Do you have a minute?”

  “I was just heading out to grab something to eat,” he said. “We can talk over dinner.”

  “Um, I…” Tassie stammered.

  Now, it was her turn to be surprised.

  Beside Tassie, Baxter wagged his tail happily, while behind Jack, from where she was still seated at her desk, Lucy nodded, her head nodding up and down like one of those bobblehead dolls.

  “My treat,” he said. “You can even pick the restaurant.”

  Tassie considered that. “Okay. We can go to The General Store. The food is always delicious there, but more importantly, it’s dog friendly.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Jack said.

  Over at her desk, Lucy gave Tassie a big smile and a thumbs-up.

  She truly was incorrigible.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The dog-friendly dining room at The General Store was a heated outdoor seating area with plenty of colorful tables. While it was a little too cold in the fall and winter to sit out there, spring and summer were perfect for it. Tassie and Jack weren’t the only ones taking advantage of the weather and she waved to the other people and dogs she knew as they followed the hostess to their table.

  “Everyone says the lobster rolls here are out of this world,” Tassie said as they both read over the menu. She didn’t know why she bothered looking at it. She could recite everything on it by heart.

  Across the table from her, Jack made a face. “So I heard, but I’m not a big seafood lover.”

  Tassie did a double take. “Seriously?”

  He gave her what could almost be called a sheepish look. “I know. I know. I should have considered that Bluewater Bay is famous for its seafood before I moved here.”

  She laughed. “That’s not it. I was going to say that I don’t like seafood either.”

  “Wait a minute. Didn’t you grow up here?”

  “Yup. My mom and dad moved here after veterinary school to take over old Doc Webster’s practice.”

  He thought a moment. “Your parents are The Doctors Drake Animal Clinic?”

  Tassie sipped her iced tea. “That’s them.”

  “Considering I’m a detective, I should have put that together,” he said. “Any other brothers and sisters?”

  She paused before setting her glass on the table. “An older brother.”

  Her voice broke a little like it always did whenever she talked about Nolan. After all these years, it shouldn’t, and yet, she couldn’t seem to control it.

  Across from her, Jack frowned. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize he was…”

  Dead.

  He left the word unsaid.

  She shook her head. “He isn’t. At least…I don’t think he is. I hope not.”

  Now, Jack look confused.

  “Nolan is ten years older than me,” she explained. “He left Bluewater Bay when he was eighteen.”

  “And he didn’t stay in contact with your family?” Jack asked. “Was there some kind of falling out between him and your parents?”

  She gave him a half-hearted shrug. “Abby and I were in school the day Nolan left but apparently he had some kind of huge argument with my mom and dad right before he left. My parents won’t ever talk about it, so whatever the fight was about, it must have been really bad.”

  Jack’s brow furrowed. “That’s rough. Were you close to your brother before he left?”

  She couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah. When Abby and I were little, he’d read us bedtime stories and come to our tea parties. I hate that we might never know why he left.”

  Jack looked like he would have said more but the server’s arrival interrupted him. They both decided on the chicken Marsala and a side salad. And for Baxter, a small bowl of plain baked chicken.

  “Since you love animals, I’m surprised you didn’t follow in your parents’ footsteps and become a vet,” Jack said after the man left, clearly wanting to talk about something that didn’t make her so melancholy.

  She was completely fine with that.

  “When I was a kid, that’s what I wanted to be, but after I passed out when we dissected frogs in middle school, I realized that being a vet wasn’t in the cards.” She smiled and reached down to caress Baxter’s head where he sat beside her chair. “I’m glad because instead, I get to bake doggy treats and go to work with my best friend every day.”

  And she wouldn’t trade it for anything.

  “How about you?” she asked as they started on their salads.

  He glanced at her as he picked up his fork, eyes twinkling. “Did I want to become a vet?”

  “No.” She laughed. “I meant, did you always want to be a cop?”

  Jack chuckled. “Yeah, I know. I’m just messing with you.” He speared a tomato with his fork and shook his head. “Nah. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life until a buddy’s father came in for career day in high school. He made his job as a cop sound so cool to sixteen-year-old me that I couldn’t graduate fast enough so I could apply to the academy.”

  She could see that. “Did your buddy become a cop too?”

  “Actually, he ended up getting arrested and is in prison for felony theft.”

  “Wow. I guess that apple fell far from the tree,” she said as their dinner arrived. “So, is being a cop as cool as you thought it would be.”

  Jack waited to answer until their server had placed their dinner on the table and the small bowl of chicken on the floor in front of Baxter.

  “Most days,” he said.

  “And the other days?”

  “I’m usually stuck doing mountains of paperwork.”

  “Thankfully, my sister does most of that side of the business,” she said. “What do your parents think of you being a cop?”

  He picked up his knife and fork with a shrug. “My parents and sister mostly worry. They were relieved when I took a job in a small town like Bluewater Bay. Well, until they heard there’d been a murder on my first day.”

  She groaned. “I can imagine.”

  “Yeah, I definitely didn’t have murder on my bingo card, that’s for sure.”

  “But I can see why you like doing what you do,” she said. “This investigation stuff is kind of fun.”

  He glanced up from cutting his chicken, mouth twitching. “Should I be concerned you’ll be coming for my job soon?”

  Tassie let out an amused snort. “Not even close. I’ll stick to amateur detective status, thank you very much. Speaking of which, I think I might know who murdered Conrad.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Let’s hear it.”

  She took a deep breath. “Actually, I have a few possibilities, so I’ll tell you what I learned about each of them, starting with Conrad’s ex-wife, Belinda.”

  “She has an alibi for the time of the murder.”

  “If she hired someone to kill Conrad, then it doesn’t matter if she has an alibi.”

  Jack paused, fork halfway to his mouth. That definitely got his attention.

  “Belinda hosted a bring-your-dog-to-the-gallery event the other night so, of course, Baxter and I went because I wanted to talk to her about Conrad,” Tassie explained, reaching for her iced tea. “I overheard her talking on the phone telling someone she’d Venmo them for something they did for her that she didn’t want anyone to find out about.”

  He ate the piece of chicken still poised on his fork, chewing slowly as he considered that. “And you think she was talking to a hitman.”

  “Don’t you?”

  “I agree that it’s suspicious but that doesn’t necessarily mean she was on the phone with a hitman,” he said. “I’ll try to get a warrant for her phone records. See if we can find out who she was talking to.”

  “Good. Because she definitely didn’t like her ex. I think the fact that he didn’t play the lottery before they got divorced makes her hate him even more. The way she sees it, she could have gotten more alimony. She said as much.”

  Tassie glanced at Baxter to see if he’d finished his dinner. He had and was currently licking the bowl clean.

  “Belinda’s hoping Conrad left his fortune to their son, Tristan,” she added, turning her attention back to Jack. “Which brings me to my next suspect. Though I don’t think he’s much of one since he doesn’t seem to want anything to do with his father or his father’s money.”

  “That doesn’t mean he didn’t have a different motive,” Jack pointed out.

  She smothered a piece of chicken in wine sauce, then popped it into her mouth. Mmm. It was the perfect combination of flavors. “I thought of that. He certainly despised his father. Can you believe Conrad tried to bribe Tristan into spending time with him for half of the lottery money he won? What kind of person does that?”

  “Usually the type who would do anything to get his hands on that kind of money himself,” Jack said.

  “You have a point there,” she agreed. “But while Tristan was angry at Conrad for a lot of things, in addition to offering him all that money, I don’t think he murdered his father.”

  Jack frowned. “Yeah, I didn’t get that vibe when I talked to him either.”

  “Now, Conrad’s business partner, on the other hand, is a different story,” Tassie said. “He’s livid that Conrad didn’t put some of the money he won into their fishing charter business and instead, intended to dissolve their partnership. Oh, and rumor has it that his wife was cheating on him with Conrad. Plus, I’m pretty sure David doesn’t have an alibi for the time of Conrad’s murder.”

  “He doesn’t. I checked,” Jack said. “I didn’t know the part about his wife having an affair though. That’s interesting.”

  “And a motive for murder. Only I’m not sure she was having an affair,” Tassie clarified. “But I know someone who will.”

  “Who?”

  She gave him a smile. “An amateur detective never reveals her sources.”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s a reporter.”

  Tassie shrugged. “Tomayto-tomahto.”

  His mouth curved. “You’d make a good one, by the way.”

  “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

  Jack chuckled softly. “Good. Because I meant it as one.”

  They ate in silence for a few moments before Jack spoke.

  “I don’t think Sara did it, you know,” he said quietly. “But apparently, there’s a baking competition in Bluewater Bay in a few weeks with a camera crew from a TV show and everything, and the mayor doesn’t—and by extension, the chief of police—want a murder hovering over the event like a dark cloud, so they want this case closed quickly. Unfortunately, there’s no other evidence to suggest that someone other than Sara killed him. There was no sign of forced entry into the house, and the only readable fingerprints on the murder weapon belonged to Sara.”

  “What about the shoe print?”

  “Couldn’t tell much from the partial. It could belong to anyone.”

  Tassie frowned. “Could someone have already been hiding in Conrad’s house while Sara fought with him?”

  “It’s possible,” he agreed. “The problem is that no one saw anyone entering or leaving Conrad’s home.”

  “This would be a lot easier if the man had security cameras,” she muttered.

  Jack snorted. “Tell me about it. But unless we figure out who really killed Conrad, there’s a good chance that Sara could be going to jail not only for his murder but also for Oliver’s.”

  Tassie couldn’t help but notice that he’d used the word we, and she’d be lying if she said she didn’t like it. Hopefully, he was including her in that and not simply referring to his fellow police officers.

  The other part of what he said was disturbing though. “Oliver’s murder? She didn’t even know him.”

  At least Tassie didn’t think she did.

  “I know,” Jack said. “But the mayor has some convoluted theory about Sara killing Oliver and burying him in Conrad’s backyard to frame him and when that didn’t work, she murdered Conrad.”

  “Wow. That is convoluted.”

  “Regardless, your friend could be looking at a double-murder charge.”

  “Then we need to figure out who did it,” she said firmly. “And soon.”

  Jack regarded her thoughtfully. “You know, when you first wanted to get involved in this whole thing, I didn’t want you anywhere near the case, but I have to admit I’m impressed by your investigative skills.”

  She smiled. “I told you I watch a lot of murder mysteries.”

  His mouth curved. “As long as you don’t do anything dangerous, I’m okay with you doing it.”

  “Understood.”

  Hey, she didn’t want to do anything dangerous either.

  They spent the rest of dinner and a good portion of dessert—a decadent slice of chocolate cake that they shared—continuing to talk about both murder investigations. Jack agreed with her that Conrad had almost certainly killed Oliver, even if the people at For Reel Sportfishing were surprised considering the two men had appeared to be friends. Tassie couldn’t imagine anyone being chummy with Conrad, but at least one murder seemed to be solved. Now, they had to find enough evidence to convince the mayor and chief of police.

  “Thank you for dinner,” Tassie said as Jack walked her and Baxter back to where her SUV was parked near Pupcakes.

  Now that it was dark, it was cooler than it’d been before, and she carried Baxter in her arms to keep him warmer. Luckily, he liked when she held him. Maybe because it let him see more from this vantage point.

  She walked a little closer to Jack. Not because she was cold but because she liked being near him.

  “You’re very welcome,” Jack said. “Maybe we can do it again.”

  She grinned. “I’d like that. And next time, you can bring Gus.”

  “He’d definitely like that.” He glanced at her shop. She and Abby left the lights on inside even at night so everything was clearly visible, including the cute Easter display she and Baxter had put together the other day. Well, mostly her, she supposed. But her Chiweenie had helped. “I still have to stop by Pupcakes with him.”

  “Definitely!” Tassie slowed to a stop when they got to her SUV, turning toward him. “Well, this is me.”

  Jack stopped too. “I’ll let you know if I get anything from Belinda’s phone records.”

  “And I’ll let you know if I find out whether David’s wife was cheating on him with Conrad or not.”

  As they stood there gazing at each other, Tassie got the feeling Jack wanted to kiss her. Which was perfectly a-okay with her. She wanted to kiss him too.

  She didn’t know who leaned closer to the other first, but his lips were just inches away from hers when Baxter let out a sharp bark, interrupting whatever smooching was going to happen. She stepped back with an embarrassed laugh even as he did the same.

  Since Baxter clearly liked Jack, she wasn’t sure why he’d mind if the two of them kissed. She glanced at her fur baby to see what was up with him only to realize that he wasn’t paying attention to them at all. Instead, he was focused on something down the street, ears and eyes on high alert.

  While she was glad he hadn’t suddenly changed his mind about liking Jack, unfortunately, the romantic moment that’d been there a moment ago now seemed to have disappeared.

  Drats.

  “Well, I guess Baxter sees something or someone he doesn’t like over there,” Jack chuckled.

  “Yeah.” She gave Baxter a kiss on the nose, then smiled. “I better get home.”

  “Drive safe.” Jack petted her pooch on the head. “Goodnight, Baxter.”

  Tassie got Baxter all situated in the SUV, then gave Jack a wave as she turned onto the street. He returned the gesture, watching her drive down the road before turning to continue along the sidewalk toward the police station. She knew because she snuck a peek at the rearview mirror to check.

  She smiled, unable to help it. He was fun to be around.

  “Did you have a good time tonight, Baxter?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him.

  To her surprise, he was as alert as he’d been outside Pupcakes, his cute face filled with doggy concern as he looked out the window.

  “What has you so uptight, baby?”

  Whatever it was, he was still agitated by the time she pulled into her assigned parking space outside the townhouse they shared with Abby and Finn. Theirs was on the end of the row and painted a pretty colonial blue with white shutters. Two floors with a finished basement, it was perfect for the four of them. Tassie only wished it had a garage. Digging their vehicles out of the snow in the winter was brutal.

  Shrugging into her crossbody bag, Tassie picked Baxter up, deciding to carry him instead of using the leash. Cuddling him close, she slowly turned in a half circle, showing him their surroundings.

  “See?” she said. “Nothing’s out there.”

  Baxter didn’t seem convinced.

  She looked around, her gaze fixed on the darkness beyond the parking lot but didn’t see anything. That didn’t mean there wasn’t something there. What if Belinda had gotten the same hitman she’d hired to murder Conrad to come after her? Or what if David had figured out she thought he might be the killer and followed her when she’d left For Reel Sportfishing earlier that day so he could silence her?

  Tassie suppressed a shiver. That was her overactive imagination talking again. There was no way they could know she suspected them. She’d been very careful when it came to that.

  But Baxter had good instincts. If he thought something—or someone—was out there, then she was going to trust him.

  Which meant they should get inside.

  Tassie turned to head up the steps to the front door just as Abby pulled in, parking in the space beside hers.

  “I’m surprised to see you home so early,” Tassie said as her sister joined her even as she glanced at the trees again. Not that she could see anything anyway. “Did the date with Isaac go okay?”