Page 24 of Little Last Words

“Anyone you know?”

“Nope.”

So much for her comment about knowing everything about the town and the people in it.

“Any male friends?” I asked.

“A couple. Penelope and Jack Becker seemed chummy.”

Jack Becker, the neighbor who lived across the street.

First Sadie mentioned Jack, and now Rita.

It seemed he knew Penelope a lot more than he had let on.

“I’m not answering any more of your questions until you answer some of mine,” Rita said. “You must know something. I saw you talking to the police. I still haven’t seen Penelope today, but I did see someone being hauled out of her house on a stretcher. She’s dead, isn’t she?”

I sighed and glanced at the time, desperate for this conversation to end. “All right, yes. She’s dead. I’m not going to go into the details of what happened.”

“Accident, suicide, or what?”

“I’m going to go with ‘or what.’”

Rita crossed her arms and sighed. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“It depends. What do you think I’m saying?”

“Was she murdered?”

“It’s possible.”

Rita started shaking her head. “This is bad. This is so, so bad. We’re not safe. None of us. Not even you behind your big, fancy gate.”

“Let’s not get everyone on the street all riled up. We’re at the beginning of an investigation. There’s no need to speculate any further until we have more information about what happened.”

“And how do you plan on getting more information?”

“That’s a question for the police.”

“It’s also a question for you. We know who you are, and we know what you do.”

I was starting to think the Neighbor Watch group had been keeping tabs on me too.

“I haven’t been hired to investigate Penelope’s case,” I said.

“So that’s it then? If no one throws money at you, you’re satisfied to leave it alone? If she was murdered, don’t assume the police will catch the bastard before the case goes cold. I see it on television all the time. The police work night and day on cases like this, and then they burn out, and the murder is never solved.”

“It isn’t about money,” I said. “There’s nothing wrong with letting the police do their job.”

“There isn’t anything wrong with you offering them assistance either. The more eyes on this, the better. I don’t know about you, but I won’t sleep a wink until we’re all safe again.”

We were going around in circles, and my stomach was growling.

“Look, Rita, today’s my birthday, and my family is just about to pick me up. Can we shelve this conversation for later?”

She nodded, wagging a finger at me as she walked away. “Half of all murders are never solved, Georgiana. Something to think about.”

CHAPTER10