Kitten Kaboodle (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 20) by Kathi Daley Page B

off into trouble. I knew she was the perfect person to take care of them while the cousins invaded my house. Ellie was the sweetest and most nurturing person I knew.
    I poured my coffee and returned to the deck, where Ellie was still staring into space. It was early and she might just be tired, but I had a feeling it was something more.
    “Something wrong?” I asked.
    “I’ve just been feeling funky lately. I thought I had the flu, but my symptoms come and go, yet it doesn’t seem to be going away.”
    “Maybe you should go to the doctor.”
    Ellie yawned. “Yeah, maybe. I looked my symptoms up on the Internet, and according to what I found, there are all kinds of horrible diseases that fit the profile.”
    “I think those medical sites are dangerous in the hands of nonmedical professional. Call your doctor. Maybe you’re just anemic.”
    “Yeah, maybe,” Ellie repeated. “How’s the murder investigation going?”
    I sat back in my chair and tucked my feet up under my legs. The early morning sun was shining brightly, creating tiny sparkles of light on the perfectly glassy water. “I’m not sure. I’m coming up with a lot of leads I didn’t expect. Edna was an interesting person. And I don’t mean that in a good way. It seems she had a toxic personality that rubbed pretty much everyone the wrong way. Do you know she actually stalked Pete Ferguson until he slept with her and then blackmailed him with photos she’d taken of the two of them in bed?”
    “I don’t know how much stalking Edna had to do to get Pete into bed. She was an attractive woman and Pete has a wandering eye. Still, the blackmail thing is somewhat surprising and a classic motive for murder. I wonder if she’d done that before with other men.”
    “I don’t know if Edna had stalked and blackmailed men prior to Pete, but when I spoke to him he said she turned her sights to Donald Jacobs.”
    “You think Edna was blackmailing Donald?”
    “As far as I know she wasn’t. Pete said Donald wasn’t falling for her seduction. Still, you make a good point about other men prior to Pete.”
    “I guess you could mention it to Salinger. It might be worth looking in to.”
    “Maybe I will, although to be honest, at this point I’m pretty much avoiding him. I’m afraid he’s going to ask me questions about Nona I don’t want to answer, and I really hate to lie to him.”
    “And you shouldn’t. Lie to him, I mean. He’s helped you out a lot in the past and you have no reason not to trust him.”
    Ellie made another good point, but until I figured out exactly how Nona fit in to all this I really didn’t want to have a conversation with Salinger. Given Ellie’s contemplative mood this morning, it occurred to me it might be best to change the subject. I wondered if she’d heard about Jeremy. Probably not or she would have brought it up. It was really too bad I’d promised Jeremy I wouldn’t talk about the engagement. It would make a perfect topic of conversation to lighten the mood.
    “Did I tell you Mother Zimmerman is having a nursery built in our house?”
    Ellie looked surprised. “Is there something you haven’t told me?”
    “I’m not pregnant. Zak and I haven’t even begun to discuss that situation with any real seriousness, but Zak’s mom has decided that now that we’re past the honeymoon phase of our relationship it’s time to get on to the baby-making one.”
    Ellie laughed. “She really told you that?”
    “She really did. She even took the time to design graphs and charts with gestation periods and time averages to achieve conception. When she asked me about the regularity of my monthly cycle in the middle of the restaurant I thought I was going to die.”
    “Oh, that’s funny.” Ellie chuckled. “What did Zak say?”
    “He said he’d handle it when he got home.”
    “And he will, I’m sure. Thanks for the laugh. I needed one.”
    “Any time my embarrassment can brighten your day I’m happy to share