One Dog Too Many (A Mae December Mystery) by Lia Farrell Page B

upstairs while she freshened up. Tammy followed Mae upstairs, sitting on her bed while Mae touched up her lipstick and attempted to smooth her hair. Once she felt a little more presentable, she told Tammy her idea for finding out what happened between Ruby and her attorney the day she got back. Deciding to go out to lunch, they took Tammy’s car and ate at Crepes, the new café in Rosedale.
    After lunch, they went to James Connolly’s office. Mae assumed he would have been the one to handle any property transactions and knew financial matters often figured as a motive for murder. Tammy knew a legal tech there named Mary and she went inside to talk to her. Mae waited in the car until Tammy returned. She wasn’t gone very long.
    “So, what did you find out?” Mae asked.
    “Ruby showed up to meet with her attorney, but she only stayed in his office for a little while. After Ruby left, Connolly came out and showed Mary a gift Ruby had brought him. An expensive cigar, a ‘cohiba,’ I think she called it. Apparently, they cost about fifty dollars apiece. She said that Connolly seemed preoccupied the whole afternoon after Ruby left.”
    “That’s weird. I wonder if she even made her ten o’clock appointment with the road commissioner. I can probably get Dory to tell me.”
    The sheriff’s office and the road commissioner’s office being in the same building, Mae assumed that Dory would know Mr. Stillwell’s secretary. She dialed her number.
    “Hi, Dory, it’s Mae. I’ve been wondering about something. Ruby had an appointment with Aubrey Stillwell on the morning of the fifteenth. Can you find out if she kept it?”
    “I’ll go ask his secretary. Give me a minute.”
    Dory put Mae on hold for about five minutes and then came back on the line.
    “She kept it all right. Commissioner Stillwell was real sorry she did.”
    “I’m sure he was. Mama told me Ruby was a total pain to the Commissioner. Thank you very much for the information. Bye.”
    Riding along in the warm spring sunshine, the women reviewed what they knew.
    Ruby had kept her ten o’clock appointment with the road commissioner and then she had seen her attorney at one, but only briefly.
    “I wonder if she kept her dinner reservation at the Bistro?”
    “Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Tammy smiled and called information for the number. Then she dialed the restaurant. “Hello. Could you look something up in your reservation book for me? Thank you. On March fifteenth, two of my friends were dining at your wonderful restaurant. Their reservation time was six forty-five. I need to know if they kept their reservation. Can you check for the name of Mead-Allison? Sure, I’ll wait. Yes, they did? Okay, thanks for telling me.” Tammy hung up and turned to Mae. “She kept the dinner reservation.”
    “ Did they know who she had dinner with?”
    “No. Maybe we can find out some other way. Can you drive over there?”
    “Sure, but they aren’t open for lunch, only for dinner. It’s two-thirty now. They may not let us in.”
     
    They pulled into the mostly vacant parking lot of one of the hottest dining spots around. There were only three cars in the lot. A sign on the door read, “Closed until four.” Mae tried the door and, to her surprise, it opened. They went in, flipped through the reservation book, and read the name in the six forty-five time slot on March fifteenth. The entry read, Mead-Allison/Hunter.
    “Hunter? Who do we know named Hunter?” Mae asked her friend. They were talking in hushed tones in the darkened entry of the upscale eatery.
    “Besides Arlen Hunter?”
    “Arlen Hunter.” Mae shook her head. He was a big country music star, about thirty-five and unmarried. Known for dating glamorous young women in their early twenties, he was also the singer who had first recorded Noah’s music.
    At that moment, the Maitre d’ approached. Mae blushed but Tammy piped up saying, “Oh hello. We were hoping to find out when you