Probable Paws (Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery Series Book 5) by Leighann Dobbs

pride. I ignored her and focused on Max.
    “What makes you think someone killed her?”
    “I don’t know. A bad feeling, I guess.” Max looked straight at Adelaide, but it was clear he couldn’t see her. “I just sense it.”
    Adelaide snorted. “No wonder. I’ve been trying to alert him since the moment I died. He’s smarter than he looks, I promise. And he has the gift like you—he’s just not in tune with it yet. I don’t think he’s in any danger, but it doesn’t hurt to be on one’s toes.”
    “So what do you want to tell me?” I asked Max.
    “You promise you won’t tell the police? I mean, I’m not sure if she did anything…”
    “I won’t tell. Who aren’t you sure about?”
    “Aunt Josie wasn’t there.”
    “She wasn’t where?”
    “In the house. On the property. The morning Gram was found. Everyone was yelling, and we called the ambulance, but Aunt Josie couldn’t be found. I mean, even Julie’s boyfriend was there with us.” Max’s brows drew together. “Though there was some speculation as to why he was in the house so early in the morning. Gram didn’t like it when Julie snuck him into her room to…you know…”
    Max’s embarrassment over what Julie and Brian might have been doing in her room was cute, but I was more interested in Adelaide’s body—if she’d been murdered, there might have been some signs that her death was not peaceful.
    “Just exactly how was your grandmother found?”
    Max shrugged. “She didn’t get up for breakfast, I guess. Aunt Marion went in to get her up, and then she started screaming.”
    “And you’re all usually in the house for breakfast?”
    “Well, Dad, Lisa, and I live in the converted barn, but we usually go over in the morning. Cook puts out a big breakfast around seven-thirty. Josie, Marion, and the twins live in the house with Gram.”
    “So you think Josie killed her? Her own mother? Couldn’t she have just died in her sleep?”
    His eyes misted. “No. Not Gram. She was doing really good. The doctors even said so. We played Scrabble the night before, and she was happy …”
    “Did you see her?”
    He nodded slightly and looked down at his sneakers. “She was just lying there like she was sleeping.”
    Darn. There would have been no sign of struggle or poison if she looked as if she’d died in her sleep … unless someone had positioned her that way.
    “But if Josie wasn’t there, wouldn’t that prove she didn’t kill her?”
    “Not if Gram died hours before. If she had something to do with it, she might have been out disposing of evidence.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “My surveillance camera at the cottage captured her taking off in the car that morning.”
    He tilted the screen toward me, and I saw the Hamilton mansion in the distance. Josie appeared out a side door then scurried across the driveway to the five-stall garage. A few seconds later, the door opened, and out she drove in a shiny black Mercedes.
    “You have a surveillance camera aimed at your own family?” Did Max think he needed to keep an eye on his family, or was this some kind of setup? He was a supposed computer whiz—he could have faked a video incriminating someone else.
    “It’s not aimed at them. I have a lot of expensive computer equipment in the cottage, so I have cameras aimed in all directions in case someone breaks in. Then I’d have evidence to give to the police. Unfortunately, I see a lot of things I’d rather not see. Like Julie and Brian in the field. It’s disgusting.” Max made a face. “And Evie with her midnight offerings.”
    “Midnight offerings?”
    “Yeah, not sure what she does out there in the full moon, but it’s creepy.”
    Images of Evie in a hooded cloak, worshipping the full moon, came to mind. I wasn’t surprised—the girl looked as if she could be into something strange. But what about Josie? Could she have been involved in her mother’s death? Or did she just have somewhere to go?
    “This