Before long, it was a real orgy of quiet murmurs as slowly but surely as thunder precedes lightning, Jake, Kenny, and finally Rico showed up. Oh yes, Feelie too...and Brenda and Derek and the stock boy from the local market and the mailman and...
I TOLD YOU! Sigh.
"Hawney, whatcha all thinkin'," Feelie asked as she sat down with her Billy Brew steaming...and so was she I could tell. We all were.
"Stumped, Feelie," Kip announced. "Stumped, stymied, befuddled,"
"Good, hate to think you clowns got it all solved and put to bed while I was sleeping." We laughed.
"Not hardly Feelie," Brenda said a bit unhappily to be sure.
I started thinking that it had been a lot quieter in bed and that maybe I shudda stayed there.
Zeke leaned over to Rico and me .
"Bet you thinking you shudda stayed in bed, huh,"
and I about spit out my coffee. Geez. How did he know that?
To be fair, it was probably obvious on my face. Hah.
"Something like that," I told him.
"Well, maybe we can be productive after all."
"Hmmm. Be nice it would."
Brenda and Derek were talking quietly to each other, Jake and Kenny the same. Kip was totally engrossed in his coffee cup. Rose and Billy were also muttering away to each other.
Kip finally broke the quiet.
"Someone isn't here, obviously so...but I would bet money he is. I can feel it. But we just don't know who...yet."
"You too? I was just telling Derek that I felt that there was a human puzzle piece missing here," Brenda said to all of us, but especially to Kip.
"Maybe the murderer, but then again maybe not but maybe could lead us to whoever he is...or she."
"Kip said that to Zeke and I earlier," I said.
"Just a gut feeling," he added.
"Somebody who knows something. I can feel it too. Somebody who has some more of the puzzle pieces," I said.
"Maybe we already know, but don't," Rico said.
"But where do we go? Where do we look?" This from Zeke.
It got quiet, but then almost at once...
"Anna."
Seemed logical, and so we would later today and I suspected like before she would be expecting us. Whew. Now that is a honed set of instincts for sure.
CHAPTER XXII:
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