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you sit down? I’ll get it.”
    “No!” I said too loudly. I smiled at him, trying to mask the nervousness. “I mean, it’s fine, really. I just overdid it swimming is all.”
    I glanced at Thor. His legs were twitching. Asleep.
    “Thanks, though. See you around.” I fled.
    It wasn’t until I was halfway down the private hallway that I stopped and looked back.
    Had I just grasped the hand of a killer?

Chapter 10

    I gathered my composure and swung the door open to the kitchen. Fiona was standing at the sink, lemony suds popping all around her as her hands scrubbed a stubborn copper saucepan. Her auburn locks were twisted into a chignon and she wore a breezy linen blouse with matching pants. Espadrilles adorned her pedicured feet.
    I heard the clinking of glasses and plates coming from the dining room, but I didn’t see Birdie or Lolly.
    “Hi, Aunt Fiona.”
    She had a smile on her face when she turned around, but it disappeared the moment she laid eyes on me.
    “Heaven’s, child, what happened to you? You look like you’ve been through a car wash without the car.”
    Yeah, fighting with a dead sea urchin will strip the shine right from your hair.
    “I went swimming with Thor. I would have changed, but I wanted to see if you needed help cleaning up.”
    She rinsed the pan and set it in the drying rack and turned back to me. “Actually, we’re all done here. Lollyis just putting away the dishes. Did you meet any of our guests?”
    Should I mention what just happened? The visions that hit me when Brian touched me were intense. But what if I were wrong? What if the energy had just projected onto him somehow? He was at the park yesterday, after all. Perhaps he met the deceased?
    Or maybe he was there when the cement block was chained to the dead man’s ankle.
    I decided to tread lightly. “I did meet one, yes. Brian. Said he was with the band. I was wondering when they had the chance to check in with having to play that late.”
    Fiona waved her hand. “Brian and his band, The Hell Hounds, have been staying here for years. I just gave him a key after the softball game.” She grabbed a towel and began drying the saucepan. “They play at Cinnamon’s tavern sometimes too.”
    At times, I felt like I had never left; other times it was as if I had been gone a million years. I had never heard of this band before and certainly had never seen them perform at the Black Opal. Cinnamon might be a better source of information than the aunts on this guy. It was one thing to be on your best behavior at a bed-and-breakfast run by three older ladies, but at a booze-fueled bar, people weren’t as guarded.
    I turned my attention to the initial reason for my visit. “How is Keesha? Did you learn more about her?”
    Fiona was rummaging through the refrigerator. She pulled out some leftover pot roast and sweet potatoes, grabbed Thor’s dish from the cupboard, and set it on the counter.
    “Oh my, yes. She’s quite the chatterbox, that one. She’s resting comfortably.”
    She turned the oven to two hundred degrees and scooped the meat and potatoes into the bowl, then opened the freezer for a bag of green beans. She dumped that in the bowl as well and spooned some gravy on top. Then she put the whole thing in the oven.
    “Why don’t you just get a microwave?” I asked.
    “Whatever for?”
    She pulled out a stool and sat, looking tired and not nearly as youthful as she had the night before.
    I fixed us each an iced tea and sat across from her.
    “Thank you, sweetheart.”
    “Are you all right?”
    Her eyes sparkled like emeralds in the sunlight. “I’ll be fine, just didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked. Lots of visitors last night.”
    Oh boy. “What do you mean?” Of course, I had a pretty good idea.
    “Well,” Fiona sighed and smoothed out her slacks, “of course there was little Keesha, who had a great deal to talk about, but there were many other dogs who came to me in my dreams—dogs I had known