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sneaking around, eavesdropping on everyone’s conversations.”
    “For future roles?”
    Ryan laughed. “Yeah, right. Plus he dramatized everything, turning the stuff he picked up into some kind of soap opera plot, like he was directing a movie or something, and everyone around him were actors in some screen-play.”
    “Yeah, actually, that’s right,” Tracy joined in. “Kyle tried to convince me once that a couple of the mixed doubles people were having an affair. I couldn’t see it. These were two really nice people who just happened to need partners to play in the league. They liked tennis , not each other. I mean, not in that way. It seemed pretty over the top.”
    Ryan grinned, nodding. “He once told me Mr. Gordon must be embezzling funds from the club, and you know why?”
    Jo shook her head.
    “Because he showed up one day driving a new Lexus. Like Gordon couldn’t afford it? He makes, well, I don’t know what he makes. But it must be enough to afford a Lexus. Kyle said he was keeping an eye on him.”
    “Did any of these people realize he was, ah, studying them?”
    “Probably not,” Ryan said. “He could be pretty smooth about it. But who knows?”
    Indeed, Jo thought.
    The phone rang. As Tracy reached for it, a player rushed in from the courts holding up a racquet with a broken string. Jo could see their discussion about Kyle was at an end, and she drew Charlie away from the desk and out the door.
    They walked a few feet down the path before Jo turned to the teen. “What did you think?”
    “About this guy Kyle?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Sounds like Ryan didn’t like him much.”
    “I got that too. Did Ryan sound believable to you, or did he seem to be putting it on a little thick about what Kyle was doing around here?”
    “I don’t know.” Charlie looked down at his shoes for a few moments. “That girl Tracy is pretty hot.” Charlie flashed an embarrassed grin. “Maybe Ryan was trying to impress her. Or maybe Kyle was always hitting on her and it ticked Ryan off.”
    “Ah, I hadn’t thought of that. Some good points, Charlie.”
    Charlie threw Jo a hint of a smile, then gazed back at his shoes, his hands stuffed in his pockets. “But I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe Kyle really was a jerk.”
    Jo could confirm that part, at least from the way Kyle had behaved at her grand opening. But were his actions here at his job as over the top as Ryan claimed? And if so, who else might have noticed?
    They reached the car, and Jo searched through her pockets for her keys. As she unlocked the passenger door, she noticed Charlie looking off toward a small group of grounds workers walking toward the golf course with a cart of tools, a couple of them probably high schoolers.
    “Anybody you know?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Like to go over and talk to them?” she asked, feeling on a roll from the tennis shop and eager to keep it going.
    Charlie shrugged. “Uh-uh,” and climbed into the car.
    Jo looked back at the group longingly. She weighed her chances of success at strolling over, commenting on the weather, and casually turning the topic to Kyle Sandborn. The scale tipped heavily toward “not good.” She sighed and slid behind the wheel, deciding what she learned from Tracy and Ryan would have to do for now.

Chapter 7
    Jo settled in the cubicle she called an office the next morning, eager to start working on the craft show while Carrie handled the customers. Bob Gordon had sent over a thick packet containing information on the club’s past craft shows. She started by calling Phyllis Lenske, head of the Ladies’ Sodality at St. Adelbert’s, who had hosted a high-grossing table last year.
    “Another show? Oh, how nice,” Phyllis responded. But Jo’s hand, which had moved to pencil the group in, halted as Phyllis quickly qualified her interest, saying, “Let me check with Mary Louise, first. She’s having knee replacement surgery, but I really can’t remember if it’s this month or next. And we