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still alive. She wasn’t. I saw the can. The foam was losing its substance, becoming all watery and yucky, but there was enough of it left that I could draw a conclusion.” I shivered. “Did Sid tell you I must have walked into the shop not long after she was killed? I think the murderer actually spoke to me.”
    â€œHe told me, but I want to hear it from you. Start where you think it’s the most relevant, then we’ll tie up loose ends.”
    â€œIf that’s the case, I’ll need to go back to about ten o’clock this morning, when I met Claire in the park.”
    The chief twisted on the seat to stare at me. “Ten o’clock? I thought you came here—Nope. Never mind. Tell me.”
    And I did. I covered everything. I tried to repeat verbatim all the conversations I’d been privy to up and until I arrived at Claire’s beauty shop. When I was finished, forty minutes had passed. Evelyn had been allowed to leave. Claire’s body had been taken away.
    Once I was out of the squad car and in my own vehicle, I switched on the engine. I should’ve gone home, but while events were fresh in my mind, I decided to go back to the park.

Chapter Four
    I’d only gone eight blocks when I came to the conclusion that every one of River City’s thirty thousand residents must be on the streets. Hoping to make better time, I caught the outer-loop highway that circled the metropolis. I bypassed traffic lights but got hung up in a snarl of slow-moving vehicles driven by people looking for entertainment on a Saturday afternoon. The entrance to the Westgate Mall was off the loop, as were three cinemas and the newly constructed Menninger Civic Center, which featured a weekend puppet show for kiddies.
    I zinged in and out of traffic until I spied the exit sign for the park, then switched lanes once again, taking the off ramp into a quiet wooded area. After the roar of gas engines, the silence was welcome. I took my foot off the accelerator and coasted around the first of several lazy bends in the road. Filigreed tree branches laced overhead, creating a tunnel of shade. I rolled down my window and breathed deeply.
    My shoulders ached with tension. I tried to relax, but images of Claire’s body kept my muscles taut. To take my mind off that vivid picture, I thought about events leading up to her death. We’d been in the park. Oliver had died. A short time later, Claire was murdered.
    Was there a connection between Oliver’s heart attack and Claire’s murder? He had said he didn’t know Claire. Had his heart attack been brought on by the tension in the air? The situation between Eddie and Evelyn had been volatile, but Oliver hadn’t seemed concerned about the landscaping for the wedding.
    I frowned. But he had asked, “Where are the markers?” Had he been thinking about another job? Tree markers? Plant markers?
    Oliver’s heart condition was a fact. That he’d died at that point in time was a fact. I wanted to assume his death was from natural causes, but where murder is concerned, it would be foolhardy to assume anything. Maybe I should make a discreet inquiry.
    My mind flip-flopped back to Claire. In the park she’d been fired up about some gossip. Beauty shops had a reputation for being the center of spicy gossip. But so did local taverns, church choirs, or any place where more than two people congregated. Should I make the assumption that Claire’s tidbit of news had something to do with one of her clients? There was Mrs. Dearborne. But if I understood Claire’s earlier reference, she was using Mrs. Dearborne to confirm something she’d already heard or suspected.
    My eyes narrowed. Hmm? Oliver had been interested in Claire’s reference to the Dearborne name.
    I caught up to a line of cars making their way between the stone pillars that marked the entrance into the park. The fifty-acre tract of land contained tennis courts,