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the beach later on,” Renie suggested, finding a box of crackers in the cupboard by the stove. “The tide won’t come all the way in again until this evening. Of course, you’ll want to start meeting and greeting the suspects. I mean, neighbors .”
    â€œDon’t say things like that,” Judith said sharply. “Are you looking for trouble?”
    Renie shrugged. “We do have a way of finding it. Sometimes.”
    â€œFor once, let’s not,” Judith said in her normal voice. “The last thing I want is a dead body to spoil my improving mood.”
    Renie was putting bowls and silverware on the table in the dining area. “You’re rarely in a funk. What set you off besides the normal postholiday blues? Joe? Your mother? Do you feel okay otherwise, aside from your artificial hip sometimes bothering you?”
    Judith sat down, but waited for Renie to take her own place at the big pine table. “Well . . . physically, I feel okay. The last few days getting Joe ready for the trip have been hectic. I admit I was kind of jealous of him going off without me. Did it bother you to have Bill take such a big vacation while you stayed home?”
    Renie shook her head. “Heck no. It’s good for him to get away from me once in a while. Sometimes I drive him nuts and vice versa. You and Joe haven’t been married for almost forty years. We have. I miss Bill, and I’ll be glad when he gets back. An occasional break does us both good.” She glanced at the stove. “Let me get the chowder.”
    â€œI understand that,” Judith said. “I resented the money Joe spent at the auction, but given the actual cost of the trip, it was insignificant. Now that he’s gone and I’m not in my usual B&B whirl, I’m happy for him. Except for a long weekend up in Vancouver, we haven’t had a real vacation since we all went to Scotland almost two years ago.”
    â€œSo,” Renie said, her brown eyes probing as she sat down after pouring the chowder, “what is it that set you off?”
    â€œOhhh . . .” Judith ran a hand through her shoulder-length dark hair with its pale gold highlights. “This sounds stupid, but I think I’m still mad at myself for flubbing that cold case and fingering the wrong killer. I’ve never made a mistake like that in all my years of accidentally getting mixed up in murder.”
    Renie looked as if she were trying not to laugh. “No kidding. Gosh, coz, you only missed by choosing one prime suspect over the other. Your usual logic and keen people skills made the solution fit perfectly. Both of those two people had motive, opportunity, and not quite airtight alibis.”
    â€œI still got it wrong,” Judith asserted. “I should’ve stayed retired. I’ve gone out a loser.”
    Renie held her head. “That’s about the dopiest thing I’ve heard from you. Unless I count saying yes to Dan when he proposed.”
    â€œIt galls me to screw up a murder investigation.”
    â€œPlease. You’re ruining my taste buds for Auntie Vance’s chowder.”
    â€œNothing could do that. Skip it. If I remember, Dick and Jane Sedgewick live in the second house down on the right as you enter Obsession Shores. I mean, if we walk up there, they’d be on the left.”
    â€œThat sounds right,” Renie said, brushing cracker crumbs off her nubby green, gold, and bronze sweater. “Or left, I mean.”
    Judith got up to go to the counter that divided part of the kitchen from the rest of the larger room. “Auntie Vance keeps all her important stuff here with the phone books and catalogs and . . . ah! Here’s a list of homeowners in the development. And,” she went on with a hint of triumph, “I found a copy of the measure we’re voting on.”
    â€œSpare me,” Renie said. “All I need is no.”
    Judith sat down