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greatly.
Reluctantly, he admitted, “I’m in 207,” and then he left us.
“May we sit with you a moment?” I asked Janet.
“I’m really not in the mood for company,” she said as she managed to look uncomfortable by our very presence.
“We understand completely, but don’t worry.   We won’t stay long,” Grace said as she took Billy’s old seat.   I wasn’t one to ordinarily press people so hard, but this was important, so I took the closest seat on Janet’s other side.
“First of all, we’re both so sorry for your loss,” I said.
“Yes, we were deeply troubled by it,” Grace added, making Janet whipsaw her head from one of us to the other.
After a moment, she gave up on doing that altogether and focused directly on me.   “I understand that you’re the one who found…him.”
“I did,” I said.  
“It must have been terrible for you,” Janet said with real sympathy in her voice.
“It was pretty bad,” I agreed.   “When did you see your husband last?” I asked.
“When we danced at the reunion, of all things,” she said.   “Zane wasn’t a very big fan of dancing, but I’d made him promise to share at least one dance with me, and he made good on his word.   At least I got the chance to be held in his arms one last time.”   She looked as though she wanted to cry again, and given what she’d been through recently, I couldn’t really blame her.  
“Do you happen to remember exactly what time your last dance was?” Grace asked.
Janet glanced over at Grace briefly before she said, “You’d have to ask the DJ.   It was the last song they played last night.”
“So then, you two didn’t leave together?” I asked her.
“Zane sent me back here to the hotel,” she said.   “He told me that he’d catch a ride with someone else, that he had some unfinished business to take care of, and that I shouldn’t worry about how late he came in.   He said it all so matter-of-factly that I didn’t even question it.   Zane was like that, strong and forceful when he needed to be.”
“Do you have any idea who he might have been talking about?” I asked her.
“There were several folks at the reunion last night who had issues with my husband.   I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
“How about with Billy Briscoe?” Grace asked, and that got her another full stare.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Well, I saw Billy and Zane arguing last night.   It’s kind of odd to find him sitting at your table this morning, don’t you think?”
“Billy was drunk, and he picked a fight with Zane, along with half a dozen other people at the reunion.   He apologized to me, and I told him that all was forgiven.   They weren’t the best of friends before Zane and I got together, and it didn’t help matters when we got married.”
“Was Billy still in love with you after all these years?” I asked her.
Janet blushed slightly, and then she tried to hide it with her napkin.   “That was a long time ago.”
“Maybe the reunion brought old feelings back to the surface again,” Grace said.   “It must have been hard for him to see you and Zane together.”
“That’s nonsense,” Janet said.
“Maybe, maybe not, but someone killed your husband,” I said, “and we aim to find out who did it.”
Janet was shocked by the suggestion that Grace and I would investigate a murder.   “You two?   Suzanne, you run a donut shop, and Grace, the last I heard you worked for a cosmetics company.   What makes either one of you think that you’re qualified to solve a murder?”
“Past experience,” I said.   “You should know that Grace and I have cracked more than our share of homicide cases over the years.”
“Well, I don’t want you digging into Zane’s death, do you understand me?” she asked huffily.
Grace asked, “Gosh, Janet, we thought that you’d want to see your husband’s killer found.”
“Of course I do, but by the police, not by a couple of