Murder in the River City by Allison Brennan

conference call.”
    “Thank you for your time,” Sam said.
    Shepherd walked him out. At the door he said, “Did you ever meet his girlfriend, Callie Wood?”
    “No.” She didn’t look him in the eye, but he felt her eyes on his back, watching him, as he stepped into the elevator.
    Sam turned and smiled at Shepherd as the doors closed. She wasn’t smiling back.
    Why was the woman lying?
     
    #
     
    Shauna stood outside the pub to take Austin’s call. Again, he asked her to his charity event on Friday. “I’m busy,” she said. “With what happened to Mack, helping Dooley run the bar, and my dad’s company—you understand, right?”
    “It’s just one night, Shauna.”
    He might say that, but she didn’t think he believed it. Austin had an aura of entitlement when it came to her, as if she should be thrilled he wanted to be with her. Shauna didn’t want her brothers to know he was crossing the invisible line, but if it continued, she would. Mike was a peacemaker and hugely diplomatic. He’d set Austin straight without it coming to blows. Skip? Not so much. And she was glad Brian was still deployed, because he would go all Marine on Austin’s ass if he thought her ex-boyfriend was turning stalker.
    “Austin, I really have to go. Good-bye.” She hung up, knowing she had to but also hating to cut anyone off like that. She slipped her phone in her pocket and opened the door into Dooley’s.
    Detective John Black was at the bar talking to Dooley. She grabbed an apron from the storeroom, tied it around her waist, then took a place behind the bar and grabbed a rag. The bar was spotless, but she hated to stand still. She parked herself in front of the detective. “Hello,” she said as she wiped the counter in front of him.
    Dooley gave her a concerned look. “What happened to you, Spud?” he asked, using his old nickname for her. In Ireland, “Spud” meant anyone with the surname of Murphy, and Dooley often called her and her brothers “Spud” when they were little. It reminded her of her very happy early childhood, when her grandmother and mother had still been alive. She missed them both. By the time she was ten, she had no female role models.
    She needed to do a better job with the make-up. “I lost a fight with a door,” she said. She hadn’t told Dooley about what happened in Mack’s apartment—only that when she got there it was obvious someone else had been there first. The last thing she needed was her grandfather worrying even more about her. She was grateful Mike had sent him on an errand when she was here yesterday, otherwise the lie wouldn’t have worked.
    Black said, “I just told your grandfather that one of your former employees, Callie Wood, was found dead. She was killed the same night as Mack.”
    “Callie? The thief?”
    “I didn’t make the connection until you sent the employee list. I’m trying to track down her boyfriend, but Detective Garcia just called and said he’s no longer with his employer and he’s not at his apartment.”
    Shauna’s mind was going a mile a minute, trying to connect the dots. “What happened to her?”
    “She was strangled at Discovery Park.”
    “That’s awful,” Shauna said. She hadn’t liked the woman—she was lazy and arrogant—but she hated the thought she’d been murdered so horrifically. She must have been terrified.
    Dooley said, “The detective thinks Callie and her boyfriend robbed me and killed Mack.”
    “It’s one theory,” Black said, and Shauna had the distinct impression he was backtracking.
    Shauna had questions. “And then her boyfriend killed her? Was he the one who broke into Mack’s apartment? The boyfriend? Does he have a name? How could they overpower Mack? Why would Mack let them into the bar? How did they get a hold of the baseball bat?” She couldn’t remember if she’d ever met Callie’s boyfriend. When Callie was working here, Shauna had been neck deep in keeping Murphy & Sons afloat.
    “Joey,”