Murder on the Bucket List by Elizabeth Perona Page B

surprisingly sympathetic of her to make the point, and it would have stayed that way had she stopped. “Of course, the fact that Larry came back the day Friederich disappeared makes me want to connect the dots. But it doesn’t have to be that. He could just be an accessory to the crime.”
    To which Alice resumed crying.
    Francine steered Charlotte out of the library.
    â€œI know what you’re going to say,” Charlotte said when they were out in the hall, “but it’s true. It would be better if he was guilty of something other than murder.”
    â€œAccessory isn’t a lot better.”
    â€œWell, he’s guilty of something. You don’t do stuff like that unless you have something to hide.”
    â€œWhile I agree with that, we don’t need to go announcing it in front of Alice. We’re her friends. We’re supposed to lift her up, give her hope.”
    â€œShe knows what we’re all thinking.”
    â€œNot unless she reads minds.”
    Joy came out into the hall. She shut the door to the library behind her. “Thanks for nothing, Charlotte. Alice is now talking about backing out of the GMA interview tomorrow.”
    â€œHow can she back out? She’s not going to be on camera.”
    â€œShe’s talking about not letting anyone onto her property tomorrow. We’re supposed to film by the pool.”
    Francine wanted to scream. Was no one thinking about poor Alice?
    â€œWe could film in front of the police station,” Charlotte suggested. Then she thought a moment. “No, that might cause Jud to go crazy on us. What if we set up in front of Matthew’s Funeral Home? Do we know where the funeral’s going to be?”
    Joy paced in the hall. “Might work. Or we could do it at a church. Did Friederich go to church? Who would know that?”
    The door to the library opened and Mary Ruth’s head popped out. “With no help from you, I’ve managed to calm Alice down. She wants to talk to us all together.” She nodded her head in Alice’s direction.
    They filed back into the room. Charlotte regained the apricot chair, but the rest stood. Tissues littered the floor around Alice. She blew her nose with a fresh one.
    â€œCharlotte’s comment reminds me that I’m not necessarily telling you the whole truth as I know it,” Alice began. “At first, I didn’t want to tell you this because it made Larry look like a suspect. Now I guess that doesn’t matter.”
    â€œWhat didn’t you want to tell us?” Charlotte asked, surreptitiously retrieving her notebook and pen from the end table.
    â€œSix months ago Larry threatened to throw Friederich out of the garage space.”
    â€œWhy? And what made him not follow through?”
    She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Friederich was having money problems. At least that’s Larry’s take. At the time he was way behind on the rent. Larry told me he was thinking about taking Friederich to small claims court, maybe try to garnish his wages.”
    â€œThat would take a court order,” Charlotte agreed, making notes.
    Alice shrugged. “I don’t know why Larry put up with it. He should have just dumped him and written off the rent. But with the economy being bad, Larry said he doubted he could get another tenant, and he hoped to work it out with Friederich. Really, it’s one of our lesser properties. I don’t think Larry paid much attention to it.”
    â€œSo he never sent an eviction notice?”
    â€œNot that I know of.”
    â€œDid Friederich ever start paying again?”
    â€œI don’t know. Larry never brought it up.”
    Charlotte turned to Francine. “Jonathan is his accountant. Wouldn’t he know about this?”
    She lifted one eyebrow. “You know I can’t comment on things that are client confidential.”
    Mary Ruth squatted into a folding chair. “I wonder