Probable Paws (Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery Series Book 5) by Leighann Dobbs

interrupted?
    “It must have been awful finding your mother like that,” Pepper said.
    Josie nodded. “A terrible shock.”
    “It’s bad enough when your parent passed, but to be the one to find them…” Pepper soothed.
    “Yes … Oh, I didn’t find Mom,” Josie said. “Aunt Marion did.”
    “It’s still awful. I’m sure you had to see her.”
    Josie’s eyes welled and took on a faraway look. “No, I was asleep in the library.”
    Pepper slid her eyes over to me. Josie was lying.
    “Well, it must be nice to have such a close family and have had everyone around you that morning,” Pepper continued her covert interrogation.
    Josie snorted. “Close? They’re a bunch of vipers. They were all only here because they are living off Mom’s money.”
    “Oh, well, I’m sure there’s plenty to go around,” I said.
    “Pfft.” Josie sipped more tea. “Not if you ask Lisa. She doesn’t think there is enough for her. And my brother, well, he won’t say boo to his wife. Who knows what Max is up to, always lurking around, and I can’t believe he talked Mom into letting him use the cottage. What does he do out there? We have a lot of old family stuff out there, and I don’t like the idea of him fooling around with it.”
    “Evie and Julie must have liked being so close to their grandma, though,” I said.
    Josie’s face relaxed into a smile. “Yes, my two girls were very precious to Mom. The girls are so different from each other. Did you know they were twins?”
    I nodded. “Yep. Seems they do a lot together.”
    Except worship the moon in the middle of the night—only Evie does that.
    Josie bit her lip. “They did until Julie hooked up with Brian. Oh, he seems nice enough, very interested in family gatherings and the Hamilton history, but I can tell Evie doesn’t like him.”
    “Maybe she’s jealous that Julie has found someone and she’s a third wheel,” Pepper said.
    Josie frowned. “That’s probably it. She doesn’t seem interested in finding anyone of her own, though. More interested in sleeping in late and reading. Evie and Mom were the closest…” Josie’s voice trailed off, and she picked a scone off the tray. “These are good. Cranberry?”
    “Yes, my grandmother’s recipe,” Pepper said. “I suppose your family had some great old recipes.”
    “Recipes? Mom hasn’t baked in years. Evie wanted her to teach her, but the lessons didn’t take. We have a cook, so why is baking necessary?”
    “Good point.” Pepper poured more tea into Josie’s cup, and the conversation turned to more mundane matters. Josie talked a lot but seemed introspective, as if she were paying little attention to the two of us in the room with her. Was Pepper’s droning charm taking effect?
    I put my full teacup down on the saucer. “May I use your bathroom?”
    Josie waved her hand in the air, barely acknowledging my question. “Whatever.”
    I slipped out the door into the hall and managed to get into the library unnoticed. Now what? I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something important in the library, but where? Was the recipe book in here? There were hundreds of books. It would take me forever to search the entire room.
    “Adelaide?” I whispered. No such luck. Ghosts rarely turned up when you wanted them to.
    My eyes fell on the daisy painting. I had been interrupted before when I was searching for the recipe book on the shelves underneath—maybe I should start there. Just as I got to the painting, though, I heard a noise in the hallway.
    Someone was coming!
    I didn’t want to be caught snooping in the library again, so I slipped into the reading nook and plastered myself against the wall behind the burgundy velvet drape. I held my breath as I heard someone coming into the room. Then I heard strange clanking and scratching sounds. I risked peeking and was surprised to see Lisa take a silver candlestick off the fireplace mantel and drop it into an oversized burlap tote bag, where it