Scone Cold Dead by Kaitlyn Dunnett

game. Finally, she shook her head. “Nope. Don’t know a thing about it.”
    â€œWhat about Stewart? It’s pretty obvious he resented Victor for cutting his part in the show.”
    Winona played one last card, gave up on winning, and closed the laptop. Setting it aside, she narrowed her dark, exotically slanted eyes at Sherri. “You’ve met Stewart, right?”
    Sherri nodded.
    â€œHow likely is it that he’d have been able to plot a murder?”
    â€œGood point,” Sherri conceded. Given the beer-soaked state of his brain, she doubted Stewart Graham could devise a complex plan to poison anyone, let alone carry it out.
    Josie Malone, just across the hall, was even less help than Winona. She didn’t seem to mind having an extra day off, though. She was already comfortably dressed in an old football jersey that came down to her knees and told them she intended to go to bed early and sleep late, an unheard-of luxury when they were on the road. The smell of onions and french fries had Sherri scanning the room—yet another tribute to the Victorian penchant for clutter—until she found the wastepaper basket. The distinctive bag, wadded up and tossed away, confirmed that Josie had bought her supper at a nearby fast food restaurant.
    The last room was occupied by yet another dancer, Calvin MacBain. Liss introduced him as her erstwhile partner in the country dances.
    â€œDoes that mean you’re paired with Emily now?” Cal’s room was just as frilly as the others. A Victorian doll with a painted china head sat in a small wooden rocking chair in one corner.
    â€œFor my sins, yes, we’re partners.” Cal had a smooth tenor voice and a friendly smile. There was a slight but distinct gap between his two top front teeth.
    â€œAny idea where she is now?” Liss asked.
    â€œIn her room?”
    â€œGuess again.”
    â€œNo idea. Haven’t seen her since last night and she wasn’t exactly in friendly mode then.”
    Same questions. Same lack of answers. Once again, Sherri had to be the one to ask about Sandy and Victor’s quarrel. She believed Cal when he said he didn’t remember witnessing any such thing, or hearing about it from anyone else afterward.
    â€œWhat about Victor harassing people, especially women?” she asked.
    â€œSexually, you mean?” Cal grinned. “In Victor’s case, it would only be women. Back when he was dancing, he was petrified someone would think he was gay. He made a big point of always having a lady on his arm.”
    â€œI’d forgotten you knew him when he was a dancer,” Liss said. “Victor managed and danced the first two years we were on the road,” she said in an aside to Sherri.
    â€œSo you two go way back,” Sherri said to Cal. And that meant Liss would have a blind spot where he was concerned, just as she seemed to about Sandy, Zara, and Stewart. Sherri wondered if that was another reason Liss had wanted her along—she needed a “bad cop” to her “good cop,” someone who wouldn’t care about ruffling feathers or stomping on egos.
    â€œI’ve been with Strathspey about six years,” Cal said.
    â€œWere you two partners all that time? Till Liss left, I mean.”
    It was Liss who answered. “Not until about three years ago when I took over the featured dancer’s part in the country dances. There are twelve male and twelve female dancers in the company, so we can form three circles of four couples each. That’s what looks best on a small stage.”
    â€œWhat do you do if someone is sick?”
    â€œIt depends. In a pinch the singer and piper would fill in, just as a couple of the dancers could fill in for one of them if they had to. That’s why Stewart ended up dancing on a regular basis until recently. If we couldn’t manage that, we’d sometimes have to cut back to two circles.”
    â€œSo when you