Staged to Death (A Caprice De Luca Mystery) by Karen Rose Smith

with Roz for moral support, but Grant gave her that instead.”
    “How did you feel about that?”
    “I didn’t feel anything. I was glad he could help when Vince couldn’t.”
    “Oh, really. You and Grant got along well?”
    “We weren’t together long enough. Getting along wasn’t a priority. Helping Roz was.”
    “Caprice—” Her mother’s voice had that motherly, singsong quality that all daughters knew meant trouble. She tried to brace herself for what was coming.
    “Honey . . .”
    That endearment meant even more trouble.
    Then it came. “The past few years you and Grant have had a sort of tension between you. Wouldn’t you agree?”
    She had to extricate herself from this conversation quickly. “Grant and I have hardly seen each other the past few years. I don’t know why you think you see tension.”
    “I see something when the two of you go out of your way to avoid each other.”
    “Your imagination—”
    “Is not working overtime. I’m just calling a spade a spade. You’ve always liked him. Since his daughter drowned and he got divorced, you think you have to treat him with kid gloves. You don’t.”
    “I don’t treat him that way at all,” she protested hotly.
    “Then how do you treat him? Don’t you think your dad and I could see how much you once liked him?”
    Oh, Lord. If they had seen it, who else had?
    “I was a kid.”
    “Maybe. Now you’re not. Don’t just sit back, Caprice, and let a possibility pass you by. If you’re both going to be helping Roz, anything could happen.”
    Oh, yes, anything could happen. Roz could end up in jail, and Caprice could regret ever calling Grant. “You don’t usually interfere in my life.”
    “No, I don’t. Because I learned long ago if I tell you not to do something, you will do it just to prove you can.”
    “I do not!”
    “You do. You take advice from Nana much better than from me.”
    “She just gives me decorating advice.”
    “With a little life advice thrown in. You just don’t notice it.”
    Was that really true? She’d have to think about that later. “So what have you heard about Ted’s murder?” If she managed to coax her mother back to the original subject, maybe she’d forget about Grant.
    “I don’t gossip.”
    Caprice sighed. “I know you don’t, Mom. But didn’t you have a parent-teachers’ organization meeting last night?”
    “It was a committee meeting for the last fundraiser of the year. We’re selling submarine sandwiches again.”
    “And?”
    After a long pause, her mother finally dropped her bombshell. “I think I know who killed Roz’s husband.”

Chapter Seven
    “You know who might have killed him?” Caprice was shocked, surprised, and mystified.
    “One of the parents, Mr. Waxman, blew up at Tracey Torriman.”
    “Tracey’s the sweetest teacher in your building!”
    “I know what you mean. She’s young, perky, bubbly, and nice to everyone to a fault, if you ask me.”
    Her mother didn’t believe in tiptoeing around a subject, even with parents. But Tracey hated to hurt anyone’s feelings, including telling a parent her child wasn’t working up to par. She lavished praise often, sometimes even when it wasn’t deserved. Caprice knew Tracey because she’d redesigned a couple of rooms in her parents’ house, and Tracey’s parents were peers of Caprice’s parents.
    “So what happened?”
    “I’m not betraying any confidences because the situation happened in the hall in between classes. Tracey’s room is right next to the teachers’ room.”
    The teachers’ lounge was hardly that. Visiting her mother there on occasion, Caprice knew it consisted of a unisex bathroom, an old couch someone had donated, a cafeteria table with about ten chairs around it, and a large coffeemaker that whoever was first into the room every morning started. However, it was a haven where some teachers ate lunch or did planning, and others stopped in before or after school just to chat. There were