“You’re right,” I said. “Stressful day. Nothing like a chili dog and fries to cure what ails you.”

Turns out the “ Texas chili dog” was like nothing I’d tasted back home in Texas. Instead, this dog had a chili sauce touched with cinnamon and came loaded with grated sweet onions. It had to be the best bad-for-you food I’d ever eaten. No one talked. We’d all gone to heart- attack-on-a-bun heaven.

When we were done, we walked one block to Belle’s Beans in silence, but in a far better mood. Food is the quicker fixer-upper. As we made our way down the block, I could almost smell the impending rain, but the aroma of coffee was stronger.

As we entered the coffee shop, I wondered whether Belle had been exaggerating about losing revenue. The place was packed. After we gave our coffee orders to Tom, he stood in line while Candace and I went back outside. Belle set up wrought-iron tables on the sidewalk when the weather was nice, and we grabbed the only one that was unoccupied.

“Tell me why you think it’s murder,” I said. I glanced through the window to my right and saw that Tom still had three people in front of him. “Or should we wait with the questions until he comes with the coffee?”

But the questions would have to wait, thanks to the arrival of Lydia Monk. She stopped at our table and smiled. “If it isn’t Cagney and Lacey.”

I snuck a peek through the window. Please stay in there, Tom. Please. The last thing I need is a crazy Lydia moment.

“What are you doing in town?” Candace asked.

“Talking to Morris. He’s not taking this case as seriously as he should.” She glared at Candace. “Because strychnine is serious business. Surely you can find the poison source if you’re as smart as you think you are.”

I thought about mentioning Rufus Bowen and how I’d questioned him about strychnine this morning, but that might have been disastrous. Lydia had no idea whom she was messing with on this particular evening, but I did. From Candace’s expression, I could tell it wouldn’t take much for her to engage Lydia in an argument.

Candace stood, her coral Henley T-shirt and blue jeans a tad ordinary in comparison to Lydia ’s bejeweled and beaded black shirt with the plunging neckline.

“Are you trying to start something, Lydia?” Candace said.

“Hold on, you two,” I said, hoping to avoid a public catfight. “You’re both competent women who know how to do your jobs. Can we leave it at that?” Okay, lying to Lydia about Lydia tweaked my conscience a tad, but I was more interested in getting the woman to move along before Tom walked outside. And that would happen soon, I noted, since he was giving our order to the young woman behind the counter this very minute.

“Start something?” Lydia said, ignoring me. “I’m not that unprofessional.”

Except for the hoop earrings, the tattooed eyeliner and the teased hair, I thought. Not unprofessional in the least.

I caught Candace checking inside the coffee shop, and she obviously realized what might happen if she kept up this disagreement. “Sorry, Lydia. You’re right. Nice seeing you without a corpse nearby.” Candace sat back down and folded her arms on the table.

Lydia narrowed her eyes and stared at Candace for a few tense seconds. Then she cracked a smile. “You know how to apologize. That’s progress, Candy.”

She looked at me. “Good night, Jillian. And stay away from crime scenes and certain security experts, would you?”

I mustered what I hoped came off as a sincere smile. “I’ll try.”

Lydia turned, and the rhinestoned spike heels she wore glittered in the light from a nearby streetlight. I watched as she walked away and released the breath I’d been holding.

Then Tom arrived with our coffee, and before he could speak, I raised a finger to my lips and nodded in the retreating Lydia ’s direction.

Tom set down the cardboard tray with two cups of coffee marked DECAF on the side and his own small espresso in a china cup. “That was close,” he whispered.

“Okay,” I said to Candace. “I’m anxious to know why you think the professor was murdered.”

“Sometimes, when you find little or no evidence, that tells you a lot,” she said. “Although I do prefer a nice fingerprint or DNA.”

“And what didn’t you find?” I asked.

“Strychnine. At least I don’t think there was any strychnine in that house or outside. We found rat poison in the shed. But it was your usual grocery-store variety made with warfarin. And it was pellets, not powder.” She sat back with a satisfied smile.

“Could strychnine have been substituted for the warferwhatever? Sheesh. I can never say that word.”

“Sure. But why? Do you think he was snacking on warfarin pellets and the murderer somehow knew that and made a substitution?” she said.

“You’re right. Dumb question. I’m not thinking too clearly today.”

Tom said, “I take it you didn’t find any suicide note?”

“Nope,” Candace said. “I’d say you’d have to be pretty damn sorry about something to strychnine yourself to death. I’ve been reading up on it, and you won’t find me within a country mile of that poison.”

I sipped my coffee, and it was just right. Tom had added milk to mine and none to Candace’s. We hung out at Belle’s at least a couple of times a week, and he knew how we liked our coffee.

Tom poured three packets of sugar into his high- test and stirred the pitch-black espresso with a tiny spoon. He said, “I worked a murder case involving strychnine once. Multiple deaths from bad cocaine. Dealers sometimes cut the coke with strychnine powder. But Candace probably already knows that.”

“One of your private investigations?” I asked.

“Nope.” His gaze was fixed on his cup. “This was back when I was on the force. Do you know why Morris doesn’t think this is a murder case?”

“Morris wants the easiest solution,” Candace said. “Thing is, no one knows much about this professor.”

“Or why he was feeding cats that red goop and raw cow’s milk,” I said. “Research, maybe?”

“Yes. We’ve already tossed around the idea he was doing some kind of experiment with the cats’ diet. But you know me,” Candace said. “I hate guessing. No one seems interested in what I have to say, though.”

“I’m interested,” I said. “Maybe some animal welfare group found out what he was doing and didn’t like it. But that doesn’t explain the cats that were left behind. True animal lovers wouldn’t have left them.” I sipped on my coffee. “That still bothers me.”

Half to himself, Tom said, “Interrupted.”

“What?” I said.

“Maybe they were interrupted and couldn’t take all the cats.” He sipped at his espresso.

“Yes,” I said, nodding as I realized that what he said could well be true. “Interrupted by someone else. By the killer. Maybe the people who went to get the cats weren’t the same people who killed him.”

Candace groaned. “Don’t start making stuff up. I need evidence, and so far, all I have is a footprint. And from the size, it looks like it will come back to the professor. Oh, and a few fibers off the fence.”

“The barbed- wire one? You might find all kinds of me on that particular fence.” Like my skin. But the scratch on my backside was nothing, not even worthy of a tetanus shot. Now that the tension had finally seemed to dissipate, I felt more relaxed with my friends.

“I got a few strands of fabric off the chain- link enclosure, where someone probably reached through to grab a cat. Cat hairs, too, but those were all over the place and pretty much useless.”

Tom said, “Wouldn’t he be keeping notes about this possible experiment? Like on a computer or even talking into a recorder?”

Candace said, “Oh, he was. Jillian saw him writing things down. But that’s actually an ‘absence of evidence’ and pretty darn suspicious. All I found in the house were lots of textbooks on animal nutrition, but no notebook and no computer. I think the computer must have been taken, because the professor did have a DSL line, and we found an instruction manual for a laptop.”