"Can I offer you a drink, Detective?"

"No, thank you."

Detective Tomassi sat down on the couch in the hodge-podge of a living room, filled with family photographs of different sizes and shapes, and pulled out his notebook. Jean was in her late 40's, with greying chestnut hair and amber eyes. Tomassi could see that, in her day, she must have been quite attractive, but, to him, she mostly looked sad.

"I understand you're currently in litigation with the Homeowners' Association?"

"Yes. Over the most ridiculous thing. A tree."

"A tree?"

"My husband and I planted a Big Tooth Maple in the front yard to honor the life of our son, Thomas."

"Thomas is deceased?"

Jean's lip quivered. "At sixteen. We lost him in a tragic accident." Her eyes welled up with tears.

"That him?" Tomassi asked, pointing to a picture of a young boy in a silver frame on the coffee table. Jean nodded, and wiped the tears from her eyes with her fingers.

"I'm sorry for your loss, ma'am."

"Thank you, Detective. I don't think it's something that anyone can get used to, no matter how much time passes."

"I suppose not, ma'am. I can't imagine losing a child."

"We never thought...Anyway, Barbara gave us a ticket to take down the tree because we didn't go through the landscape committee for pre-approval."

"And you didn't want to remove the tree."

"Of course not. But Barbara wouldn't let it go. Her rules are so were so important to her."

"Ma'am, do you mind if I take a look around?"

"Am I under arrest?"

"No, nothing like that. Just asking your permission for a voluntary search."

"Sure, go ahead. I have nothing to hide."

"Thank you, ma'am."

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

Tomassi was exhausted. After every interview, he turned up a new possible suspect. It seemed that Barbara Densmore was more hated in Orange Grove than Osama bin Laden. Tomassi couldn't arrest every resident in Orange Grove. He had to retrace his steps. Gathering his field deputy's notes, he decided to pay a visit to Frances Templeton. Templeton had called the station, not to complain, but to report that she had a lead.

"Detective. Did you come to apologize?"

"No ma'am. Just to go over a few details on your lead, if you have the time."

"Well alright, come in then."

Frances must have been the type of person for whom everything had to be in order. Her house was so neat, it appeared that nobody lived there. Typical control freak, thought Tomassi.

"How can I help you, Detective?"

"You told Deputy Williams that Barbara had words with one of the residents. A Nancy..."

"Haskins."

"Yes, Nancy Haskins. What exactly did you see, Ms. Templeton?"

"Well, Barbara was making her usual rounds."

"Rounds?"

"Yes, enforcement rounds. We both do them; you know, looking for violators."

"You're talking about a neighborhood watch program?"

"Goodness no, we have that too, but I'm talking about Code violations."

"Code violations, ma'am?"

"You know. Violations of the regulations of the Homeowners' Association. We have to protect our property values, you know?"

"I see. So Barbara was making her rounds, and?"

"She was aggressed by Haskins. Barbara tried to give her a citation for an overgrown lawn and Haskins ran into her house, yelling 'shove your ticket up your...' well, you know...and she gave her the finger!"

"That's hardly a motive for murder, ma'am. In fact, as I understand it, Ms. Densmore was not a very loved personality in the neighborhood."

"You just go talk to her. You'll see."

"I will ma'am, thank you."

When Tomassi arrived at the home of Nancy Haskins, he knocked on the door and was about to give up, when he heard a voice from inside, along with the sounds of a little dog yapping.

"Who is it?"

"Detective Roland Tomassi, Santa Barbara County Sheriff."

"Show me your badge, please."

Tomassi pulled out his wallet and held the badge in front of the peep hole. The door opened, and there stood a woman who looked to be in her 70's who could have passed for Tomassi's mother, with a little Chihuahua jumping and scratching at her pants.

"Ms. Haskins?"

"Mrs. Haskins. You can call me Nancy. Would you care to come in?" she asked, with a pleasant smile, and stood aside.

"Thank you."

Once inside, Tomassi scanned the townhome. It seemed comfortable and homey. He expected Nancy to offer him some home-baked cookies.

"Would you like to sit down, Officer?"

"It's Detective, actually. Thank you," he said, taking a seat in one of the two old fashioned cushy arm chairs. Nancy took a seat on the couch across from him. "I'm investigating the death of one of your neighbors, Barbara Densmore."

"I heard about that."

Nancy did not appear to show any remorse at all, but maybe that had been her initial reaction when she had heard the news. Then again, Tomassi had not been met with heartfelt sympathy from any of the neighbors he had interviewed.

"Can I get you something? Maybe some tea or coffee?"

Here come the cookies. "No thanks, ma'am. I won't be long."

"I understand the Homeowners' Association is foreclosing on your house."

"Yes, but they actually suffered a major setback two days ago, when we won against them in court."

"I see. One of your neighbors, Frances Templeton, said you had words with Barbara not too long ago. Can you tell me about that?"

"Frances, huh? She could be Barbara's twin. Am I a suspect or something?"

"No ma'am, this is just a routine interview."

"I see. Okay. I don't know what you call it, but I was constantly hiding from Barbara's process servers, so when she called to me as I was going inside my house, I ran inside quickly because I thought it may be a trick."

"I see. And do you remember what you said to her?"

"Not really. She was trying to give me another one of her tickets. She writes them to everyone, and I wasn't interested in it. I have a whole collection of them."

Tomassi talked with Nancy for a while, and felt relatively comfortable in scratching her off the suspect list. Still, he took a shot at a routine search, like he had done with the others.

"Do you mind if I look around, ma'am?"

"I thought I wasn't a suspect. Am I being arrested?"

"You're definitely not, ma'am. I just need to cover all the bases with every interview."

"I don't need a lawyer, do I?"

"Ma'am, it's your right to call your lawyer, but, just between you and me, I don't think you need to."

"And the others agreed?"

"Some did, some didn't. It's completely voluntary."

"Well, I suppose, but you're not going to find anything."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Tomassi actually felt guilty looking through the lady's house, so he made it a quick, cursory search.

"Just have to look in the garage, and then I'll be done," he said to Nancy, as he opened the door to the garage.

"It's just a garage."

Tomassi entered the garage and turned on the light. He looked around quickly, and started to leave, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the light glinting off some crumpled glossy plastic which was sticking out of one of the trash cans. He pulled out his handkerchief and examined it, and noticed it was covered with a grayish white powder. He also noticed a gold package of flower food that had been ripped open. He carefully put all of it in an evidence bag, and left the garage.

"What's that?" asked Nancy.

"I found it in your garage, in the garbage. Do you have any fresh flowers in the house?"

"No. And I've never seen that plastic wrap before. It was in my garbage?"

"Yes ma'am. Do you always leave your garage side door unlocked, ma'am?"

"I've been forgetting to lock it lately since I won the case. I guess I let my guard down. Do I need a lawyer?"

"That's up to you, ma'am. As I said, I'm not arresting you, but I still have to get this analyzed."

"Oh, my!"

Nancy frowned, and put her hand on her forehead. Tomassi felt bad, but he was a detective first, and this was his only lead. He would have the lab analyze it right away and it should clear the matter up.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

Brent was still high from the court victory when he got the call from Nancy.

"Slow down Nancy...what?"

"They think I murdered Barbara Densmore."