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doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing next.”
    “Okay then, what are you doing next?”
    “I’m going to…” Jane bit her lip. She couldn’t let Jake know she was making this up just now. “I’m going to find out who brought Michelle White to the fundraiser.”
    “And how are you going to do that?”
    “Facebook.” Jane grabbed her phone from the coffee table and logged onto Plain Jane’s Good Clean Houses Facebook business page.
    “Hey guys! I’m looking for the person who brought Michelle White to Gemma’s fundraiser! All tips welcome! She clicked the boost button and added twenty dollars to the fund. Then she shared it on her private page too.
    “Facebook?” Jake scowled. “That’s not hard-boiled detecting.”
    “Very true. But do I look like a hard-boiled detective?” Jane pulled the elastic out of her ponytail and let her hair fall over her shoulders.
    “Fair enough. But you’re not going to just sit and wait for someone to contact you, are you?”
    Her phone bleeped.
    She raised an eyebrow and smiled, but her heart thumped. She read the PM out loud. “ Hey Jane! My mom brought Michelle with her! We can’t even believe she’s gone. Everyone at home is totally crushed, but I know Mom would talk to you, if you wanted to .” Jane grinned. “And now, my next step will be connecting with Sarah Henry’s mom.” She tapped out her request for Sarah’s mom’s digits.
    Jake frowned. “That’s all well and good, but I think there should be more trench coats and magnifying glasses involved.”
    “Don’t jump ahead. We’ll take this investigation one step at a time.”
    “We?” Gemma interjected.
    “Of course ‘we.’ I’ll need all the help I can get.”
    Gemma squeezed herself between the arm of the couch and Jake. “Awesome.”
    Jane got up. “I’m beat. I didn’t sleep well last night. I’m hoping Sasha Henry will be able to see me later today, so I’m going to take a quick nap and then a shower. You two…sort out your guest list, and donations and stuff, and then figure out who was at the party that really shouldn’t have been there.”
    “Yes, ma’am!” Gemma’s smile could have lit the room.
    “Let me know if you need help napping. I’m great with a snuggle.” Jake tipped his head at Jane as she walked away.
    Jane tried her best to sleep—a fifteen-minute power nap would make a world of difference—but her mind was racing and she couldn’t slow it down.
    Michelle wasn’t from around here. Michelle was a friend of one of her own mom’s friends. Michelle had grandkids. But what had Michelle done to make someone want to kill her? Her husband hadn’t been mentioned. Was she married? Divorced? Widowed?
    Jane sat up and started writing her questions down. First she had to figure out what she needed to know, then she had to figure out how to get the information from Sasha Henry without coming across as nosy, or morbid.
    She narrowed her field of questions to learning Michelle’s backstory, and learning what her plans in Portland were. She hoped that by comparing the two, she might be able to spot the thing that made her a likely victim.
    This random act of violence business didn’t fly with Jane. Not at all.

     

5
    Sasha Henry phoned while Jane was still in the shower, a fact Jake used to his advantage.
    “My eyes are closed, I promise.”
    “GET OUT!” Jane poked her head around the shower curtain but held it against herself with an iron grip.
    “Trust me, you want this interruption. Maybe not as much as I do, but you want it.” He held up her phone and waggled it a little.
    “Jake.” Jane took a deep breath. “Get out of my bathroom.”
    “It’s the Henry woman, but if you don’t want to talk to her, I can.”
    Jane shut off her water. “I think I hate you.” She reached for the phone with one hand, but kept the shower curtain tight in her hand.
    Jake pulled the phone back, just a tad.
    Jane gritted her teeth.
    “Kidding.” Jake set the