They got into her van and drove back to the house where Qwilleran fell into an exhausted sleep even though it was barely noon.
Chapter 8

"I have empty space, Qwill! Why do I have empty space?" cried Arch Riker. "Please don't tell me you forgot your column was due today!" The managing editor of the Moose County Something sounded exasperated, but concerned. His old friend was more reliable than this.

"Oh, God, Arch. I did forget. We had an incident at the winery yesterday and frankly, it kind of blew me away."

"This better be good. If I have to dig up something to fill your space and appease the advertisers who want their ads on the same page as The Qwill Pen, this had better be good."

"There was another murder,of his spoon, which delighted the curious cat who licked every last morsel off the utensil. He had eaten what he wanted, so he left a few spoonfuls for her and put the bowl on the floor. She enjoyed her morning treat and looked up at him adoringly when she had finished licking the bowl so clean that he could have put it back into the cupboard without washing it.

"Yow yow yow!" said Koko from the other room.

Connie walked in with her coffee and sat down in the sunroom.

"I don't suppose we can ignore him," she said.

"Only if we want him to-"

"Yow yow yow yow yow!" said Koko.

"-yell louder and then-" CRASH!

Qwilleran went into the room where the big dictionary was kept to find Koko standing on top