Police chief Maggie Johnson caught a whiff of cinnamon and remembered she'd failed to eat breakfast.

"What we got, Ted?

"Another dead lesbo. This one in the Ladies crapper.

"Who's the female?" Maggie asked, as if she had to.

"Kim Daniels. Raped and murdered."

"How you know she was raped?

"First big clue was a ketchup bottle jammed up her box."

Maggie thought she saw the hint of a smile in the corner of Ted's mouth. *Red neck prick*.

Ted pulled a zippo lighter from his pants pocket and relite his half smoked cigarette. "So, what's your college educated guess, Police Chief Johnson?"

"You got here first, you tell me... and Ted, you can call me Maggie, just like you have for the last twenty years."

"Fur ten years, all we done was write tickets for speed'n and disorderly. Then, you get kicked to top-cop and in less than a month we got two dead dikes. I think we got a lesbo serial killer in town."

"I'll take your hypothesis into consideration."

"Hy what?" Ted asked.

"Never mind, Ted. And get rid of the cigarette. This is still a restaurant. So, what have you done so far?"

Ted opened the door to the dinner, leaned out, and tossed his cigarette into the parking lot. "I called the State boys. They'll be here soon."

"Who found the body?" Maggie asked.

"Ruth. She'd been in the kitchen baking pies for over an hour before her bladder required eliminat'n. That's when she found Kim."

Maggie wasn't in a hurry to view the body. Kim was a friend. Not a "best friend" but close enough. Besides, the room was so small the coroner had to do his job standing in the door way.

Car after car pulled into the parking lot. Regular customers looking for a cup of coffee and morning gossip. Well, they'd have something to gossip about this morning, but it wouldn't be at the counter at Kim's Kozy Corner.

"You handle crowd control. I'm gonna have a chat with Ruth. And remember, Ted, this is a murder investigation, so keep your trap shut."

Maggie got out her note book, flipped it open and wrote the date, time, and Kim's full name, Kimberly Baker. Age 35. Single.

A few days earlier, Kim had called Maggie. "Let's do lunch." She said, "I got something I want to run past you."

Maggie passed on the invitation. Her new job as Police chief put a cramp in her social life. There'd been enough rumors about which team she played on. Having lunch with a known lesbian was out of the question. Now, she regretted her decision.

Maggie stepped into the kitchen. Ruth stood next to a large metal work station rolling pie crust.

"Ruth, can I talk to you a minute?"

"I don't know nothing. I'm hired to bake pies." She said lifting her apron to mop up a string of tears. "Does this mean I'm out of a job?"

"I don't know, Ruth. It's too soon to tell. Did you call Bud?"

"No. I ain't no bearer of bad news. He goes for cancer treatments on Tuesday. I imagine he's in St Louis at the clinic. If this don't kill him, I don't know what will. That's his only youngin in there. No way to die. Bent over with your head in the crapper." She let go and sobbed into her apron, tears commingled with flour creating a macabre mask of sorrow.

"What did you see Ruth?"

"I saw her laying there with that belt around her neck. I didn't want to see no more. I knew she was gone."

"What kind of belt?"

Ruth looked past Maggie at the opened doorway, then started rolling the dough back and forth in a frenzy.

"I got pies to make," she said, thus ending the conversation.

Travis Baker busied himself packing up his official crime scene camera, as EMT's rolled Kim's body out on a gurney.

Maggie joined him at the counter. "What's the story, Travis."

"A picture's worth a thousand words." He said and held up his phone. "Not a pretty sight. We figure she's been strangled."

"What about the belt?"

"What belt?"

Maggie hurried back into the kitchen. Ruth's rolling pin was on the floor but Ruth was nowhere to be seen.

She ran out to the parking lot. Ted was gone and so was his cruiser.

One of Kim's regular coffee-clutcher's stood leaned up against his ford pickup. "Jessie, you see Ted leave?"

"Yeah, he hauled Ruth out of the back in handcuffs. She kill somebody?"

Maggie ran to her cruiser, cranked on the siren, and spit gravel into the crowd of gawkers.

The GPS on her phone showed Ted's cruiser nearing the quarry.

It made sense now. Ted's recent divorce. The death of the woman his wife had been rumored to hang with. Now, Kim. All made to look like a string of women killing women.

But leaving his belt at the scene of the crime, then removing it before Travis and his team arrived was a big mistake. Ruth recognized the belt with the name 'Ted' spelled out on the buckle. Vanity strikes again.

Maggie pulled in behind Ted's cruiser. Ted stood in front of his vehicle with a gun to Ruth's head. Maggie drew her revolver.

"It's over Ted. Let her go."

"I ain't going to jail."

"Let her go, Ted! Ruth's got no part in this."

"Just let me drive outta here. I'll disappear. All you rug-munchers can get back to ruining people's lives."

"Don't make me shoot you, Ted."

"Fuck you, Ms college grad," he said as he loosened his grip on Ruth and turned the gun on Maggie.

Ruth ran. Maggie fired one shot. Ted fell to the ground. A tiny hole in is forehead oozed bright red blood.

"Come on Ruth, let's get back to the diner. I need a cup of coffee."

"I got Ted's blood spattered all over my damn apron," Ruth said.

"I'll buy you a new one," Maggie's said.

Ruth untied her apron and threw it on the ground. "You just gonna leave him lay'n there?"

"You have a better suggestion?"

"The critter's 'll get him."

"Kind of what I was thinking, Ruth."

Maggie reached into her pocket, pulled out her phone, and asked Siri to call the corners office. "Hey, Travis, it's Maggie. Got another customer for you."