My mind was still reeling... How could it be one of my peaches-n-cream muffins that killed McGinty? I racked my brain to come up with a scenario that would make sense of the situation. At least now I knew why my pigeons had been silent.

I had to cover all my bases, but I wasn't looking forward to what I had to do next. I had seen AJ getting out of that deb's breezer, I had to find out why he was with the widow McGinty. I asked AJ to find Gyn and bring her to my office.

"AJ, Gyn, y'all know, you're family to me and I trust you with my life." My mouth was dry, and it was making it hard to spit the words out.

"What is it Ms. Myna?" Gyn asked with true concern in her voice.

"Please don't misunderstand, when I ask you this, I just need to hear it from you both directly." I paused and took a deep breath. "Have either of you given out my peaches-n-cream recipe? It is very, very important to tell me if you have."

AJ and Gyn looked at one another, seeming a bit confused by the question. In unison they both said, "No, Ms. Myna."

"You haven't told anyone about my secret ingredients?"

Now a look of concern came across AJ's face, "Of course not Ms. Myna, we would never betray your trust."

Gyn nodded in agreement, "What's going on Ms.? Why would you think that we would do this?"

"I didn't, I mean I don't..." I let out a heavy sigh and walked around the desk to look them both in the eye. "I don't think you could have shared my recipes, I just had to hear you say it. I can't tell you everything that is going on, it has to do with Lorne's investigation into McGinty's murder. We saw you with Lulu McGinty, AJ. I have to be able to explain the situation to Lorne. Why were you with her AJ?"

"The word on the street is that a turf war is about to erupt between the Irish and the NoLuks. Mrs. McGinty came to me looking for a fire extinguisher to escort her through NoLuk territory. She had a meeting with Madame Yu. That's all it was Ms. Myna, I swear."

I searched AJ's eyes for any hint of deception and found none. "And the result of the meeting?"

"They came to a mutual agreement. Mrs. McGinty assured Madame Yu that she had no intentions of starting any kind of gang war or cutting in on NoLuk territory. It seems the whole thing was a misunderstanding, the result of loose lips and a guy named Bruce Buchanan. I don't know the whole story, but Buchanan's face had been rearranged. And obviously Madame Yu was satisfied with the results, because she let Mrs. McGinty take Buchanan home."

"Thank you, AJ, thank you Gyn. This is some pretty sticky business and I apologize for putting you on the spot."

A turf war, I wonder if Lorne knows anything about this? And this Bruce Buchanan, Lorne will want to know about him too. It was a place to start. Maybe Tres could give me some more information. Lorne wouldn't like it, but I could always count on Tres.

"Listen we won't be opening the Ritzy today and I need the both of you to help me clean the kitchen from top to bottom. We need to remove any evidence of muffins; my secret ingredients stash, muffin tins, everything has to go, and no one is allowed to make any muffins for any reason."

I could see that both of them had more questions, but they decided not to press me about it, which gave me a modicum of relief. I just didn't have any answers for them.

"Alright Ms. Myna we will get started right away." With that Gyn headed down stairs, leaving AJ and I alone.

"It's really bad, isn't it Ms. Myna?"

"Yes, AJ, the Ritzy is in big trouble, Lorne and I could be too. I told Lorne to get a cat nap if he could while we took care of the kitchen. I will head down in a minute to help you and Gyn. Then Lorne and I will take the recipe books to Barter & Winks to lock them up safe, away from the Ritzy, then we have a few other errands to run. Thank you again AJ."

AJ reached over and gently squeezed my hand, "It will be alright Ms., I have your back."

"I know you do AJ and for that I am eternally grateful." I squeezed his hand back and did my best to give him a worry-free smile.

The Ritzy was my life's work, I wasn't about to let her go down without a fight. There had to be an explanation for this mess, and I was going to find it.