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Down the hall, the painters had already dragged the furniture out of the little sitting room. The bookshelves, rocker, and small table crowded the corridor. The small lamp lay on its side, its flowered globe in bits.

“What happened?”

The head guy looked apologetic. “Sorry. It got knocked over when we moved the rocker. It can probably be repaired.”

Uh no, probably not. But there was no time to deal with it now.

Ellery hurried down the stairs, journal tucked under his arm. He grabbed the banker’s box in the grand entry and hurried outside.

A few minutes later, the baby-blue VW was zipping down the road back to Pirate’s Cove.

“Perhaps we should shelve Vernon’s case for now and turn our attention to Tackle Shandy,” Mrs. Nelson was saying when Ellery opened the door to the Crow’s Nest.

Watson let out a cry of the heartbreak and betrayal of being left behind by someone who deliberately went on adventures without you, and raced to greet him. Ellery hastily set aside the box and journal on the rare-book display case.

“I know. I know. I’m sorry—” He managed not to sprawl flat on the floor beneath the onslaught.

Ignoring the mauling taking place before them, Nora replied, “Do you think so, dear? When we’re so close to solving the case?”

“Areyou?” Ellery kissed Watson’s nose, put him aside, and rose with whatever dignity was available to a man wrestling on the floor with a puppy.

“But are we, dear?” Mrs. Clarence echoed.

Ellery glanced at Mrs. Clarence and did a double take. Mr. Starling stood beside her, drinking coffee. Were theylivingat the Crow’s Nest now?

“Besides,” Nora selected a taco from the box on the counter. “There’s really no mystery about who killed Tackle Shandy.”

“There isn’t?”

“No, dearie. It’s getting Chief Carson enough evidence to prove it in a court of law.That’sthe challenge.”

Mrs. Nelson said, “For that matter, there’s no mystery as to who killed Vernon.”

“What am I missing? Who killed Vernon?” Ellery looked from Nora to Mrs. Nelson to Mrs. Clarence to Mr. Starling.

Mr. Starling took another mouthful of coffee.

“Joey Franklin, of course,” Nora informed him kindly. “That’s why James was so terrified when he left you that message. He knew you were closing in on his mother.”

“I— He didn’t sound terrified. He sounded irate and self-righteous.”

“A man feels he’s in the right when he’s defending his mother,” Mrs. Clarence assured him.

“But—”

Nora smiled. “Were you worried that Eudora was the culprit? Eudora was far too shrewd and sensible to ever fall for a man like Vernon Shandy. Besides, she’d known him her entire life. She knew him inside and out.”

“Backward and forward,” volunteered Mr. Starling.

“There’s no romance in that,” Nora assured Ellery. “No, dearie, Eudora would never have her head turned by a man like Vernon Shandy.”

“What if Vernon was serious about Eudora?”

The Silver Sleuths exchanged doubtful and then uneasy glances.

“What if he really did love her?”

“That seems very unlikely,” Mrs. Clarence said.