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Beau gave a short laugh. “You’re right about that.”

“You asked. I’m telling you what I thought I saw.”

Beau grimaced in apparent acknowledgement. “You saw lights glowing across the garden on the night of the TPS annual ghost walk, and it didn’t occur to you that somebody was in costume for the big event?”

“Sure, it did. But when I got over to the gazebo, there was no sign of anyone. No tracks in the grass or soft ground, no dirt on the floor...nothing.”

Once again, he had an odd inkling that there had been something.

Had he missed something?

He said slowly, finishing his original thought, “But also, John was a true believer. He wouldn’t pay someone to appear as-as—”

He couldn’t quite say it aloud.

He didn’t have to. Swenson breathed, “Jacqueline McCabe.”

Beau turned his steely gaze on Swenson. “Detective,” he said in a very mild tone.

But Swenson was off and running. “But it makes sense, Chief! The legend says Jacqueline McCabe always appears right before a family member dies.”

“No, it doesn’t make sense.” Beau shot Archie an exasperated look as though blaming him for short-circuiting his detective. “For one thing, John Perry was not related to the McCabe family.”

Actually...

But Archie kept his mouth shut.

“For another, there’s no such thing as ghosts.”

Swenson’s boyish face took on a slightly mutinous expression before he remembered who he was talking to. “No. Right. But...”

“Nope.” Beau was adamant. “I don’t want to hear it. This is a homicide investigation not an episode of Scooby-Doo.”

“Right. Right.”

Archie’s mouth twitched into a quickly repressed smile. Swenson so clearly disagreed.

Beau caught Archie’s gaze and gave one of those long-suffering sighs. “Anyway. You thought you saw strange lights and you walked over to the gazebo, but didn’t see anything.”

“Correct.”

“Then what?”

“I figured it was probably some kid playing a prank.”

For a moment Beau’s gaze held his, and Archie knew Beau was remembering the same things he was. Beau said, “It’s been known to happen.”

“Yeah.”

Neither spoke and then Beau’s mouth curled into a wry half-smile. His gaze moved to mounted camera recording their interview. He glanced back at Archie. “Okay. You decided someone was playing a prank. What happened next?”

“I checked my watch, realized it was later than I’d thought, and I went inside.”

“Did you tell anyone about the mysterious lights?”

“No. If I’d run into John—but there was already a crowd. I said hello to a few people, decided I wasn’t really in the mood for a party, and tried to find John to tell him I was going up. No one seemed to know where he was until I spoke to Simmy and she said he had gone out to the gazebo.”

They had been over this part, too, on Saturday night. Archie was not keen to relive it again.