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“Sorry. I’d love to sit here chewing over old times with you, but I’m having dinner with my kid.”

Archie realized that they had pulled up alongside the street outside the Fraser House Inn. It was a short drive, but even so. He clicked his seatbelt release, reached for the SUV’s door, and got out. He leaned down, said, “Thanks for the ride.”

“All part of the service—hey.”

Archie stopped, raised his brows in inquiry.

Beau said, “I don’t care about whatever it is you do in the FBI. You’re on the sidelines here. Stay out of my case or I’ll charge you with obstruction. I won’t warn you more than once, Special Agent Crane.”

“Noted.”

Archie pushed the passenger door shut and Beau drove away.

That was that.

Plenty to think about, though, as Archie went through the mahogany and glass door to the lobby. Scarlett had been replaced by a very tall, very blonde woman who smiled politely at him as he crossed the shining parquet floor to the stairs.

He was relieved to know that Beau was considering other possible suspects. Hearing Beau admit, if only off the record, that he didn’t believe Archie had killed John meant a lot. Yes, illogically, it mattered to him that Beau believed he was innocent. But more to the point, he wanted John’s killer brought to justice, and that wasn’t going to happen while Beau wasted valuable time investigating him.

Maybe it was naïve, but Archie was baffled that Beau didn’t trust him.

Archie had his failings, no question, but he’d never lied to Beau, never cheated on him. Clearly, he’d let Beau down in ways he still didn’t fully understand, but wasn’t that more about their different expectations, needs, and, ultimately, paths?

Everyone had their own point of view, and point of view was, by definition, subjective. But Beau’s memories of that period were so different from Archie’s. The truth had to lie somewhere between those diametrically opposed recollections. But as Beau had said, it was all a long time ago. Beau certainly had no interest in rehashing the past, and that was probably a healthy attitude. There was no going back and trying to fix things now.

Assuming there had been things that could have been fixed.

It seemed less and less likely.

Anyway, it was a relief that Beau was still evaluating all the people in John’s life, even if some of those potential suspects seemed pretty improbable to Archie.

Simmy, for example. Yes, John’s bequest was generous. John was generous. But he was also fair-minded. Simmy had been a friend as well as a long-time employee. She had been well-paid, and it was very possible that she had saved up for a comfortable old age. But it was also possible that she hadn’t been able to save up, and it was unlikely at her age that she would get another highly paid full-time position as a housekeeper. It would be like John to weigh the realities of Simmy’s economic situation against Judith’s, and decide that Simmy’s need was the greater.

That kind of reasoning would also explain how Archie had ended up with the bulk of John’s estate rather than Desi, who had been like a daughter to him. John had always been concerned about Archie’s future, even after Archie had reached gainfully employed adulthood.

John was a problem-solver, a fix-it kind of guy, whether he was setting a patient’s broken bone, paying for his niece’s engagement party, or planning for his housekeeper’s retirement. The character and personality of the victim were always integral to building a comprehensive understanding of the crime. John had lived a blameless, even exemplary, life by most people’s standards, but good people ended up murdered as often as bad people. Had John’s proclivity for trying to help—whether the object of his concern wanted it or not—been a factor in his murder?

Maybe.

John’s murder appeared to have been quick and efficient. Not a rage killing. It was possible the crime had been premeditated, but from Archie’s perspective, John’s murderer had been more lucky than clever. Shooting him during the ghost walk had been highly risky.

Why take that risk?

Not only was John’s will a done deal at that point, Judith had believed herself and Desi to be the main beneficiaries. So, it was hard to see any urgent reason for Judith choosing the night of the ghost walk to get John out of the way. Besides, though Archie didn’t like Judith, he just couldn’t picture her murdering her brother.

He could almost picture her hiring someone, though.

But the fact was, he believed Judith really did love John. Was genuinely grieved by his death.

Desi... He had trouble with that one, too. Desi had fallen into the Mean Girl category when Archie had been a teen. Not cruel. Not vicious. Just unkind. Deliberately. Consistently. John had been very good to her and her grief had seemed genuine to Archie. A career in law enforcement taught you never to assume anything about a potential suspect, but his best guess was even if John had somehow become expendable to Desi, she’d be too squeamish to do the deed herself.

Which brought him to Desi’s fiancé, Arlo Beckham. Given that Arlo’s mother was one of John’s closest friends and a lawyer, was it possible John had discussed his will with her? Was it possible Priscilla knew Frances Madison—Twinkleton was a small town—and that Madison had, perhaps inadvertently, dropped a hint as to changes in John’s will?

Except, apparently, there hadn’t been recent changes to John’s will.

Which didn’t make sense. When the hell had John changed his will in Archie’s favor? Why?

And that being the case, had Judith really believed for the last decade that she and Desi were the main beneficiaries?