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“Meanwhile, are you any closer to figuring out who broke in and attacked Uncle C.?”

“No. I’m sorry. To be honest, the break-in yesterday afternoon just further confused the investigation.” Her gaze grew speculative. “Any chance Bok—”

“No.” Andy considered. “At least, I don’t think so. I guess he could have arrived in Safehaven in time to break in if he leftright after I did and drove like a bat out of hell. But I don’t think he knew where I was headed at first. He was still making phone calls for the first few hours.”

“He could have done that on the road.”

“Okay. True.” At this point, Andy had no idea what to think. Certainly, Marcus had not been the person who attacked Uncle C. But there was no proof that the person who had broken in the second time was Uncle C.’s attacker.

Ruthanne gave him a funny look. “Chief Millard thinks Quinn might be our perp.”

“Quinn?” Andy almost laughed, except Ruthanne didn’t seem to be kidding. “Seriously?”

Ruthanne shrugged.

“Why would Quinn break into Time in a Bottle? Let alone attack Uncle C.?”

“I’m not saying it’s my theory. Idon’tbelieve Quinn would do such a thing.”

“Hell no, he wouldn’t do such a thing. First, because he’d have no motive for doing such a thing, and second, because he wouldn’tdosuch a thing!”

Ruthanne didn’t agree or disagree. Her gaze was speculative. “Chief says Quinn was here last night when Bok broke in.”

It seemed the old instinct to cover for Quinn, protect Quinn had never died because Andy said sarcastically, “Are bed checks now part of Safehaven’s commitment to public safety?”

Ruthanne made a pained sound. “Come on, Andy. You’re a grown man. Nobody in Safehaven cares who you’re sleeping with.”

“It seems Chief Millard does.”

“Chief’s always had hard feelings toward Quinn,” Ruthanne admitted. “And sure, Quinn was a little wild, but hewasn’t a bad kid. All I can figure is the chief was so close to the old man, it prejudiced him.”

The old manbeing Tiernan Rafferty. Quinn’s grandfather.

“It prejudiced hima lot,” Andy retorted. “Everything that ever went wrong in Safehaven got blamed on Quinn. Hell, if the soft-serve machine went down at Martha’s Café, it was somehow Quinn’s fault.”

Ruthanne made a sound of amusement, but said, “You only lived here for a year, though. It’s not as if you had the complete picture.”

The complete picture being a Most Wanted poster?

“I spent every summer here.Andit was kind of a momentous year.”

“True.” She was still eyeing him in that considering way. “Do you remember the rash of burglaries and break-ins that summer?”

“I remember that Quinn was Suspect Number One in Chief Millard’s book.”

“Yes. Which is why he suspects Quinn of breaking into Time in a Bottle. He keeps saying history repeats itself.”

“Hey, I work in a museum. You don’t have to tell me history repeats itself. But for the sake of argument, let’s say Quinnwasinvolved in those break-ins that summer. He was eighteen, not wanted at home, and treated like a pariah in the village because Millard let everyone know Quinn was his main suspect for pretty much everything ever. No one would hire him. His grandfather sure as hell wasn’t doling out spending money. If there were factors that drove Quinn to do something illegal back then, those factors would no longer be in play. There’s no earthly reason Quinn would break in here. Especially when the most he could expect to walk away with would be whatever was in the petty cash.”

“Werethose the factors that drove Quinn to do something illegal that summer?” Ruthanne watched him narrowly.

Andy said impatiently, “Of course not! Quinn was never involved in any burglaries. I’m just following Millard’s line of reasoning, if you can call it that.”

“Okay, well, to put a little perspective on your perspective, Quinn wasn’t a pariah before that summer. He was the star quarterback on the high school football team. He was the hometown hero. And he wasn’t hurting for cash because he could earn good money working as a deckhand on commercial fishing vessels in Rockland whenever he wanted.”

Come to think of it… Ruthanne was right. That was all true. It was after school had ended for the year that everything had gotten weird. The burglaries had started and suspicion had fallen on Quinn. And Quinn had reacted by seeming to do his very best to live up to everyone’s worst expectations.

The already precarious relationship between Quinn and his grandfather had deteriorated to such an extent, it had seemed believable (to Andy at least) that the old man might have actually murdered him.