Page 201 of The Woman By the Lake

I heard Sarah’s folks were interviewed on some religious channel about what to do if your child was taken into the devil’s thrall.

I never saw it.

And I had no interest in ever seeing it.

The properties being in Sarah’s names alone, properties that, regardless that he’d supposedly killed her, Lincoln inherited on her death (and no one, not even Sarah’s parents, had contested that in seven years, for unknown reasons), obviously, were bundled in the estate.

This was one of the outstanding questions no one had answered, and I had to know.

Therefore, Riggs mentioned the change to the trust to Harry, Harry had asked Tru about it, and seeing as he’d only been around fifteen at the time, he told Harry he had no idea why his parents did that.

So that would remain a mystery.

Sadly, the bungling of the Whitaker murders turned the spotlight on Harry and the sheriff’s office.

Fortunately, Harry already knew this would happen, and at a town council meeting that was growing contentious, Megan, the president of the council (a ballbuster, no-nonsense blonde who was a good friend of Delphine’s, and would become one of mine too) let Harry have her microphone.

With only Rus standing behind him, Harry explained how the department was already deep into an audit, they’d identified five cases that bore more scrutiny, and was continuing its search.

No, he would not say which cases they were at this juncture.

But yes, if it was discovered they required further investigation, an announcement would be made, but, Harry warned, they couldn’t comment much on active investigations.

After a lot of gavel pounding from Megan, this announcement eventually calmed the citizenry and left them with new mysteries to chew on.

Which, I’d noted, was exactly as Misted Pines liked it.

Only Murders in the Building, indeed.

In the meantime, Evan Pugh and his parents came to visit Riggs and me.

My heart went out to the guy. He clearly felt terrible about what he’d done at the cabin.

Riggs had the same reaction, I knew, when he asked them to stay for a slice of his mom’s leftover lemon cake.

They accepted.

On the other hand, and in another twist, we were all at the Double D for dinner one night when I met Casey Grimes.

Bryce was with him.

Casey immediately got in Riggs’s face with his threats about a civil suit.

I could see Riggs wasn’t taking this well, didn’t like his woman’s and son’s dinners interrupted with this guy’s shit, and he was about to slide out of the booth, and I was trying to figure out how to handle that, when Bryce approached his dad, tugged hard on his sleeve and snapped, “God, Dad, why do you always have to be such a jerk?”

I feared Casey’s head would explode when this came from his son, and I didn’t want it in my onion-less patty melt.

But before it could, Bryce looked at me.

“I was a dick. It was uncool. Everyone at school thinks I’m a jackoff. But that’s not the only reason I’m sorry.” He then mumbled, “Sucks you lost your mom.”

With that, he shuffled out of the diner, leaving his father fuming.

He didn’t fume in our presence for long.

He took off after his son.

So that was that.

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