Page 37 of Justice & Liberty

That wasn’t good.

“I’m sorry Miss Collins,” he said, then dropped his head again, sighing. “But, um, I’m afraid that I have to ask you to come over to the station.”

“We’re a little busy right now, Alec,” she said back. Her voice had gone soft, almost pleading. “Middle of the morning rush.”

He ducked his head and said, “I know, Miss Collins. I’m awfully sorry, but I’m afraid I’m gonna have to insist.”

The whispering crested like a wave, everyone determined to tell their neighbor their opinion on what was happening as Sabrina came out from behind the counter, taking off her apron as she went. She huffed, sighing at him and waving off the staring masses. “Come on, people. My grandfather died. It’s only natural they want to ask me about it.”

“Then why did you kill him?” Lucy Beasley—of course it was Lucy—asked from her spot by the counter, where she was waiting for a drink to be made.

Sabrina rolled her eyes. “I would never kill anyone, Mrs. Beasley. Don’t be ridiculous. I’m sure they just want to ask me about speaking to him the day he died.”

“Arguing with him, you mean,” Mrs. Beasley shot back, smug and obnoxious.

Did she likeanyonein town? Anyone at all?

The woman who ran the local museum, an older redhead I’d only ever known as Miss Joyce, scoffed. “Ephraim Collins was an ass.Iargued with him the day he died, and no one’s accusing me of killing him.”

That...wasn’t surprising, really. The Joyce family and the Collins family were the only people in South Liberty who had any money, and for some reason, they’d always been at odds with each other.

“Were you at his house, Miss Joyce?” the young deputy, Marsden, asked.

Miss Joyce frowned, but shook her head. “He was out of his house, driving again, that horrible contraption of a car. I called the sheriff, because there’s no way he had a current driver’s license. He could barely even see anymore.”

I remembered the “contraption” in question. It was close to a hundred years old, and I thought maybe a...Rolls Royce? It was hard to say, and frankly, I didn’t know a single thing about cars.

“So what do you need to ask me? Can’t we just do this here?” Sabrina asked the deputy.

He glanced at her neck, then up to her face. “Where’s your necklace?”

Tellingly, her hand went to her neck, checking, and she went pale. “I . . . I don’t . . .”

“We found it in his office,” he whispered to her.

I doubted he was supposed to be explaining their evidence to the suspect, but it was good to know. Sabrina losing her necklace at her grandfather’s house only proved she’d been there. Probably on the day he died. And apparently there was some proof they’d argued.

It didn’t mean she’d killed him. She’d argued with him every week when we were kids.

Heck, family was supposed to argue, weren’t they?

The door opened again, and the deputy went stiff, looking behind him, but calmed instantly. “Ms. Grant,” he said with a nod, as Hunter walked in.

It was weird, and it made no sense at all, but something in me unwound to see her there. Hunter would help. I didn’t know how or why, but...she’d worked for “the agency,” hadn’t she? She knew how to deal with things.

She lifted a brow at the deputy, but stepped out of his way, nodding, and we all watched as he led Sabrina out.

There was a loud metallic slam behind the counter, and I turned back to find Walter throwing things down.

“Everybody out,” he announced, almost the moment the deputy and Sabrina were out of sight.

“But my coffee,” Lucy Beasley said, sounding scandalized and pressing a hand to her chest.

He scowled at her, entirely unimpressed. “You were just here looking for gossip, and...and you found it, didn’t you? You never come in here. So go back to your store. You got what you came for.”

He came around the counter, waving everyone out, looking downright angry.

Oddly enough, he didn’t shove me and Hunter out. Just everyone else, whether they had coffee in their hands or not. Even the ones carrying ceramic cups, looking confused and harried. I supposed those kind of cups were cheapish at a restaurant supply store, if they had to replace them.

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