“Back at my place. I was waiting for the lecture, the inquisition, why are you doing this, what kind of girl, et cetera.”

I shrugged. “I’m a bit past being able to point a finger. People in glass houses, you know.”

“Yeah, well, if having character flaws disqualifies people from throwing stones, how come there’s so much of it going on?”

“I guess people aren’t very good at recognizing their own faults. And I’m sure there’s much to recommend in your line of work. You get to work from home, you can choose your own hours, and you get to meet a lot of interesting people.”

“That’s certainly true. And you get to learn a lot about what makes people tick.”

“True.” I paused. “Like cream cheese.”

Trixie smiled. “You don’t want to know.”

“You’re right.”

“Things good between you and Sarah? Aside from her thinking you’ve got a problem with the hydraulics?”

“Yeah, they’re good. But after all this comes out, I don’t know. This has got nothing on The Backpack Incident, or when I hid her car down the street. I think I’ve been a bit of an asshole lately. A busybody.”

“Well, you’re an asshole, there’s really no question about that,” Trixie said. “But you’re a reasonably nice asshole, and I think Sarah’s a lucky girl.” And then, for reasons I wasn’t sure I understood, she looked away.

Earl appeared. He was wearing a Toronto Blue Jays sweatshirt, jeans, and heavy lace-up workboots that hadn’t been tied at the top. “You ready?”

I nodded.

He went over to the kitchen drawers, opened the middle one, reached in toward the back, and brought out his gun. “Let’s go see if we can solve a few of your problems,” he said, tucking it into the top of his pants.

“maybe you could go over some of this with me again,” Earl said, shoving in the cigarette lighter and waiting for it to pop. “This girl, the one who’s dead, was on film boffing this guy?”

“Carpington.”

“A councilman? For the town?”

“That’s right.”

“So, they just liked to record the moment or what?”

“My guess is Carpington was being blackmailed.”

“So he finds out, he loses it and kills this girl?”

“It’s a motive, but I don’t know. He just didn’t seem the type. I went to see him earlier tonight, at town hall, and he didn’t seem to have it in him.”

Earl nodded. The lighter popped and he lit his cigarette. “One thing I’ve learned, Zack, is that people are often not what they seem. They can surprise you.”

I thought of Trixie. And, for that matter, Earl. Both of them ended up being in lines of work that had caught me off guard.