“Is there anything else I can do?”

“Just tell Grace I called. I’m thinking of her.”

“I’ll tell her.” She hung up the phone.

I left Randy’s office, and Bear, the club Labrador who spent his days sprawled in front of the fireplace in the lounge, lifted his head and grinned.

I knelt and scratched behind his ears. “Who’s a good boy?”

His tail whacked the floor, and he gazed at me with adoring eyes.

“How bad was it?” Anarchy had come to find me.

“Not good.”

He crouched next to me and let Bear sniff his hand. “She's worried your friends will hold my investigation against you.”

“How did you know?”

“I worry about the same thing.”

“Don’t. I married you knowing what you do for a living.” I watched Anarchy scratch beneath Bear’s graying chin. “Mother wants you to call Wright Gibson when we’re back in Kansas City.”

“Who?”

“He’s a banker.”

Anarchy tilted his head and frowned. “And?”

“He’s looking for someone to run security for his regional bank.”

“I see.”

“You don’t have to call.”

“But?”

“But nothing. I don’t want you to change. Not for me. Certainly not for Mother.”

His expression softened. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Magic hung in the air around us. This was real and true and perfect and—

Bear passed gas, almost as bad as Tommy’s.

We scrambled off the floor with our eyes watering and took giant steps away from the still grinning dog.

“Can we solve this thing quickly so Mother will leave me alone?”

“I’m trying.”

“I know you are. It would be easier if everyone here didn’t have a motive.”

“Everyone?” He looked at me expectantly.

“I haven’t found a motive for Buffy, Bill, or Tommy. But the day’s not over. Oh. I forgot Libba. She had no reason to kill Graham.

He rubbed his chin and nodded. “Okay, then. Let’s talk this through.”

I straightened my shoulders. “Chances are the killer used Perry’s gun.”

“Agreed.”

“Perry had a reason to want Graham dead.”

“I know.”

I threw out another name. “Thatch.”

“The managing partner role?”

“Yep.”

“Was Graham in serious contention?” asked Anarchy.

“I’ll ask Liz. Charlie had a motive. Then there’s Fred.”

“Fred?”

I repeated what Mother told me about the loan. “There’s also Sumner. You always look at the spouse.”

“I do.”

“He had an affair. Buffy says it ended.”

“You look as if you have more to say.”

“Aggie knows their housekeeper, Bernie. If she happens to speak with her—”

Anarchy chuckled. “If?”

“When,” I ceded.

Bear made a sound like an outboard motor, and Anarchy claimed my arm. “Let’s get out of here.”

We stepped onto the front porch and squinted in the sun. Anarchy pulled out a pair of aviator sunglasses and I put on my wayfarers.

The outdoors was an oven. “It’s hot.”