Her lips thinned, and she beat her fisted hands against her upper thighs. “I told him we shouldn’t come this weekend. I told him again and again. But he wouldn’t listen, he insisted.”

“May I ask, why did you come? Most everyone here seems to have been angry with him. It couldn’t have been comfortable.”

She snorted. “For whom?”

“For you. For Graham.” For anyone with reason to hate him.

“Graham didn’t care about their anger.”

Look what that got him.

She pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. “You heard about his argument with Charlie?”

“I did.”

“And Merit?”

“Her, too.”

“Graham could be such an idiot. I told him this was a bad idea. But he’d made up his mind.” She grabbed the ends of her ponytail and tightened it. “Staying home would have looked like hiding, like weakness.”

“Who invited you?”

She grimaced. “Willa called.”

I shifted so that I stood in deeper shade.

“You’re wondering why I told him about the invitation. I could have declined, and he would have never known.”

The thought had crossed my mind. I gave a tiny shrug.

“I didn’t tell him. Our housekeeper took a message, and he saw it before I did.” She pressed a knuckl to her teeth and let out a raspy sob. “If I’d arrived home before he did, things would be different. We wouldn’t be here.” Tears welled in her eyes. “He wouldn’t be dead.”

“You can’t blame yourself. Guilt falls firmly on whoever killed him.”

“Who killed him? Half the people here were angry with him.”

An understatement. “It does seem that way.”

“There’s Thatch and the whole managing partner thing, the issue with Fred’s bank, the argument with Charlie, the spat with Perry, and the issue with Bill.”

“What issue with Bill?” That was new.

“Bill would have gotten over it. Eventually.”

“What was Bill mad about?”

“I’m not exactly sure. But Graham told me Bill was furious with him. Something to do with the management of his company and the stock offering.”

I added Bill to the list of people with motives. “I still don’t understand why Graham wanted to spend the weekend with people who were mad at him.” Maybe even hated him.

“You know how men are.” She waited for me to respond. When I didn’t, she continued. “Graham never backed down from a fight. Not once. It was a point of honor for him.”

“That couldn’t have been fun to live with.”

Her answering chuckle was dark. “It was not. It did make him a good lawyer.”

But not a good person.

“Don't ever hire a nice lawyer.” She shook her head at all the saps who hired decent human beings. “If you need an attorney, you want a pit bull, not a cocker spaniel.”