“That’s what got me worried,” I said. “Rafe said you’re retiring soon, and an hour ago I learned that you used to work for the city. So you meet both criteria.”

Keith finished off his beer. “So you think I’m about to become a murder victim because I’m retiring?”

Put like that, it sounded pretty stupid. “Yes,” I said firmly. “I do.”

“Lots of people retire.” He tossed his empty beer can into a handy bucket. “Hardly any of them are murdered.”

Clearly, he wasn’t taking this seriously. Somehow I needed to communicate the danger I felt sure was all around him. “You’re a math teacher. Tell me the odds of two recent retirees, who both worked at the city, being murdered within a couple weeks of each other.”

He said, “I’m a math teacher, not a statistician,” but I could see the wheels starting to turn inside his head.

“Though I still don’t know exactly why Brown and Emily were killed,” I said, “the link is there even if—”

“How long did Emily work at the city?” Keith asked. “I remember her from when I was finance director, but she was already there when I started.”

“Um. Not sure.”

“Think it through,” he urged. “This is important.”

“Well, I was told she started there right after high school, then moved downstate . . .” The water bottle was cold in my hand as I tried to do the calculations with the little information I had. “Ten years, about. Maybe a little more.”

“That’s it, then.” Keith nodded. “There’s your motive.”

I had no idea what he was talking about. “What is?”

“Pension costs. Though I haven’t worked for the city in years, I live here and I pay attention to what’s going on at city hall. Drew Parnell, during his job interview, said multiple times that he’d get the city’s budget into the black inside of two years, and if he didn’t, the city could fire him.” Keith looked at the fire. “I kept wondering how he’d do it, and now I know.”

It still wasn’t making sense. At least not to me. “Um . . .”

“Pensions,” Keith said. “One of the biggest liabilities the city has is pensions. These days, most municipal pensions are just like everyone else’s, defined contribution. Back when Brown and Emily started? They got defined benefit pensions, which are pushing cities, including Chilson, closer to bankruptcy than you’d want to think.”

My non-math brain finally grasped what he was talking about. And it was horrified. “You mean . . .”

Keith gave me a sharp nod. “Yes. Drew is killing off retirees to help balance the city’s budget.”