“I’ll need to pack some things for Timmy,” I said to the chief. “Everything’s upstairs in his room.”

I picked up Timmy and headed for the stairs.

“I hope you’re not expecting to offload your little charge immediately,” he said, following me. “I don’t think Ms. Walker did anything wrong—well, nothing criminal, anyway. Stupid, yes, all that running around and sneaking and making it harder for us to figure out what was going on, but if stupid was a crime, the town would be out of jail space. But it might take a few days for all these Feds to figure that out. Of course, the contents of that thumb drive you gave me should do the trick. Apparently Ms. Walker got some pretty conclusive evidence that this Sandie person was the embezzler.”

“I thought the thumb drive files incriminated Nadine,” I said “Did I just interpret that wrong or—”

I suddenly realized that I was confessing to something the chief might consider tampering with evidence.

“I should have expected you’d be messing with that thing,” the chief growled.

“I made a copy,” I said. “In case something happened to the original before I got it into your hands.”

The chief snorted.

“But what about Nadine?” I asked again. “If she’s not in on the embezzling scheme, what was she running away from?”

“Dust,” the chief said. “Her house was empty because she’d put all her furniture in storage so Duke Borden’s decorating shop could come in and redo the floors. Which, as you probably know from all that construction you did on this place, kicks up a heck of a lot of dust. She was going on a Caribbean cruise till the floors were done and Duke’s crew had given the whole place a white-glove cleaning from attic to cellar.”

“Does that sound reasonable to you?” I asked. “That she would have someone doing that much work without being there to see that it was done right?”

“Doesn’t sound reasonable to me, no,” he said. “But she’s a Pruitt by birth and you know how those Pruitts are.”

“She’s a Pruitt?” I exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell me? It explains how she can afford a two-million-dollar house in Westlake. Though not why she’s working at the college.”

“No idea,” the chief said. “Except those Pruitts always think they know best when it comes to running the college. Incidentally, I didn’t mention that you had anything to do with making her miss her boat.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I can just see her sabotaging Michael’s paycheck for the next decade out of spite.”

“She is spiteful,” the chief agreed. “Keeps threatening to sue the department. Well, she has the right.”

“Talk to Dr. Driscoll,” I suggested. “Nadine’s boss. I’m sure he could convince her that if she sues the department, it will all come out about how she never noticed the embezzlement going on right underneath her nose. I suspect that will cool her urge to sue.”

“Now that’s a right smart idea,” the chief said. “Thank you.”