“Yes, frequency. If twenty people mentioned a name, we put it ahead of a name that only came up nineteen times.” Delores passed the list down to Hannah. “Here’s the list, but I don’t think it’ll do you much good. Every single name except three have alibis. We printed those three names out in red so they’d be easy to spot.”

Hannah was almost afraid to look, but she glanced down at the list. Sure enough, Mike’s name was in the top ten, and it was printed in red.

“Mike?” Andrea guessed, and Hannah nodded.

“How about Lonnie?” Michelle asked.

Hannah flipped to the second page and found Lonnie’s name, also in red. “He’s number thirty.”

“Bill?” Andrea asked, and her voice quavered slightly.

Hannah turned over more pages until she spotted the third red name. “He’s on the last page.”

“We’re so sorry, dear,” Delores said, reaching out to pat Andrea’s hand.

“It’s okay, Mother. I know all about it, and it’s a mistake. People saw them together and misinterpreted it.”

“Good for you, dear!” Delores praised her. “Without trust a marriage is worth nothing.” Then she turned to Michelle. “How about you, dear? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Lonnie told me all about it.” Michelle gave a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “We were both dating other people at the time.”

“Then we’re all okay with our findings,” Delores continued as she turned to Hannah. “I don’t need to worry about you, do I, dear?”

“Not me, Mother,” Hannah said, flipping the good-sized booklet over so that she didn’t have to focus on Mike’s name. “Let me read you the list of suspects I have so far.”

Hannah flipped to her page of suspects and went down the list, one by one. “I have Mike, Lonnie, and Bill. You already know about them.”

“You have Bill?” Andrea looked shocked. “But you know he didn’t do it.”

“Of course I do. I also know that Mike didn’t do it. And I don’t think Lonnie did it either, but this is an objective list and nobody gets crossed off until they have an airtight alibi, or until someone else proves to be Ronni’s killer.”

Neither Andrea nor Michelle looked happy, and an uneasy silence fell over their gathering. Finally it was broken when Norman cleared his throat. “Who’s next on your suspect list?” he asked Hannah.

Bless you! Hannah felt like saying, but of course she didn’t. Instead she glanced down at her list and found the fifth name. “Bridget Murphy.”

“Of course!” Delores exclaimed. “We should have written her down. Several people told us about her confrontation with Ronni at Bertanelli’s.”

“You know Bridget, don’t you, Mother?”

“Of course I do. Why do you ask?”