“This seems personal for you,” I said. “Usually people get to know me before they decide they hate my guts.”

Arlo laughed.

The freckled twin scowled. “I’ve known you for five minutes—that’s long enough.”

“Ease up, Tori,” said her sister.

I found Tiff’s dead eyes hard to read. Cannabis, maybe. Or something stronger.

Tori detached herself from Burch to reach for a pack of cigarettes. “I’m telling you, this asshole specializes in fucking people’s lives over.”

“Anyone in particular you have in mind?” I said.

The Bic flamed before her face as she lit her Parliament. “Those people out on Maquoit Island, for example.”

She was referring to my first case as a warden investigator. I had been called to the scene of a hunting homicide on a remote coastal island. The woman who’d died had been an unwelcome stranger whose murder no one wanted solved. It wasn’t my finest hour. By the time I left Maquoit, the entire population hated me. If I’d stayed another day, I’m fairly sure I would have been stoned in the public square.

“You seem to have followed my career closely,” I said.

She exhaled at the ceiling. “A friend of mine lived out there.”

“Who?”

“Like I’m going to give you their name! But don’t worry, Warden Bowditch. I’m not your personal stalker.”

Isn’t that what every stalker says?

“Tori, you’re being kind of rude to our guest,” said Arlo in a fatherly tone that didn’t suit him. “You should, maybe, apologize.”

“Everyone’s entitled to their opinions,” said Tiff.

“Damn right they are,” said Tori.

I tapped my pen against the spine of my notebook. “The case file is unclear about one last point. I’m hoping you can help me with that one too, Arlo. Did you mention seeing Professor Chamberlain alone in his boat to anyone else?”

“Lieutenant Rivard.”

“I mean the day he died.”

The question seemed to rattle Burch, based on his stuttering reply. “It wasn’t unusual to see him in his boat. He liked to hunt. He was out there a lot.”

Tori perked up. “Arlo, honey—”

But I ran right over her. “What about after you heard he was missing? Did you tell your ‘roommates’ that you’d seen him alone?”

Tiff covered a yawn with her hand. “We didn’t live here then.”

“Oh?”

Tori cast her sister a look to shut up. I wondered why she did that. What didn’t she want me to know?

Burch had recovered some of his natural mellowness. He was a concerned citizen with nothing to hide. He only wanted to help. “My last girlfriend had just moved out. There weren’t many homes here. Back then, it was me and old man Bazinet. It was my cousin who developed the hill. He sold me this lot at cost when he was putting in the loop road.”