“You can’t remember anything about last night?” said Stone persistently.

“No,” Danny said firmly. “But you’ll be the first to know when and if I do.”

Stone was about to say something else when a nurse walked in. “Willie, the doctor’s releasing you. We’re getting the paperwork done up. You have a way to get home?”

Stone said, “I drove here in your truck. I can take you back.”

“Okay, but I’ll call Gramps. He’ll want to be there when I get home.”

“Hey, Willie, don’t you forget now. California here we come.”

“I’m there, man.”

The two did a little knuckle smack to seal the deal.

Stone said to Abby, “How long are you staying here?”

“A few hours. Why don’t you come by for dinner tonight?”

Danny said, “Hey, you two got something going on?”

“Look, Mr. Movie Star, you’re not the only one with dreams,” said Abby, who blushed slightly as she said this.

On the drive back to town, Stone asked Willie something that had been puzzling him.

“You said Debby called you the night before she was found dead. Where from?”

“The bakery. She was doing some work there. They liked her to come after hours. Folks coming in to get muffins and cookies don’t want to smell paint. Ain’t good for business.”

Stone thought of the half-finished mural he’d seen on the wall there. “And the bakery is right across the street from Rory Peterson’s office.”

“That’s right. So?”

“So he was killed too.”

“But in town. And the night before. Debby was out at her folks’ house.”

“No. Debby’s body was found the next morning. But you said she’d been dead awhile. Maybe she was killed the night before. The same night Peterson was. His body was probably found that same morning too.”

“Okay, but her parents’ place is a good fifteen miles from town.”

“But at eleven o’clock she called you from the bakery in good spirits. Let’s say Peterson was killed around then or a bit later. The mural she was painting was in front of the store, with a good view of the street and the buildings opposite.”

Willie sat up straighter. “Are you saying she maybe saw who killed Peterson?”

“At the very least she might have seen someone go in his office. Then she might have gone to investigate or the killers saw her and grabbed her because she was a potential witness. They take her back to her parents’ house, kill her, make it look like suicide and no one thinks to connect the two together.”

“Damn,” Willie said slowly. “That makes a lot of sense. We gotta tell Tyree about this.”

“I plan to.”