“Billy, how much have you told them about the provenance of the house?”

“You mean, about the twins?”

“And their connection to the house.”

“Well, they’ve got their own place now,” Billy said.

“They had their own place when they murdered the Jacksons,” Stone said. “Don’t you get the feeling that they don’t want anybody living there?”

“How much do you want me to tell them? What we know, or what we suspect?”

“Where are the Petersons now?”

“Over at the store, waiting for your signed acceptance.”

Stone looked at his watch: 3:30. “Call them and invite them over here for a drink.”

Billy rolled his eyes. “You’re going to ditch this sale.”

“Maybe not, but they’ll go into the deal with their eyes open.”

Billy reluctantly dug out his phone and called a number. “Mr. Peterson? Billy Hotchkiss. I’m over at the owner’s place, a short way from the store. He’d like to meet you folks. Can you pop over here? Good.” He gave them directions and hung up. “How are you going to approach this, Stone?” he asked.

“I don’t know. We’ll see.”

Shortly, the bell rang, and Stone let in the Petersons and introduced himself. “Got time for a drink?” he asked.

“Always,” Peterson said.

Stone sat them down and took care of that.

“We love the house and the way you’ve done it up,” Smith said.

“Doing it up was the work of Billy’s wife,” Stone replied.

“She did a wonderful job.”

“I’ll tell her you said so,” Billy said.

“Smith,” Stone said. “Do you know anything about the provenance of the house you’re buying?”

“Are you referring to the Stone twins?”

“I am.”

“Yes, I read about it in the papers, and I met one of the twins, Eben, a few minutes ago.”

“Oh? How did that come about?”

“I saw him sweeping his front porch, and I walked across the road and introduced myself. We had a nice chat.”

“About the house?”

“That and their previous legal problems. He told me they had grown up in the house and had tried to buy it without success. I offered to withdraw my offer to allow them to buy it, if they still wanted to, but he said they were very happy in their place and would have no hard feelings about our buying it. That’s about it.”

“Did Eben mention that they were suspects in other crimes, murders, and kidnapping?”

“I read about that in the papers at the time. Insufficient evidence, I believe.”

“That’s correct, but it doesn’t mean they’re innocent.”

Peterson shrugged. “It doesn’t mean they’re guilty, either.”

“And this was all friendly?”

“Very friendly. I didn’t meet his brother, who was upstairs working on some job or other.”

“Smith, if you’re at all uncertain about the house and your new neighbors, I’d be happy for you to withdraw your offer.”