“Ah! Then I hope you get the sneaky degree forger dead to rights,” he said with a laugh. “I’ll ask Michael all about it when I’m back. Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!”

He bent down and picked up something from behind his desk. A small cage containing a rather large white duck.

“A present for my nieces,” he said, seeing my startled look. “I’m told they make wonderful pets.”

I tried to figure out a tactful way to ask him if he was sure it wasn’t a stolen duck, but inspiration failed me, so I just wished him a merry Christmas and watched him hurrying down to his car with his cage in hand.

I hiked back to my own car in a thoughtful mood. Should I say something to someone at the New Life Baptist Church? I gathered from what Minerva had said that Lightfoot’s departure was already a settled thing. Would it make any difference whether or not he’d lied on his application?

No, but he didn’t know he was already on an exit path. So if he had lied and then found someone checking up on him, it could be very material to the chief’s murder investigation.

Of course, how could I tactfully ask anyone at the New Life Baptist Church if they’d failed to do an adequate job checking out their new choir director?

I decided to talk to Minerva Burke.

Who, as I recalled, was at my house now, supervising the sewing circle and helping keep an eye on Josh and Jamie.

I got into my car and headed home. I made the mistake of taking a route that led me past some of the dorms where many of the high school and college students attending the debate and basketball tournaments were now packing up to go home. Buses, vans, and cars clogged the roads, and the departing students darted everywhere—laughing, shouting good-byes and holiday greetings, taking pictures of each other, holding impromptu snow battles. Obviously they hadn’t all won their games or competitions, but I didn’t see any discouraged faces. Only happy kids, excited at the prospect of going home for the holidays.

Their enthusiasm lifted my mood, even while I was dodging them. And that was even before it occurred to me that the end of their events meant that any number of rooms at the college might now be available if any more pranks put any more churches out of commission. I should keep that in mind while working on my schedule.

Back at the house I was relieved to find that except for the sewing circle, no one was around. Before going down to the library, I seized the opportunity to fill a few bags with things Michael and I would need for our Christmas Eve dinner, and managed to get the bags into my trunk without being seen.