“That would seem consistent with Mr. Vess’s modus operandi,” the chief said. “I’ll check with Chief Featherstone to see if the missing file happens to be in his office.”

“So what’s happening with the church basement?” I said. “Please tell me Chief Featherstone isn’t going to close the church down.” If he did, Robyn would expect me to come up with yet another iteration of the schedule, and I wasn’t sure there were enough rooms left in the county.

Chief Burke sighed.

“Chief Featherstone was dragging his heels on doing the inspection,” he said. “Because he knew this was the worst possible time for Trinity to have to deal with a major basement cleanup. But after the fire, he couldn’t very well look the other way.”

“Blast,” I said. “How soon is he doing his inspection?”

“He and Reverend Smith are down there as we speak,” the chief said. “I gather he’s giving Trinity a week to resolve the problem before he has to close you down.”

“A week!”

“I know it’s not very long—”

“On the contrary, it’s more than enough time.” I suspected Mother and Robyn would try to enlist me to deal with the problem, and I already had some ideas. My fingers were itching to pull out my notebook and start a page for the project.

“But wait,” I said. “How can Chief Featherstone expect us to deal with the basement when the whole building’s still a crime scene?”

“It won’t be in a few minutes,” the chief said.

“That’s good,” I said.

“Nice to see someone happy.” He was frowning and staring into space.

“If I wasn’t afraid you’d think I was prying, I’d ask how your investigation was going,” I said.

“Very oddly,” he said. “I have to confess, it’s not often I get to interview someone just before he becomes a murder victim.”

“You were investigating Mr. Vess?”

“I said interviewing, but yes,” he said. “I know you assumed I was ignoring the information you gave me—”

“That Ronnie and Caleb didn’t pull the duck prank—”

“But I did listen. And I wasn’t focusing only on the boys. Mr. Vess also seemed a credible suspect for the duck theft.”

I nodded. He seemed to be talking to himself as much as to me.

“It’s a little hard to figure out the motive for such a peculiar prank,” he said. “But he certainly had means and opportunity. And it’s difficult to imagine anyone else getting away with it without Mr. Vess noticing.”

“Yes,” I said. “From his back windows, he’d have had a grandstand view.”

“And last night was a cloudless night with a half-moon,” the chief said.

“And it must have taken quite a while to load all those ducks,” I said. “And caused considerable commotion.”