I felt surprisingly cheerful on the way home. Or maybe it wasn’t so surprising. The chief had solved the murder, and Lightfoot was probably already in custody. Caleb and Ronnie had undoubtedly learned their lessons, which meant the pranks would almost certainly come to an end. I would probably see Randall at Michael’s performance tonight, and could apologize to him for casting any aspersions on his cousin Duane’s character.

My spirits fell a little when I arrived home and found Horace dashing out of our front door, chewing on a sandwich.

“I thought you’d be down at the station with Jerome Lightfoot,” I said.

“So did I,” Horace said. “He’s flown the coop. Probably sometime last night from what his neighbor said. We’re all doing double shifts until he’s caught. I just dropped by to grab a bite on my way out to search Caerphilly Creek.”

He dashed back to his cruiser.

Rose Noire was standing in the doorway, waving to him as he hurriedly took off.

“Poor thing,” she said, as I came in. “He’s going to miss Michael’s show.”

He was also going to be scouring the county for a dangerous killer in twenty-something weather at a time of year when most people would rather be indoors with their families preparing for the upcoming holiday. But I was glad to see she had her priorities straight.

“How is everybody?” I asked.

“Michael is in his office doing his vocal exercises,” she said. “The Baptist ladies have finished and taken all the new curtains and seat cushions over to the church. They’ll be back tomorrow to clean up and take away the sewing machines. Rob and the boys are in the playroom, watching cartoons. Michael’s mother is in the kitchen.”

“I should go and say hello,” I said. “To Michael’s mother, that is.”

Rose Noire winced, but I wasn’t bothered. These days I actually liked my mother-in-law. Before Michael and I were married, her habit of referring to me as “her” and my family as “the outlaws” had rubbed me the wrong way. She seemed to grow a lot fonder of me once Michael and I had gotten married—though I found myself wondering if she was just resigning herself to the inevitable. But eventually, after a conversation with Rose Noire, I made a resolution to consider everything Mrs. Waterston said to me in a positive light—even if it sounded like criticism.