“Using Quincy Shiffley’s truck,” the chief said, nodding. “Horace found ample forensic evidence to prove that. We may never know if Riddick committed the duck prank just to cause mischief—because he could see how much the first two pranks and the resulting church-swapping upset Mr. Vess—or if he already had murder in mind. I’m pretty sure he used the ducks in the hope of casting suspicion on Mr. Vess.”

“Since Mr. Vess had better access to the ducks than anyone else in the county,” I said, nodding.

“And Riddick lit the campfire near Temple Beth-El to make sure all eyes were there and not on Trinity Episcopal,” the chief went on. “And he seems to be a belt-and-suspenders kind of crook, so I expect we’ll find he planted those beer bottles with the boys’ fingerprints on them just in case we didn’t believe that Mr. Vess had somehow incinerated himself while trying to fill the Trinity basement with stolen rabbits. So Ronnie and Caleb will have to deal with whatever punishment their parents impose for underage drinking, but I’m convinced they’re innocent of the duck and rabbit thefts.”

“Good,” I said. “I thought they sounded sincere. On another topic—not that I want to pry into New Life Baptist’s business, but what’s the story on Jerome Lightfoot? Is it just me, or was it a little weird for someone to go to all that trouble just to get a job as a church choir director? Even for such a distinguished choir as yours,” I added hastily.

“Indeed,” the chief said. “Apparently, to judge from the last three churches at which he worked—two of them under different pseudonyms—his modus operandi is to use his position as choir director to worm his way into the confidence of key church financial officials and then arrange to have the blame fall on them when he absconds with as much church money as he can manage. His previous flights have all taken place either at Christmas or Easter, when he could add substantial cash sums from the collection plate to what he was pillaging from the church bank accounts. I rather doubt he could have pulled it off here in Caerphilly—our treasurer was gratified to have his daughter chosen as a soloist over two arguably more worthy vocalists, but he’s not that gullible. Still, you never know.”

“And even if he was planning to try this Christmas, I bet all the church-swapping threw a monkey wrench in his plans,” I said. “That could account for what a nasty temper he was in every time I saw him over in Trinity.”