“It will give us a chance to talk,” Rikke said. “Don’t you think we should talk, Tish?”

Tish rubbed the skin on her forearms. She was cold. “Sure, but it’s a rental car. I can’t just leave it.”

“This isn’t the big city. You can call them. They’ll send someone to get the car.”

“I have friends inside,” Tish said, glancing at the entrance to the bookstore and suddenly wishing she could see Stride’s face. “I’m sure one of them can drive me. You probably want to be alone.”

“I said I would drive you, so let’s go.”

Tish hesitated for another second. Rikke was angry about the death of her brother, but if she wanted an opportunity to vent her poison at Tish, so be it. Tish didn’t care. On some level, she deserved it.

“Sure, okay,” Tish said. “Why not?”

She retrieved her purse, turned off the lights on the Civic, and popped the trunk. She removed her suitcase and relocated it to the trunk of Rikke’s tan Impala, which was parked next to her. Rikke made no move to help. She waited until Tish had closed the trunk and then climbed inside the driver’s door and started the engine.

Tish got inside the Impala and went to put on her seat belt. The strap was broken.

“Sorry, I’ve been meaning to get that fixed,” Rikke said.

She drove out of the parking lot, leaving Tish’s stranded Civic behind them.

“Which bridge do you want me to take?” Rikke asked.

“Whichever is lower,” Tish said. “I hate heights.”

48
___________

Stride leaned closer to Maggie and Serena across the table at the café. “How did Finn get home?” he asked them.

Maggie sipped from her cream-colored mug of chai tea and raised an eyebrow at him. “What are you talking about?”

“On the night Laura was killed, Finn was in the park watching her. How did he get back home to Superior?”

Serena shrugged. “By car.”

“Yes, except Rikke never let Finn drive himself,” Stride said.

“Well, Rikke swore that Finn wasn’t in the park at all, but we know he was there,” Maggie said. “So he must have had a car.”

“Or maybe Rikke picked him up,” Stride said.

As soon as he said it out loud, he realized that was what had happened.

After Amanda’s offhanded comment about mothers and daughters, Stride had found himself looking at the circumstances of Laura’s murder from an entirely new perspective. In a case with too many suspects already, he had overlooked one other person who must have been in the park that night.

“Does that really change our theory of the crime?” Serena asked. “If Rikke picked him up, that means she must have suspected all along that Finn killed Laura. So she lied to give him an alibi.”

Stride leaned back in his chair. “That’s what I thought, but it works both ways. By giving Finn an alibi, she also gives herself one.”

Maggie shook her head. “What are you saying, boss?”