Gabriel gives a solemn nod. “I think they made me come after school hours to fuck with me. Morrow knows I have to work. I had to call in and have someone cover me at the hotel.”

That explains Jason, then. “Why you, though?” I ask. “Are you a witness?”

“They’re interviewing all of the football players and cheerleaders not present in the locker room during halftime.”

“Well, then, where were you?”

“By myself, blowing off some steam.” Gabriel coughs. He’s a shitty liar.

“You know they don’t believe you, either?”

“Yes.” He squirms. “But I didn’t kill Natalie.”

It feels honest, but I can’t help thinking about Natalie’s blackmail file. She wanted to get revenge on Gabriel for breaking up with her. There’s more to their history than he’s let on.

“Even though she was spying on your therapy sessions and hoping to blackmail you?”

“She what?”

“I found it all on her computer. She has a note that you were doing something shady for money, but she didn’t know what.”

And he squirms again.

“Gabriel.”

“It’s complicated, and I’m not exactly going to spill my secret to you on the street, outside of a police station. I barely even know you.”

I stay on his heels as he starts walking.

“Fine. You don’t have to tell me.” For now, I don’t add. “But I do need your help.”

That gets him to stop. I nearly run into his back.

“How can I help you?”

“Town history. You know the stuff that’s not necessarily written down, right?”

Gabriel squints against the afternoon sun. “What does town history have to do with Natalie eavesdropping on therapy sessions and blackmailing people?”

“Uh, I’m kind of working multiple angles of inquiry here.” I scrunch my face in a way I hope is both adorable and convincing.

Gabriel tilts his head, the full-on skeptic. “Still? I hadn’t heard from you about the security footage, so I figured it had come to nothing and you’d dropped it.”

“Not exactly. That part did come to nothing, but there’s so much more going on.”

Gabriel considers me, and I can see his love for history slowly winning over his common sense. “What exactly do you want to know?”

“The anecdotal stuff. I read the original police file for the Caroline Quinn murder, and it was pretty basic.”

“You what? Seriously?”

I shrug. “I’m resourceful. Which is why I’m glad I ran into you. What were the rumors? The conjecture? About other suspects, about how hard the police were really looking at anyone other than Joe Bedecki. Was Mayor Bergen putting pressure on the sheriff to solve the case fast? Also, was that Mayor Bergen this Mayor Bergen’s uncle or…”

“Father,” Gabriel supplies. “He was pretty notorious as a back-to-American-values guy. Fiercely resisted the free-love seventies. Squeaky-clean, on the surface at least.”