Mancini took another sip as he considered Jesse’s explanation. “Okay. I get it. Now let’s get back to this morning. You ran down the stairs and across the yard in time to see a large black SUV speed off about a block away.”

“Black or some dark color. I can’t be sure.”

“You found Finch still alive and conscious.”

“Yes. I told him to hold on, that help was coming.”

“You knew Ethel had called?”

“No. I just said that to keep him calm. Ethel wasn’t there yet. I hesitated to leave him, but I knew I had to get help. Fortunately, Ethel came out. She gave me her robe and went back inside to dial 911. I tried to stop the bleeding using the robe as a compress. But…”

“Finch was conscious enough to speak?”

“Hardly a whisper.” Jesse’s stomach tightened as he formed the words of a lie. “I couldn’t understand him. He might have been calling for Ethel. Then he was gone.”

“Did Ethel come back out?”

Again, Jesse worried that he might be contradicting Ethel’s version. “Yes, but I told her Finch was dead and she should wait inside where it was warm.”

Mancini cocked his head. “Really? You gave her an order?”

Jesse felt his face flush. “I didn’t think of it as an order. If she said I did, it must have come across that way.”

“She didn’t say anything to me about coming back out.”

“Then I’m misremembering it. The police and EMTs were here very quickly. I’m afraid it’s all a blur.”

“Uh-huh,” Mancini said, the skepticism heavy in his voice. “So, are you and Ethel close?”

“Not really. I’d never met her before coming East last month. She and my mother exchanged Christmas cards, but it had been thirty years since they’d seen each other. My mom died last May.” He paused as his voice broke. “She was excited that I was coming to stay with Ethel.”

“Ethel’s some kind of cousin?”

“A double-first-cousin-twice-removed. My mother explained it to me, because she said Ethel would be very precise.”

Mancini shook his head. “Son, I have no idea what that means. Sounds like something you’d find out from one of those ancestry DNA kits.”

“Ethel’s parents had siblings who married each other. A brother and a sister wed a sister and a brother. Ethel’s aunt and uncle were both her blood relatives, and therefore Ethel and her first cousins were double first cousins. In other words, cousins through both sides of the family tree. I’m two generations down from Ethel—so a double-first-cousin-twice-removed.” Jesse shrugged. “Doesn’t mean a lot to me, but I guess since Ethel doesn’t have any other family, it’s her strongest blood tie.”