And Ashes, already aware of who was hers, jumped down from Kenny’s lap and headed to Joe’s.

“Please, Kenny. I need to do something. I’m losing it.”

“Christ. Fine.” Kenny tossed him a huge file. “We’re still watching the regulars.”

Joe read through everything carefully. “You and I both know that approximately eighty percent of the time, the owners turn out to be the culprits.”

“Yeah,” Kenny said miserably.

“Tina has an alibi. She was with her husband during both fires. The twins corroborated this, which gives all four of them an alibi.”

“Right.” Kenny’s mouth went grim. “Which leads us to the second owner.”

“Camille.”

“She didn’t do this,” Kenny said firmly.

“There’s no evidence against her,” Joe agreed. “But we know she was holding back in the interviews. It was also out of character for her to call Summer that night of the second fire.”

“You think she started the fire, then realized Summer was in there, and panicked?”

“She has insurance motive.”

“She has plenty of money.”

“Look, I know how you feel about her, Kenny.”

Kenny just looked at him.

“I know because I’m there,” Joe said quietly. “I’m in hell over her daughter, all right?”

“No, not all right. I’ll give you that there’s some circumstantial evidence against her. There’s also the fact that the fires accomplished something nothing else had.”

“They brought Summer home,” Joe said grimly.

They both looked at each other for a long moment.

“Let’s widen the scope,” Kenny finally said. “Back to all the players for a minute.”

“Okay.” Joe flipped a few pages. “Braden told the truth about quitting smoking. His doctor confirmed.”

“Yes.”

“And Ally. She’s never smoked, nor does she wear a man’s shoe. She also, thanks to the art gallery owner next to her, the one who has a crush on her, has a rock solid alibi. He was watching her through the windows. He saw her doing her books the night of the store fire.”

“Creepy but correct.”

“The twins.”

“Too young for the first fire.”

“Stella and Gregg,” Joe said. “Neither of them smoke or have a size eleven-and-a-half shoe, though they have no alibi for either fire. Plus there’s the fact they lost a store of their own, and kept that quiet. Revenge.”

“Gee, Joe, you’re good at this. Maybe you should get a job here.”

“Ha ha. We need a real motive, Kenny.”

“And a real suspect.”

Joe leaned back in the chair, his head against the wall, his legs spread out in front of him. The exhaustion had set in. “My brain is so tired I could crash right here.”

“You shouldn’t even be here,” Kenny said. “Where’s your watch woman? I told Summer to keep you in bed.”

“That’s not really working out for us.”

Kenny looked disgusted with him. “You kept your mouth shut again, didn’t you?”