“I thought it was a big mistake. And actually, so did Mary Kay. She said Martin was no fun at all and … and she was going to dump him. And then …” Kirby faltered and raised stricken eyes to Hannah’s face. “Do you really need to know this?”

“I do. You need to tell me everything if we’re going to catch Brandi’s killer.”

“Okay. But please call her Mary Kay. That’s the way I want to remember her. She …she asked me to leave Lake Eden with her.”

Hannah blinked hard. “You mean, Bran … I mean, Mary Kay was going to dump Martin for you?”

“No! It wasn’t like that, Hannah, really. Mary Kay was dumping him anyway. And she wasn’t interested in marrying me, or anything permanent like that. She just didn’t like being alone, and she wanted me to come along with her for company.”

“I see,” Hannah said, even though she didn’t. “Did … um … Mary Kay tell you when she was planning to go?”

“Tonight. She was going to wait until Martin was busy talking to somebody, and then she was going to take off with his car and leave it at the airport in Minneapolis.”

“She was flying back to Las Vegas?”

“Not Vegas. She was going to the Bahamas, and she offered to buy my ticket if I’d come along. She said she could get at least fifty thousand for her coat and the ring Martin gave her, and if that wasn’t enough, she had an antique knife that was worth a bundle. She told me that we could live high on the hog in the Bahamas.”

“So what did you say?”

“I told her I couldn’t go, that I liked my job in Lake Eden. At first, she thought I was kidding, but when she realized I was serious, she called me a … “ Kirby stopped, clearly embarrassed. “You don’t really have to know, do you?”

“No, I don’t. How about the antique knife she mentioned? Did she show it to you?”

“No. I had no idea she was talking about stealing your mother’s antique cake knife until you told me that it was the murder weapon.”

Hannah thought about what Kirby had said for a moment. She was almost sure that he was telling her the truth. “Why didn’t you tell me all this the first time we talked?”

“I couldn’t! I figured if you knew about the history Mary Kay and I had between us, you might think I killed her!”

“Did you?”