Half an hour later, however, stray thoughts started to zing back and forth inside my brain. They started with poor Ryan, wondering what he was doing on this chilly spring night, hoping that he had enough battery power in his lantern to read the books I’d brought.

The next stray thought went to Kristen, but Rafe’s reminder that she was a force of nature consoled me and I moved on to planning how to gather information about each person on the suspect list.

I might have uncovered myself from cat, blanket, and fiancé to get a pen and paper, but Eddie was purring, so that was clearly out. Instead, I worked on the list mentally, tallying up the knowledge in tidy declarative sentences.

Charlie Seller was Pug’s nephew.

Ian Breece was an organic farmer.

Skyler Ellison was an employee at the art gallery.

Keegan Kolb was an upstairs neighbor of Ryan’s.

John Pinnock was a bad-tempered neighbor of the Mattocks.

I perused the list. The two most lacking in information were Charlie Seller and Keegan Kolb. But who was the most likely candidate? “I’d be okay if John Pinnock did it,” I murmured.

“What’s that?” Rafe glanced over at me, but I shook my head.

“Nothing. Sorry.” I went back to considering my list, using my fingers.

Index finger was Pinnock. It probably wasn’t fair that I was pushing him into the number one slot, just because he was cranky. Was I profiling? Hmm. Probably. But since I wasn’t law enforcement, I wasn’t going to be overly concerned about my sad tendency toward bias. What did I need to find out about Pinnock? If he knew anything about Conti sculptures.

Middle finger was Skyler Ellison. He knew about the sculptures, but what I needed to learn was if he knew the Valeras had one. And if he knew anything about Ian Breece selling a Conti to Pug.

Ring finger was Ian Breece. I had a witness in Cookie that Ian had been trying to sell Pug a Conti, but did Ian know the Valeras owned a Conti? That was what I needed to find out. Had Pug bought the Valeras’ stolen sculpture? And how many Contis were likely to be running around in northwest lower Michigan, anyway?

I shook my head and moved on. Pinky finger was Keegan Kolb. She was in the Pinnock category: find out what she knew about Conti sculptures.

And Charlie Seller, the final suspect, was my thumb. He had the most question marks, because I knew absolutely nothing about him, and I needed to find out everything I could.