Shriner finished the lemonade and put the glass on a patio table. “Melinda had blown most of the insurance money from her husband at the casinos.”

“What was her choice of poison?”

“The card tables. She resisted joining GA because, like most addicts, she was convinced that she had it under control. It took a lot of prodding on my part, but she agreed to accompany me to a meeting. Then she went to another…and another. Soon she realized the extent of her problem. The money was almost gone and if she didn’t get it together, she’d be destitute. She needed to borrow money to tide her over until some bond interest came due, and her parents were the only ones who wouldn’t do a credit check.”

“But they knew she had the insurance money.”

“Exactly the point. She couldn’t tell them the truth about her gambling. She felt they wouldn’t understand her psychological state.”

“Or maybe they were tired of giving her their hard-earned money.”

“That’s why she was petrified to face them. She told me that if she admitted her gambling to her parents, they’d try to take away the kids. So she asked me if I could think of something to help her out.”

“So you lied for her.”

“Not completely. I said she could tell her parents that she spent the insurance money on a private detective. I’d back up her story.”

“Did they call?”

“Of course. I could tell that they liked Ben. Money spent for the case would be acceptable.”

“What did you say?”

“That I was looking into the case and was in contact with the detectives. They accepted that.”

Oliver said, “According to Melinda’s mom, she knew it was not.”

“Then she didn’t let on to me.”

“Which detective did you speak with?”

“Arnie Lamar. Both he and his partner thought it was a carjacking. He also told me they suspected Darnell Arlington but couldn’t pin it on him because he had an ironclad alibi. That’s why I called Darnell up. And like I told you the first time, he seemed broken up about Little’s death.”

“Why did Lamar suspect Arlington if the kid had an alibi?”

“Because Arlington was a black kid and had a beef against Little. For a while, he and his partner were working on the assumption that Arlington got one of his friends to do it, but that went nowhere. Arlington didn’t seem to have much contact with his friends once he moved, and he certainly didn’t have any hit money to do the payoff.”

“Maybe they did it as a favor.”