“Yeah, it seems that everyone that we’ve talked to is involved and connected, but none of them murdered Little,” Marge remarked. “And equally as convenient, the supposed guilty ones are either dead or missing.”

Decker said, “And both of you found Darnell to be credible?”

Oliver rubbed his eyes. He and Marge had been up since four in the morning to make a six-thirty flight out of Ohio to get to work by ten. Going cross-country east to west was always disruptive. True, he gained three hours, but his internal clock was so discombobulated that it hardly mattered. Even full-strength coffee wasn’t helping. “Right now, I don’t know. When we left, I felt like he was telling the truth.”

“I did, too.” Marge was wearing drawstring pants, a loose-fitting T-shirt, and an unstructured jacket. Comfortable traveling clothes that went anywhere. “If you think it’s necessary, we can set up lie detector tests to rule out Wenderhole and Arlington. But even if they came back as being deceptive, we don’t have anything that ties them to the crime—no witnesses, no physical evidence, just a lot of hearsay.”

Oliver yawned. “I agree with Marge.”

Decker said, “You look tired, Scott.”

“I’ll wake up eventually. I have to. I have a court case this afternoon.”

“Lester Hollis?”

“Yeah.”

“What about you?” Decker asked Marge.

“Other than a mound of paperwork, nothing too pressing.”

“At this point, do we have any new reason to think that Melinda Little, Jervis Wenderhole, and Darnell Arlington were directly involved in Bennett Little’s murder?”

“I don’t know about involved,” Marge said. “I don’t think any of them were actually there when Little was murdered.”

“Agreed.”

“Do we think Melinda, Wenderhole, or Arlington commissioned Bennett Little’s murder?”

“After talking to Darnell, I don’t think that he had anything to do with Little’s murder,” Oliver said. “He wasn’t in town, he had no money to commission a murder, he was turning his life around, and phone records don’t show any contact between him, Rudy Banks, Jervis Wenderhole, or Leroy Josephson directly after the murder.”

Marge said, “There were some phone calls to Arlington from both Josephson and Wenderhole before the murder—after Darnell left L.A.—but those calls could have been the ones that his nana intercepted. They certainly didn’t last long. After Little’s murder, no contact between the boys until around six months later, when Josephson called him. Then there was nothing in the way of any communication for a long, long time. I think Arlington is in the clear.”

“What about Wenderhole?”

Marge said, “He freely admitted that he picked up Leroy at Clearwater Park, so he was involved. But he insists that was the extent of what he did. He admitted that he did wrong, and he’s willing to take a polygraph to clear him of the murder. I believe Wenderhole’s telling the truth.”