Page 23 of Dead Man's Alibi

“I guess we’re all kind of connected now,” Sam said softly.“Glenda helped Cal when he was a kid, then helped us put Ben behind bars.We helped Jill and Glenda last month.That’s community, right?”

Community.Family.He supposed both things were easy enough when it felt like he was activelyhelpingthose things.

He didn’t like to be the center of the problem.He didn’t want to be the center of anything.

But he supposed he didn’t have a choice.

They exchanged greetings with Glenda and Jill when they got out of their truck.They were let into the house by Cal.It had become almostcommonplaceto gather around the dining room table, usually for dire reasons, but also to worktogetherto fight those dire reasons.

Natehatedbeing the dire reason.It made something that had begun to feel like family sour.But before that ugly feeling could really get its claws in him, Aly let out a little screech.

She all but leaped from her chair and grabbed Sam’s hand.She held it up in the air so everyone could see.

“Whatisthis?” Aly demanded.

The ring he’d put there glinted under the light above them.Sam finished chewing the bite of food that was in her mouth.

She slid him an enigmatic look before answering.“What does it look like?”

Aly’s blue gaze flew to him.“Engaged?You gotengaged?When?”

Uncomfortable with both AlyandSam’s reaction, and that he hadn’t thought this wholehey, you have to tell your family big life decisionsthing through, Nate shifted in his seat and looked down at his plate.“After Cal’s party.”

“You guys.”Aly sounded kind of baffled.“This is so great.So amazing.I’m so happy for you!”

Nate glanced up enough to see Aly squeeze Sam into a hug.Sam grimaced but patted the arm Aly had practically around her throat.Sam’s gaze met his briefly, with a little hint of amusement, so he smiled at her.

Because she might have tried to give that ring back, so convinced she wascursed, but it was still right where it belonged.

Bad could keep on throwing shit at them, but that didn’t mean they stopped living.And that ring was case in fucking point.

They settled back into eating, and Nate could almost convince himself it was just a nice family dinner.Aly doing her normal fussing.Gathering around the dining room table that almost felt normal.More real than those family dinners he’d spent eating at this very table as a kid.

But the specter ofwhythey were here hung around Nate, and Sam too he’d guess, based on her complete silence and lack of entering into any of the superficial small talk going on around them, even when Aly tried to pull her into discussions about the engagement.

When Aly brought out the dessert, Nate felt exhausted by the energy it took to pretend like this was a normal day.He couldfeelCal’s gaze on him, studying him in that lawyer way Cal had that seemed to see through things it shouldn’t.

“Well, I guess since this was my idea, I should be the one to broach the subject,” Cal announced as they all dug into the brownies Aly had dished out.“Jill and I got to talking this morning.I thought she made a really good point.One we’ve overlooked.I’ve been thinking about how to prove Nate didn’t murder anyone.But there’s a much simpler way to go about that.Prove who did.”

Nate hadn’t really given much thought to which was simpler, but hehadbeen considering who might have done it.“Her ex-husband is the most likely suspect, but I’ve gone through all my notes on the case backward and forward.Michael Hyatt never showed any concern that Jules might find out about the affair, want a divorce.He didn’t even act like he cared about the big payout.He was too busy with his new girlfriend and seemed quite happy to be.But Jules did insist she was in danger.”

“She didn’t want to go to the cops, and she wanted you to spend the night at her house,” Sam said bitterly.“I’m not sure you can take that at face value.”

“She’s dead, Sam.That’s pretty damn face value.”

“I’m sure the cops are looking into him,” Aly offered, clearly trying to play peacemaker.“I know they got everything wrong with Marie, but they certainly questioned Ben.They searched the house.They did all kinds of police work looking into a murdered woman’s husband.And they did the same when Sandy died.The romantic partner is usually the first suspect.I’m sure they’re looking into Hyatt, even if they also look at Nate.”

“But that doesn’t mean we can’t too,” Sam said.“We’ve been so preoccupied with proving you didn’t do anything.Jill’s right.We need to prove someoneelsedid.”

“You guys have to be careful with any investigating,” Cal warned.“You’ve got bias, so we’ve got to tread lightly there.Iprobably need to be careful as Nate’s representative.But we’ve got a handful of people in our corner who might havesomebias, but don’t have any kind of professional connection to the law.”Cal looked from Landon and Aly to Glenda and Jill.“So why not all work together?”

“We’re not investigators,” Landon pointed out.“We don’t know any of the players.What are we supposed to do?”

“That’s why I thought we should all be here,” Cal said, looking around the room.“Sam and Nate can give us all a little PI101, and we can go from there.”

*

Jill knew sheshouldn’t be filing information away as future inspiration for a book, but the way Sam explained how she set up an investigation was fascinating.The similarities between it and police work, with some notable differences, had a million ideas percolating.