Page 32 of Dead Man's Alibi

“I beg your pardon?”Cal said, clearly as lost as Jill was.

“I wanted to tell you over the phone, but I figured you’d have questions, and it’d be easier to just do it in person.This Jules Hyatt.She was strangled.Found at the TikTok Motel.”

There were a few beats of silence as everyone absorbed this unexpected piece of information.From thisveryunexpected source.

Jill dropped her bag as an afterthought.“Grandma, how on earth did you find that out?”

“You remember that lady I talked to during my physical therapy after the stroke?”Glenda’s expression darkened.“Well,Ididn’t talk.She talkedatme.Constantly.”

“I remember you being irritated by her.”Jill bent over to untie her boots and toe them off, while Cal, Nate, and Sam stood huddled on the mat, still in some open-mouthed shock, clearly.

“Well, she was always yammering on about her grandson, the bailiff.Such an important job at the courthouse.Could have been a police officer, of course, but had such an interest in the law.”Glenda rolled her eyes.“Anyway, she always figured me not talking back to her was about the stroke.Happened to think about her the other day and figured I could call her up, make up some story about finally being recovered and wanting to be social again.Maybe get some information from this bailiff grandson.”

She clearly had.Jill was surprised on so many different levels, she didn’t even know what to say.Everyone else was in the same boat, because Grandma just kept explaining, and no one interrupted with any questions.

“Had to butter her up first.Work my way around to it.Just took a few carefully placed suggestions about how I’d heard a rumor, and surely her grandson with such great connections knew something about it.Didn’t take much time at all to hear back from her.That woman loves a rapt audience.Pretty sure my ear’s bleeding from all the work I had to do listening to her prattle on.But she got what we needed.”

“She’s… sure?”Nate asked carefully.

Like he was almost afraid to know for sure.Like he didn’t want it to be true.

“Said her grandson knew for sure.I’m sure he heard some kind of rumor, but he does work down at the courthouse, and there’s people around there that might know.No reason to make it up, anyway.Might not be a 100 percent on the money, but it’s something, don’t you think?”

Cal grabbed her by the arms, gave her a little shake that had Grandma letting out a surprised laugh.

“Something?Glenda.You’re amiracleworker.”

She only grunted, but she was clearly pleased with Cal’s reaction and her own results.As she should be.

“Will this help?”Jill asked Cal.

Because it still didn’t answerwho, but it was enough information to work closer in that direction.She hoped.

“Not directly, but it’s a place to start.”Cal looked at Sam, who nodded in affirmative.“And it’s good to know.Strangulation is personal and much more likely to leave DNA evidence behind.Makes it harder to pin on Nate once they get all their crime scene tests back.”

Nate’s expression didn’t change.He didn’t seem all that relieved by this information.If anything, he seemed bothered by it.

Maybe because he’d known the woman.Maybe it was worse to know the particulars when it was kind of personal.

“I can try to see what other information she might be able to get if you let me know what you’d need,” Glenda offered.

“Who found her.Which officers might have responded to the 9-1-1 call.When the call was made…” Sam kept rattling off questions until Cal held up a hand.

“How about this?Sam will email a list of questions to Jill.You see what you can manage from that Glenda, but this is already huge.”

“Huge,” Sam repeated.

She clearly felt some kind of relief from the news, even if Nate didn’t.

“We’ll head back to town.Get to work on these threads,” Cal said, opening the door again and gesturing Nate and Sam outside.

Jill found herself trailing after them, wringing her hands together.Maybe this was it.All they needed.Maybe everything could go back to whatever normal constituted for around here.

“Should I still call the police stations?”she asked Cal as he stepped out onto the porch.“Or is this a better angle to follow?”

He studied her face like he could read her reticence.She really didn’t like that feeling like he could see through her.“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, Jill.”

“Iwantto help.But I’ll admit lying to cops makes me a little uneasy.”