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His lawyer yanked him back into the chair. “Shut up, Archie.”
“No. My mom worked hard to put me through school. I’m not letting her go to jail for something—” He cut himself off that time, glaring at Connor.
“For something you did?” Kit asked. “Look, we’ve dug into Chadwick Redford and found that he doesn’t exist. We can proceed with a murder charge against you at full speed, but we may drag our feet on your mom’s case. I mean, she had the records in her house. She had to have known that the house had not been bought legitimately. But that might take a while to prove, so she might be in jail for a long time.”
“She can get out on bail,” the lawyer told Archie.
Connor scoffed. “Did you know that Frankie Flynn was a cop, Archie?”
Archie sucked in a harsh breath. “No, he wasn’t. He ran an antique shop in San Francisco before he retired to Shady Oaks.”
Kit slid another photo across the table. “This is Frank Wilson at the time of his retirement from SDPD. He was a homicide lieutenant who later changed his name to Flynn. Do you know what happens when a decorated cop is murdered, Archie? Even a retired one?”
Archie closed his eyes, visibly sagging. “I didn’t kill him.”
“Then who did?” Kit asked.
“Crawford. He hated Flynn because Flynn was gay.”
Kit shook her head. “He didn’t kill Mr. Flynn, Archie. He was already dead by the time Mr. Flynn was killed. Start telling me what I need to know or we’re going to assume you killed them both.”
“Why would I kill Flynn?” Archie cried. “I didn’t kill Crawford, and I didn’t have a single reason to kill Flynn.”
Kit shrugged. “Maybe he’d caught on to what you and Crawford were doing. It could be that simple.”
Archie slapped the table in frustration. “I didn’t kill Flynn!”
“Then who did?” Kit asked again.
“Evans,” Archie spat. “It had to be Evans.”
Kit sat back in her chair. “Why would she kill him?”
“Like you said, Flynn found out about the money.”
The lawyer closed his eyes. “Archie. Shut up.”
“No. They can’t pin any murders on me because I didn’t kill anybody!” He turned to Kit. “We stole money, fine, but I didn’t kill anyone.”
“How was Miss Evans involved?” Connor asked coldly. “She says you’re a ‘nice young man,’ but you throw her under the bus. Why should we believe you?”
“There’s proof on the server,” Archie said. “I know you took it. Evans called me all upset because she was afraid that you’d find evidence on it.”
“Why would you leave evidence on Shady Oaks’s company server?” Kit asked, genuinely puzzled. “Doesn’t seem very secure.”
“It’s very secure,” Archie said through clenched teeth. “Nobody’s cracking that encryption except for me. You can tell your pet monkeys to stop trying. You’ll all be in a retirement home before your IT wannabes figure it out.”
“Or we can hire Professor Chen,” Connor said coldly.
Archie paled once again, then rallied, lifting his chin. “He won’t be able to, either.”
“Again, that’s fine,” Kit said. “We’ll pursue the murder charges while we wait. Your mom and Dominic might be able to get out on bail, but we’re going to do everything we can to see that doesn’t happen.”
Archie huffed impatiently. “I didn’t kill anybody.”
“What about Selma Waite?” Connor asked.
Archie’s head rocked back as if they’d slapped him.
