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Malia flushed, andHolly laughed.
“I knew it. I saw you two talking at the game yesterday.He’s a cutie.”
Malia shook her head. “He’s my partner for a sociology class project.Nothing more.”
Holly held up her hand. “Fine, and I didn’t see the two of you kiss anyway. What good is a secret romance if you’re not evengoing to kiss?”
“Let’s change the subject.” Rarity was happy for Malia. The girl had kept herself closed off for so long, worried that the cancer would come back. Now she had a chance at love. She deserved it. “So Caleb probably didn’t kill Janey. Who doyou think did?”
“Her sister.” Holly set her beer on the table. “She’s entitled and wanted the rest of the trust money. She’s probably already spent her inheritance and now needs her sister’s money. ‘What’s yours is mine’kind of thing.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking Trish too.” Rarity picked up her last chip and dug out the rest of the salsa to go with it. She thought better as she ate. “She’s just nota nice person.”
“That doesn’t mean she killed anyone. What about that lawyer who was at the funeral. He looked like a potential murderer,” Malia suggested.
“He’s too wimpy-looking to kill anyone, even Janey,” Holly offered, but then she looked up and noticed Rarity and Malia watching her. “What? Don’t tell me you weren’t saying the same thing when you saw him.”
“He doesn’t look like he has any kind of workout routine,” Rarity admitted. “But have we totally ruled out Marcus? I know Sam would hate me right now, but we don’t have evidence to prove hedidn’t do it.”
“His timeline. The coroner said Janey died at one thirty or after. He was on a Zoom call with his team during that time.” Malia reminded them of how Sam had explained his whereabouts.
“One thirty California time or Arizona time?” Holly challenged.
“Is there a difference?” Rarity was confused. Time zones did that to her, especially when she was trying to catch a plane when she traveled. Well, when she had traveled when she’d been a marketing consultant. Once, she’d missed a meeting because she thought it was an hour earlier than it was where she landed.
“I’ll check it out.” Holly glanced at her watch. “Can we start lunch? I need to be atwork at five.”
Malia nodded. “I’ll stay until Archer gets back. We all need to sign up for one of his hikes next week.”
“I work graveyard,” Holly grumbled as they moved into the kitchen to make the ingredients for the taco bar.
“Then we’ll do it early so it will be right after you’re off work. You’ll sleep great that day,” Malia suggested. “Are we making homemade tortillas? They’re the best.”
* * * *
After the others had left and Archer was in the shower, Rarity pulled out her murder notebook. She’d had a few suspects listed, and as she reviewed the names, she felt like she could cross off most of them, except Trish.
Would a sister kill her own twin? She knew now that Trish hadn’t been in Flagstaff getting her hair done. So where had she been? And this lawyer still bothered Rarity. He seemed way too familiar, at least with Trish. Had he been in onthe murder too?
But if the lawyer had been in on it, that killed Trish’s motive because he would have known that Janey had drained her trust. Unless he thought she hadn’t made a new will. It was almost seven and too late to call Catherine to see if she’d talked to Allen Holbart about Janey’s new will. He was helping Trish sue Cara. Would Catherine talk anyway? Or would that be attorney-client privilege? Would she need to tell the other attorney he wasn’t doing her work anymore?
Rarity sighed and put the book away in her tote. Maybe Jonathon would know more about what an attorney would do in this situation. And why. She’d talk to him in the morning before he got involvedin his writing.
“You look tired. Is the investigation getting to you?” Archer sat next to her on the couch. She hadn’t heard him come into the living room. He pushed back his wet hair. “I talked to Drew when I was driving the bus back to storage. He’s frustrated with everything. His dad keeps second-guessing his actions, Sam’s still not talking to him, and now Marcus says that as soon as Drew tells him he can, he’s moving backto California.”
“Which means Sam’s going to blame Drew for Marcus not staying.” Rarity closed her eyes. “I am tired of this whole thing. The drama everyone seems to have in their lives is making me freak out. Seriously, this is nothing, and everyone’s trying to make their lives the issue. A woman is dead. That’s the issue. We should be focusing on who killed Janey, not whose feelings aregetting hurt.”
“Before this week, I would have put money on Caleb. He just looks like a stalker. Especially when he was around Janey. I only met him a few times, but he was suspect number one in my book.”
Rarity turned and looked at him. “Because of the way he looked at Janey?”
Archer shrugged. “That and the vibe he puts out. He’s all not a care in the world, then you see flashes of something under that carefree attitude. Like he was wearing a mask.”
“Well, I guess I only saw the mask. I knew he was in love, in lust, in something for Janey, but I thought it was just one of those attractions.” She stretched her neck. “I can’t believe tomorrow’s Monday. Having Saturday events makes the weekend go really fast.”
“You might want to close on Monday and give yourself a full two days off,” Archer said. “Of course, I do my paperwork on Mondays, so I’m still in the office. There’s just not walk-ins since the sign says closed.”
“I kind of do that anyway, with opening late on Monday. Not very many people walk in, but I’m there if a tour bus hits town.” She took his hand in hers. “Who would have thought I’d be missing my Monday-to-Friday routine with corporate America?”
