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“Well, I don’t know about that, but I do know that this town needs all the help it can get. But I want to know if you’re going to get involved in this because it might make me think differently if the federals will be looking over my shoulder.”
“Not my job. You can have Dak and the eels all to yourself.”
“Thank you for that. Now, where you heading out tonight?”
“I’ve been invited to dinner at the Bings.”
“Well, aren’t you lucky? I hear Françoise is really good in the kitchen. But did she give a reason for wanting to have you over?” “Just said she wanted to talk.”
“You still up in arms about Chief Bing?”
“I haven’t ruled anyone out.”
“He’s in Florida.”
Devine decided not to volunteer the information about Bing being AWOL. “For all I know he’ll show up at dinner.”
“Well, if he does, tell him I said hello.”
“I will, unless he tries to kill me.”
Harper waved this off. “But I do think you’re right about something.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, everything you said. Hell, I even went over there myself and tried it. Well, to the extent I could. Not as easy as it looks. And I don’t have the physical problems he did. And then there were the knots you talked about and all.” Harper sighed. “I don’t see how Earl could’ve hung himself. I think you’re right.”
“Yeah, Annie Palmer agreed with me, too, after I laid out the evidence. Only Guillaume concluded that it was suicide despite all the contradictory evidence.”
“Well, sometimes the ME is wrong. I’ve seen that before.”
Wrong or just covering up, thought Devine. He said, “How about Earl not actually finding Jenny’s body? You ready to agree with me on that, too?”
“I’m not there but I’m still thinking. Now that I know someone killed him, it does give a motive. So, how’s Alex?”
“Hanging in there. I took her to see Dak. It went okay. She’s tougher than she knows.”
“If she could just remember who attacked her, it would save us a lot of trouble.”
“It’s not that simple, Chief.”
“I know, I know. Wishful thinking. Any luck on tracing the Norma rounds?”
“We know the manufacturer. We just don’t know how those rounds came to be up here.”
“Has to be the same person. Even with the NATO round shot at you. I mean, it’s all sniper stuff, right?”
Devine was about to agree, but then what he had thought about before came back to him.
But they weren’t all the same sniper stuff, were they? Am I wrong about it being Benjamin Bing? Or I am wrong thinking he’s the only one? If my theory is correct on how Earl was murdered, asecondperson is probably involved.
He came out of these musings and said, “After I convinced her that her grandfather was murdered, Annie Palmer gave me permission to search Earl’s cottage.”
Harper perked up at this. “Find anything?”
Devine told him about the video of Wilbur Kingman’s funeral service.
“Ben Bing was sitting right next to Earl. And he was talking to him about something. And Earl did not seem pleased.”
