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“He’s leading the investigation? Then why are you doing the talking?” Paul demanded.
Despite the snarky delivery, it was a fair point. Leo would have addressed it, but Duncan beat him to it.
“I’ve asked Agent Connelly to assist, seeing as he’s been here the whole time and knows all the players. I trust that’s not a problem.”
“No, sir,” Joy squeaked as if she spoke for the entire group.
“That’s what I thought,” Officer Duncan said.
“To answer the question of why we called everyone together, we’re here because Chance Galeton has confessed to murdering both Rex and Grady.” Leo watched as the gathered group reacted to his announcement. A loud murmur rose from the table; the facial expressions ranged from disbelief to horror to outrage. Everyone started talking at once. Leo raised his hand. “One at a time.”
“If Chance killed Rex and Grady, why is he sitting at the table?” Brian asked, “Shouldn’t he be in handcuffs in the back of a squad car?”
“Chance confessed to killing Rex and Grady,” Leo clarified. “He didn’t, though. He’s lying.”
Annette asked, “How can you be so sure?”
“Several reasons. Even though Chance was on our short list of suspects, once he confessed, it became clear he didn’t do it.”
“Wait. There’s a short list? And Chance was on it?” Tessa interjected.
“Yes, and yes.”
“Why did you think he might have done it?”
Leo turned to his wife. “Sasha, do you want to take this?”
She gave him a warm smile. “Sure. Chance and Paul reported two wildly different versions of events that happened around the time we believe Rex was killed. At first, we wondered about Paul. With the gambling debt, he had a decent motive. But as we talked to people, they confirmed Paul’s account. So, it seemed unlikely that he was lying.”
“Wow. Thanks,” Paul grunted. Leo forgave himself for wishing, just the tiniest bit, that general crankiness was a crime.
Sasha went on as if Paul hadn’t interrupted. “Joy said that at some point, Grady was speaking to Rex. But Chance is the one who described that conversation as heated. He said Rex grabbed Grady by the arm. We know Grady went upstairs afterward. According to Joy and Paul, shortly after that, Bethany answered the door to talk to the Carlisles, who had stopped to let you all know they were going into town so Dr. Graham could treat Hatty’s burn.”
She paused, and Leo turned toward Hatty and John. “It was Bethany who answered the door, correct?”
“Yes,” Hatty confirmed.
“But Chance told us it was Tessa. He also told us Paul came into the house through the front door with the cocktail supplies. None of that matches what the others have said.”
Annette shook her head. “So he had the details mixed up. It’s been a chaotic day.”
“Maybe,” Leo allowed. “Or maybe it was deliberate.”
Sasha plunged into the story. “After Grady returned from his chat with Rex, Joy left their room because she was afraid Grady was going to confront her. She fled downstairs and was on her way to get a cup of tea when she saw Chance standing in the sitting room outside the dining room where Rex was killed, staring at the fireplace and, more specifically, the fireplace tools.”
“He was,” Joy said. “But why is that relevant?”
“It’s relevant because Rex was smashed over the head with the fireplace poker. Forensic testing will confirm that Rex’s blood is on that poker. It’ll probably also pick up some fingerprints. So, when Chance heard the transmission over the radio that we’d found the fireplace poker, he showed his hand.”
“How?” Bethany spoke for the first time.
“By running out of the house,” Sasha said.
Bethany laughed harshly. “Only Chance could think he’d escape by running away in the middle of a blizzard.”
“No,” Sasha corrected. “He didn’t run away.”
Seeing the baffled expressions around the table, Leo said, “He ran to the police. He ran toward the house. He knew that’s where the police were.”
