“So you’ve decided to help him look into the matter?”
“That’s about the size of it.”
Bev studied him for a long moment. Then she gave him a knowing smile. “You’re enjoying yourself, aren’t you? I think you like the idea of playing Dr. Watson to Rafe’s Sherlock Holmes.”
“Be the first thing Rafe and I have done together since he was a kid.” Mitchell was aware of an oddly wistful feeling. “We got along pretty good for a few years after he and Gabe came to live with me. But from the day Rafe hit his mid-teens, he and I locked horns. It’s been a little better in the past few years, but it’s like we’re walking on eggshells. Doesn’t take much for either one of us to set the other off. My fault, I reckon.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Mitch. You did all right by your grandsons. Sinclair wasn’t much of a father to his boys.”
Mitchell gripped the mug hard. “That’s because he had me for an example.”
“The point is that after your son’s death, you stepped in and did what you had to do. You stopped your running around—”
“Well—”
Bev chuckled. “All right, let’s just say you cut way down on your running around. You paid attention to the job of raising Rafe and Gabe, and neither one of them has screwed up his life. I’d say you did okay.”
Bev always had a way of making him feel better about things, Mitchell thought. She had a way of giving him a slightly different perspective.
“Let’s get back to the reason you’re here.” Bev put her coffee aside and sat forward. “You say you want to help Rafe find out what really happened to the Sadler woman. But what if there isn’t any conspiracy to uncover? What if Chief Yates was right about her death being an accident?”
Mitchell shook his head. “I started into this thinking that Rafe and Hannah were going off the deep end. But now I’m not so sure. Bev, you knew everything that Ed knew about the goings-on in Eclipse Bay, and Ed knew a hell of a lot. If I said that there’s a possibility that Kaitlin Sadler might have been having an affair with someone who wanted to keep it a big, dark secret, do any names come to mind?”
“Kaitlin got involved with more than one married man.” Bev made a face. “She was not very popular with the ladies of Eclipse Bay, I can tell you that.”
“How about if I throw in some dirty movies and some female underwear in a man’s size? Does that narrow the list a bit?”
Bev angled her chin. “Hmm,” she said thoughtfully.
Mitchell waited.
“Unfortunately,” Bev said slowly, “there is one name that does come to mind. Ed once told me about some rumors he’d heard shortly before Kaitlin’s death. Naturally he ignored them. Ed was an old-fashioned kind of journalist. Unlike this modern bunch, he didn’t believe in printing the details of people’s sex lives on the front page of a family newspaper.”
Mitchell could feel himself getting revved up. This investigating business was fun. He was starting to understand why Rafe was so eager to poke a stick into this particular varmint hole. “Can I have the name of this guy Ed didn’t want to put on the front page?”
Bev hesitated. “I’ll give it to you, but it won’t do you any good. He has an ironclad alibi for that night.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I can vouch for his whereabouts that evening, as well as the whereabouts of most of the rest of the good, upstanding citizens of Eclipse Bay.”
“Well, shoot and damn.” Disgust replaced the anticipation Mitchell had been savoring. “Don’t tell me you saw him at that reception up at the institute that night?”
“I’m afraid so,” Bev replied. “Still want the name?”
“Sure.” A thought struck Mitchell. “You never can tell. Maybe he ducked out long enough to murder the Sadler woman. In a crowd of that size, he might not have been missed for a while.”
“Trust me, he would have been missed if he had vanished for any period of time longer than what it would take to go to the men’s room,” Bev said. “The name is Trevor Thornley. Soon to become Senator Thornley, if all goes according to plan.”
Mitchell groaned. “Well, shoot and damn.”
chapter 20
“Trevor Thornley? In lingerie and high heels?” Hannah sank back into the depths of the wicker chair. “There’s an image I could have done without.”
Rafe paced back across the solarium. “But it makes sense. Dell told us that Kaitlin had claimed that she was going to score big. None of the names on Virgil’s list would qualify as big scores. She might have pried a few bucks out of some of them, but not enough to finance a fresh start outside of Eclipse Bay.”
“But a politician with a bright future in front of him might have looked very tempting to her,” Hannah said quietly.
