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discovered the crime. “That’s all we know at this time,” he said. “We haven’t got the medical examiner’s report yet or the results found by the crime lab.” He paused. “Now, Cody, I’d like to ask you a few preliminary questions. Holly, you may be excused.”
    “What kind of questions?” Cody asked.
    “Dad!” I complained. “Cody wasn’t even here!”
    “Holly!”
    “Mr. Arlington told you he saw the murderer. At least he thought he saw a man jump the back fences. Instead of bothering Cody with a lot of questions, why don’t you check out Mr. Arlington’s story?”
    “His story—such as it was—will be thoroughly investigated. We’ll look into every angle of this case, which includes getting as much information as I can from Cody.” He paused before he said again, “Holly, you may be excused.”
    Dad’s tone of voice told me that I’d pushed him as far as he would go, so with a last squeeze to Cody’s hand, I got up and opened the back door.
    “Holly’s right. I wasn’t here when … when it happened,” Cody said. “I left for our lake housearound seven-thirty. Mom and Dad were getting ready for some big party they were going to. Everything was fine. No problems.”
    Dawdling as much as I could, I slowly closed the kitchen door, unfortunately shutting out the voices.
    As I walked through the gate to the driveway, where the heat rose in dusty waves from the glaring pavement, I saw Dad’s partner coming toward me. With him was a middle-aged woman dressed in a loose red T-shirt and white shorts. She wore large earrings and a chain around her neck. Both had that shimmery, expensive look of real gold.
    Bill Carlin wasn’t as tall as Dad, but he had the same stocky build. About ten years older than Dad, Detective Carlin was missing most of his hair, and his weather-beaten face was deeply creased around the eyes and mouth. He’d been married and divorced three times and liked to say that it was much easier being a bachelor than trying to explain to a wife why his job wasn’t a nine-to-five.
    He looked surprised when he saw me. “What are you doin’ here, Holly?”
    “Cody Garnett is a friend of mine.”
    “I was told that your dad’s talkin’ to him inside the house?”
    I gestured toward the back door. “In the kitchen.”
    Carlin said to the woman, “If you don’t mind waitin’ a minute out in the yard, Mrs. Marsh, I’ll get my partner.”
    They went inside the gate, and I stayed where Iwas on the other side of the fence, hoping to overhear whatever was going to take place.
    Carlin went inside the house, and a few moments later the door opened and shut again and I heard him introducing the woman to Dad.
    “Mrs. Marsh is a neighbor directly across the street,” Carlin said. “She has somethin’ to tell us about the time Cody left his house last night.”
    Mrs. Marsh hesitated, then said, “I don’t see how it has any bearing on what happened. I mean, Cody had left the house before his parents … Oh, dear! I can’t believe this could happen in our neighborhood.”
    “Please, Mrs. Marsh,” Dad said quietly. “Did you see Cody leave his house?”
    “Yes, both times.”
    I stiffened, not daring to breathe.
    “
Both
times?”
    “I was just coming back from taking my dog for a walk when Cody drove off the first time,” Mrs. Marsh said. “It was a few minutes before seven-thirty, I know, because there was a television program on the Arts and Entertainment channel that started at seven-thirty, and I made sure I was home in time to see it.”
    As she stopped for breath, Dad stepped in. “Did you see Cody return?”
    “No,” she answered, “but awhile later I remembered I hadn’t watered the hanging plant on my front porch, and with all this heat, well, I couldn’t let it go another day, so I got my watering can and went outside.”
    “What time was this?”
    “During the nine o’clock commercials. I’d switched to Channel 2.”
    “Did you see Cody at this