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gentleman hasn’t come courting and stolen you away from us.”
    Accustomed to his banter, Bernice shook her head. “Beau Tyler, you could sweet-talk a skunk, and I’d pay to see you try it.”
    Laughter drifted around the breakfast table. In the past Will had treasured mornings like this, with the people he cared about gathered in the warmth of the kitchen. It was sad how rarely it happened these days. In no time at all, with Erin growing up, Bernice and Jasper getting old, Tori making new choices, and Beau, as well as Sky, involved in starting new families, these times would be gone forever.
    Where would he be by then?
    If the worst happened and he ended up on trial, he could be looking at the world through prison bars.

CHAPTER 3
    â€œY ou say you couldn’t tell who the man was, Erin?” Abner Sweeney checked his antiquated cassette recorder, to make sure it was still working, and put it back on the coffee table. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of his neck. He was under orders from Stella to find something—anything—that might incriminate Will Tyler in her brother’s death. So far, this poised twelve-year-old girl wasn’t giving it to him.
    â€œHe was wearing a helmet that covered his eyes,” she said. “I could sort of see his mouth, but not really because it was dark. I thought he was the robber we heard about on the radio. I’m pretty sure my dad did, too.”
    â€œDid the man say anything?”
    â€œI couldn’t hear. The window was closed.”
    â€œI see.” Abner nodded, vaguely aware that he had to pee. It tended to happen when he was nervous, and he was nervous now. Not so much because of the girl, but because of her lawyer mother, sitting to one side, watching him the way a cougar would watch a sheep, ready to pounce at the first misstep. At least he’d managed to keep Will out of the room by insisting he had to question him and his daughter separately.
    â€œLet me ask you something else, Erin. Did either of your parents tell you how to answer my questions?”
    â€œYes. They told me to tell the truth.”
    â€œThen tell me the truth now. Did you see the knife?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWhere was it?” Abner tried to ignore the urges of his bladder. Maybe he needed to have his prostate checked. He was getting to that age.
    â€œWhere was the knife, Erin?” he asked again.
    â€œIn the man’s hand.”
    â€œWhat did he do with it? Here, show me with this.” He handed her the ballpoint pen from his pocket.
    â€œHe put his arm back like this.” She demonstrated, bringing the pen up and back, as if about to throw it.
    â€œDid he throw it, or even start to?”
    â€œNo. That was when my dad shot him.”
    â€œYou’re sure of that?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThank you, Erin.” And that, Abner told himself as he switched off the recorder, was as good as he was going to get.
    * * *
    Tori gave Erin a hug and sent her out of the den, where the interview had taken place. “Go see if Bernice needs any help,” she said. “I’ll be right here if you need me.”
    Tori thought that Will would’ve been proud of their daughter, but one thing troubled her. When Erin indicated that the dead man hadn’t moved the knife forward to throw it, the sheriff ’s bland expression had undergone a subtle change—a narrowing of the eyes, a tightening of the lips. As a courtroom lawyer, she’d learned to read people, and she didn’t like what she’d seen.
    Should she tell Will, or would that just worry him? She put the question aside as Will walked into the den, so tall and strong, and so totally in command that his presence seemed to fill the room. She didn’t have to be here, Tori reminded herself. They’d been divorced for eight years, and she was doing her best to move on. Meeting Drew had given her hope that she really could move