“Dylan, it’s great to see you,” Alex said.
“We’ve been so worried about you, dear,” Mom said.
Dylan ducked his head and smiled. “It wasn’t so bad. The Crystal Haven jail is pretty nice.”
“Weren’t you worried?” Seth asked.
“Nah. I knew they’d figure out sooner or later that I didn’t do it.”
Vi clapped her hands imperiously and gestured at us to sit. “We need to put our heads together and figure this out. Lucan has been attacked—any one of us could be next!”
I was surprised at Lucan’s rise from number one murder suspect to “one of us.”
“I really don’t think we’re in danger, Vi,” I said.
“How do you know? Lucan probably thought he was safe, too, until someone drove over him—twice!”
“I just mean that we don’t know anything, and we aren’t involved with Rafe or his death.”
“I have a very bad feeling about this,” Vi said. “We need to figure it out before someone else gets hurt.”
“What do you suggest?” I said.
“We should look at all the clues again, and maybe make a case map like they do on TV. Do you have one of those whiteboards?”
“No, I didn’t bring my whiteboard.”
“That’s okay. We can use this paper.” Vi pointed to the paper covering the table. She tossed a new pack of markers and some sticky notes on the table.
“Been shopping, Vi?” I said. She ignored me.
“Okay, everyone pick a color and a topic.”
The table erupted in sound, as Seth and my mother fought for the blue marker. Dylan told Diana he knew more about the evidence, and that she was clearly not equipped to write about Lucan. Alex picked up on that and began quizzing Diana and acting huffy that she hadn’t told him about Lucan.
“There’s nothing to tell,” Diana said. “We worked together on the festival and then for Rafe’s memorial. . . .” She trailed off and blushed as the table fell silent.
Dylan came to the rescue. “Let’s list our suspects and clues,” he said.
Just then the door swung open and Tom walked in. I had texted him on the way to the restaurant.
He came over and gave Dylan one of those rough guy-hugs, but his eyes were red and he scrubbed them with his sleeve.
“What’s all this?” Tom asked, looking over Diana’s shoulder at the markers and notes.
“We’re doing a case map like they do on TV,” Vi said. “It’s good you’re here. You can fill in the blanks for us.”
Tom squeezed between Vi and Dylan and grabbed a marker. “I’ll do what I can, but I’ve been out of the loop.”
After a few minutes of noise, Vi tapped her water glass with her spoon. “We need to be more organized than this. Let’s start with clues. We can do those in blue. Seth, you write them down.”
Everyone shouted things at the same time, as if it were a game show.
Seth glowered at the table. “Slow down. I’m not a computer.”
Our list was longer than I had thought. I wasn’t sure we’d make any sense of it. Seth wrote:
broken EpiPen
peanut oil
Morgan lying about being at the ceremony
Morgan rummaging in Rafe’s trash
lost charm
Rafe fighting with Morgan, Lucan, and Dylan
Lucan’s SUV accident
Baxter’s orange
Seth chuckled at the last one. I started to cross it out with my purple pen.
“I think people use oranges to practice giving an EpiPen injection,” Dad said. Seth and I both stared at Dad.
“What’s that, dear?” Mom said.
“It was part of a training course I attended a long time ago,” Dad said. He seemed surprised to have everyone’s attention. “They gave us EpiPens and oranges and we practiced giving an injection just in case we ever had to do it. It also drains the medicine out into the orange.” Dad’s life as a dentist always took me by surprise. He never talked about it. He was always so focused on his police scanner and staying away from Vi, that I often forgot he had some medical training.
“So, if the killer was at the ceremony, they could have drained the pen right there,” Seth said and made a note on the list.
“The killer drained the medicine into the orange, threw it into the bushes where Baxter later found it, and then snapped off the needle?” Diana said.
“It seems like a lot to do with no one seeing them,” Alex said.
“I don’t know,” I said. “It was dark away from the fire. People milled about all over the clearing. It wouldn’t take more than a few seconds to drain the medicine and snap off the needle. Then he or she could just slip it back in its case and return it to Rafe’s robe pocket.”
“Yeah, we didn’t put those robes on until after we ate,” Vi said. “Rafe’s had a fancy gold edge around the hood. I was looking at it and he came and took it from me.”
“You messed around with the robes?” I asked.
“I didn’t ‘mess’ with them,” she said. “I was just looking. His was right on top and I saw the gold edging.”