“Who can see ghosts the same way you do,” Angela added.
Auntie Mina was at the house, and she was happy to see them. While the other two women talked to her and got to know Poe, Devin straightened up the cottage, although it was in pretty good shape considering she’d hosted a party less than twenty-four hours earlier.
Devin had just put on a pot of tea when her cell phone rang. She expected it to be Rocky, but it turned out to be Sam, who had just left the lab with Jenna.
“We have a match on the fingerprints,” he said. “We know who was trying to get into your house.”
Her heart seemed to skip a beat. “Who was it?” she asked.
*
Rocky arranged to meet Vince for a late lunch at the hotel. Vince clearly had no idea that he was under suspicion. As they walked into the restaurant, he told Rocky how much he liked his fellow agents after getting to know them better last night. Then he lifted a hand for the waitress and ordered a Scotch.
Rocky opted for coffee. When Vince raised his eyebrows in surprise, Rocky said, “I’m kind of permanently on duty at the moment.”
“Yeah, I guess. Jack, too. Hey, he doesn’t resent you for being here, does he?”
Rocky shook his head. “We all want to catch this murderer—no one cares who the hell gets him as long as someone does.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Vince said, then joked with the waitress when she brought their drinks.
Rocky remembered that Vince was here at least once a month, probably more than that, for meetings.
“It’s kind of hard to be second best all the time,” Vince went on once the waitress was gone. “Or, in my case, third best, but back in the day, we all had to get used to that whenever you were around.”
“I don’t think Jack ever thought of himself as second best—or that anyone else thought of us that way, either,” Rocky said. “We were different, that’s all.”
“Yeah, I guess. Jack is a happy man these days, that’s for sure. He got his shield, and he got the girl. And he’s got a great kid.”
“True enough,” Rocky said, but he wondered. Was Vince just speaking casually, or was he making an effort to get under Rocky’s skin—even stir up trouble between him and Jack?
Could Vince really be guilty? He’d proven he was no slouch intellectually, getting his law degree and going on to practice successfully.
“What made you opt for maritime law?” Rocky asked.
Vince grinned. “I tried personal injury for a while. I was good, too. But I didn’t really like it. I felt a little slimy. I mean, they call you an ambulance chaser and they’re kind of right. Wasn’t for me. I like the sea, and I always loved boats and the few beach days we get. You know the old joke. Massachusetts—come for summer. July 15.”
“Beach days are rare here, I’ll grant you that,” Rocky said.
Vince turned suddenly serious and shook his head. “Rocky, we’re not here to shoot the breeze, are we? What’s up?”
Rocky met his eyes and spoke honestly. “You’re looking suspicious as hell. You know this hotel—and the security system was knocked out here the same night someone set a fire on Devin’s lawn and she ended up spending the night here. You were at the bar the night Brent Corbin was there and the dead woman’s cell phone wound up in his pocket—something you somehow neglected to mention.”
“Ah,” Vince said.
“Got an explanation?” Rocky asked him.
“Yes, I was there. I had a date that night. I didn’t mention this before because it has nothing to do with it— I was at dinner with a woman. She’s married. After she headed home, I went to the bar for a quick drink. I was only there about fifteen minutes. I didn’t see the relevance, so I didn’t mention it.”
“Identical murders point to a single murderer,” Rocky said.
“And we were all there—when Melissa was killed,” Vince said. He leaned forward. “Rocky, I didn’t do it. I didn’t kill any of them, I swear it. I can prove it. Well, I can’t prove everything—but I can prove where I was when the last woman was murdered.”
“You can?”
“That’s good, right?” Vince asked.
Rocky lifted his hands. “The more people I can clear, the better I can concentrate on who the real killer might be.”