“You mean with a car?”
He nodded. “Phoenix looked like the obvious culprit. Everyone knew how jealous she was of Lori. There was even some evidence to suggest it was her—enough to get a conviction. It wasn’t until last year that the truth came out.”
The color drained from Lourdes’s face. “Don’t tell me she was innocent.”
“She was. They took her baby away from her when she had him—gave him to Riley, who raised him—and she hardly heard from Riley and Jacob during all those years.”
“That’s heartbreaking!” Lourdes said.
“It is. And yet, as soon as she got out, she came back to Whiskey Creek, because she wanted to get to know her son. And long story short, she and Riley wound up finding each other again and realizing that they were still in love. Their story is not only unusual, it’s—” he searched for the right word “—inspiring, I guess. This isn’t just any marriage. This is Phoenix getting what she always deserved.”
“So maybe you could talk about the kind of love that endures.”
“And forgiveness,” he said. “If she wasn’t able to forgive, this wouldn’t be happening.”
“How old’s her son?”
“Jake’s a senior.”
“She’s waited a long time.”
He took another sip of his coffee. “See what I mean? Why I feel she needs someone who has more experience than a jaded divorced guy to help commemorate this occasion?”
Lourdes propped her chin on her fist as she considered what he’d told her. “Why don’t you start out talking about how some things, some of the most beautiful things in life, are hard-won but transcend everything else?”
“Love conquers all.”
“Yes.”
He hesitated for a second. “I like that approach, but we have to be careful not to make it too mushy. I don’t want tears in my eyes or anything. I’d never live it down.”
She laughed as she reached over to kiss him. “We can’t reveal that, deep down, you’re a big softy?”
“Problem is, you don’t have to go that deep to figure it out.”
Still smiling, she was about to say something to tease him—he could tell by the glint in her eyes—but his phone rattled on the counter. He’d silenced the ringer.
He got up to grab it. He’d been waiting to hear from Chief Bennett about the fingerprints on that broken bottle and didn’t want to miss him.
Sure enough. The call was from the police station.
He showed Lourdes his display and then answered. “Tell me you found some prints on that bottle, Chief,” he said once they’d exchanged hellos.
“Yes. That’s the good news. There are plenty of prints.”
“Do we know who they belong to?”
“We do.”
Kyle felt his breath catch. “So what’s the bad news?”
“They aren’t as conclusive as we’d hoped. They belong to both Genevieve Salter and your ex-wife.”
“What?” Kyle leaned on the counter as he tried to digest what he’d just heard. “Does Genevieve have an alibi?”
“She says she was home, at her mother’s house, asleep.”
“And is her mother backing her up?”
“Her mother claims she heard Genevieve come in that night, but she has no idea what time. She was in bed herself and didn’t completely wake up.”
“So it must’ve been late.”
“Not necessarily. Marilee went to bed at nine, right after she got Genevieve’s son to sleep.”
“Was Genevieve working at Sexy Sadie’s that night?”
“She was, but business was so slow, they let her leave at ten instead of keeping her on until two.”
“Then it could’ve been her.” He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. As far as he was concerned, she had even less reason to set fire to his plant than Noelle did.
“There’s nothing so far that rules her out.”
Cursing under his breath, Kyle returned to the table and sat down. “So what’s next?”
“Genevieve says she’s willing to take a lie detector test. She admits she hates Noelle, but not enough to set fire to someone else’s business.”