Carol glanced up at the clock, then back down at the sheet in front of her, shaking her head. “I don’t think so. We just don’t have the facility for such a thing, especially with a prisoner like Ray. There’s the issue of personal safety, you know.”

“Who’s personal safety? Ours?”

“Sure. Look, Doc, it’s crazy around here right now. Why don’t you wait until all the booking and paperwork are done and then check on Ray tomorrow up in Machias. You should be able to get in to see him then.”

Doc didn’t seem to like that answer. He looked as though he were about to burst wide open, so Candy put a restraining hand on his shoulder. To Carol, she said pleadingly, “Isn’t there any way we could see him today? We could wait around for a while, see what happens.”

Carol pursed her lips. “I’d sure like to help you out, Candy, Doc, sure would, but it’s just not in my power, you know. We got ourselves a murder investigation going on here. Everyone’s real serious about it, being the rare event it is. Even got some detectives coming over from Augusta. Yup, it’s real serious all right. We’ve got to do things by the book. You can understand that, can’t you?” She gave them a tight smile that seemed to plead for their cooperation. “Try it tomorrow, okay? Up in Machias?”

Doc let out a long, painful sigh of resignation. “Okay, Carol. Listen, do me a favor then, will ya? If you see Ray, tell him we were here, and tell him we’ll see him in the morning.”

“I’ll do that, Doc, Candy. Good to see you both.” Back outside, Doc was still steaming as he climbed into the truck. “I can’t believe they won’t let us in to see him.”

“Poor Ray,” Candy said as she slid in beside him. “He must be terrified in there.”

“I still can’t believe they arrested him. Anyone who knows Ray knows he could never have done anything like that. Someone’s just making a huge mistake.”

“Do you have any idea why they arrested him?” Candy asked as Doc started up the truck.

“Not yet, but I know where we can find out.”

“The diner?”

Doc nodded emphatically. “The diner.”

They drove back into town and parked on Main Street. As Candy climbed out of the truck, she felt a strange sensation go through her. She stopped on the sidewalk and twisted around, her gaze roaming up and down the street. She wasn’t sure what she expected to see in this town she had grown so accustomed to, but she was surprised to find that everything was essentially business as usual. Folks strolled about, gazing into shop windows, hurrying to or from work, snacking on ice cream, or chatting on cell phones. People were laughing. It all seemed so odd after what had happened over the past few days-that two people who had lived here, in this town, two people they all had known, had talked to (and in the case of Sapphire, frequently made fun of), people who had been alive and probably walked down this very street just a few days ago, were now gone, dead, one murdered not far from this very spot, the other dead after a suspicious plunge from a seaside cliff. And Sapphire’s murderer still might be running loose around town! But despite that, everything seemed to be normal. And somehow that just didn’t seem right to her.

Once they entered Duffy’s Main Street Diner, however, Candy realized that things in town were not quite business as usual. The place was abuzz, and all the talk was about Sapphire Vine. Had she still been alive, she would have been mighty proud to have been the main topic of conversation.

“Hey, Doc!” someone yelled from a corner booth and waved at them.

“There they are.” Doc pointed the way. “Hi, Juanita,” he called out to the waitress behind the counter.

“Hey, Doc. Hey, Candy. You both having the usual?”

Doc nodded. “We’ll be with the boys.”

“Got it.”

Finn, Artie, and Bumpy had staked out their usual place in the horseshoe-shaped corner booth, from which they could watch the comings and goings in the diner as well as the activity on the street outside. Finn scratched at his salt-and-pepper beard as he chewed on a toothpick, while Artie made notes on the ever-present clipboard and Bumpy eyed a handful of leftover fries on Artie’s pushed-back plate. Doc greeted them as he slid into the booth on one side. Candy slid in on the other side, next to Bumpy.

Finn gave them a wink, Artie looked up and nodded, and Bumpy raised a couple of fingers in greeting. “Hey, Doc. Hey, Candy. Where’ve you two been? We were expecting you half an hour ago.”

“We stopped over at the police station to talk to Ray,” Doc explained, “but they wouldn’t let us see him.”

“I’m not surprised,” Finn said knowingly. “Booking and all. Plus he’s a murder suspect. They have to be careful how they handle these things.”

Doc shifted restlessly. “So they said, though I can’t imagine why they’d arrest him in the first place. Damn foolish, if you ask me.”

“They must’ve had a reason,” Bumpy said, giving into temptation and filching a French fry from Artie’s plate. He dipped it generously in ketchup before he ate it. “They just don’t arrest a person like that for nothing.”

“What kinda reason could there possibly be for arresting Ray Hutchins?” Doc shot back. “That boy is as innocent as a newborn baby.”

Finn cleared his throat. “Um, well, not necessarily.” They all looked over at him. For a moment everyone was silent.

“Well,” Doc said finally, breaking the silence, “it’s obvious you’ve heard something through your usual sources. You gonna tell us what you know or do we have to beat it out of you?”

“I think we should give him a sound rapping about the head and shoulders,” Bumpy suggested.

“Naw, he’d probably enjoy it,” Artie added with a grin.

Finn leaned forward over the table. “Okay, I’ll tell you,” he said, his voice conspiratorially low, “but you can’t say nothing.”

Everyone groaned. “Enough with the horseshit,” Artie said.

“Yeah, cough it up,” Doc added. “You know something, so spill it.”

Finn’s dark eyes shifted around the diner, as if to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Convinced he wasn’t being overheard, he folded his arms on the table and lowered his voice even more, to a coarse whisper. “Well, like I said, you haven’t heard this from me, but they arrested Ray because they have stone-cold evidence that he murdered that Vine woman.”

“Evidence?” Candy said testily. “What kind of evidence could they possibly have?”

Even as she asked the question, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer. Finn told her anyway.

“From what I’ve heard from the boys inside, they found the murder weapon, right there at the scene of the crime, and they traced it right back to Ray.”

Artie snorted. “Who would be stupid enough to leave the murder weapon at the scene of the crime?”

“Well, that’s the point, isn’t it?” Finn said. “Who would be stupid enough to do that?”

They all sat in silence for a moment as the question answered itself.

“So what was this murder weapon that incriminated Ray?” Candy finally asked, still refusing to believe.

Finn glanced over at her, then said to them all, with as much drama as he could muster, “A hammer. A brand-new red-handled hammer.”

Candy closed her eyes as the air seemed to go out of her. “Oh no.”

Finn nodded. “From what I’ve heard, someone-Ray, allegedly-took that hammer and bashed in Sapphire’s skull from behind. Blunt trauma. Pretty gruesome, they say. She must have died instantly. Never knew what hit her.”

“That’s awful,” Bumpy said.

“Terrible. Just terrible,” Artie agreed, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his middle finger.

“But what makes them think Ray did it?” Doc asked angrily. “Did they find him there? Did anyone see him do it?”

Finn shook his head. “Not that I know of, but there are witnesses who saw Ray’s truck parked in front of Sapphire’s house last night. And someone said they heard shouting coming from the house at around nine last night.”