"What about the breakup with Noah? How did that affect the company? Is that when the company started failing?"

"No. I don’t think that had anything to do with it. We’re all professionals. Sure, at first it was kind of awkward, but after a while, that all passed." Julie shrugged. "Anyway, that was almost a year ago."

"And they still wanted to have equal shares in the company? Seems like that might be problematic eventually," Sam said.

"I wouldn’t know anything about that," Julie said.

"Maybe one of them was trying to phase the other one out to get control of the company before this new game was released," Jo suggested.

"What are you saying? That Noah killed Lynn to get control of the company? Noah wouldn’t do that, and besides, wouldn’t her share go to her family or something?"

"Actually, no," Sam said. "When they started the company, they agreed to leave each other controlling shares. Of course, they probably didn’t think they would be breaking up when they agreed to that. Maybe Noah wanted to make sure she didn’t have a chance to change the agreement."

"Noah wouldn’t do something like that!"

Julie seemed adamant, but Jo wasn’t so sure.

"Where were you that night around 2:30 a.m.?" Sam asked.

"Now you’re accusing me?" Julie straightened in the chair, causing it to tip to the left. "Do I need a lawyer?"

Sam held his palms up. "We’re not accusing you. We’re just trying to get a timeline. We need to piece together the events of the night to see if anyone saw anything that might help us find her killer."

Julie crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I didn’t see a thing. I was in my tent."

"What about earlier that day?" Jo asked. "Amber seemed to think Lynn had some kind of an appointment."

Julie frowned. "Appointment? For what?"

"We don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to find out. Amber said Lynn was the one that wanted to come camping here in White Rock. Said she was very insistent."

Julie’s gaze drifted out the window. "Yeah, actually, she did. I think she came here on vacation as a kid or something. Or maybe she had some friends here."

That caught Jo’s attention. Maybe Lynn had an old score to settle and her death had nothing to do with her breakup with Noah or the company. "Friends? Who?"

Julie shook her head. "I don’t know."

"So what happened that day? You all came to town for groceries and decided to do some shopping," Sam prompted.

Julie nodded. "That’s right. We always do our grocery shopping together after we get to our destination. We’d arrived late the night before and gotten fast food on the way. So we headed into town." Julie frowned. "Now that I think about it, Lynn was acting a little anxious."

"What did she do when you got to town?"

"Whenever we go camping, we like to poke around in the local shops. Lynn collects marbles and wanted to check out the antiques store. The guys wanted to check out that Irish pub in the square there." Julie pointed out the window to O’Malley’s. "We got to town just before noon and gave ourselves one hour. Then we would meet back at the pub then get groceries."

"And Lynn acted anxious?"

Julie shifted position, causing the chair to rock forward. "Sort of. Tara, Amber, and I decided to check out the secondhand store, Del’s. Lynn acted kind of strange and, instead of coming with us, went to the antiques store."

"Why was that so strange?"

"Usually, we kind of hang together, but I guess Lynn was more interested in getting to the antiques store. We only had an hour."

"And you met up after you finished in the secondhand shop."

Julie’s mouth twisted. "Not really. Tara isn’t into used goods, and the woman in Del’s told her about a boutique a few streets over, so she headed there. Amber went to get her nails done, if you can believe that. I looked for Lynn but couldn’t find her. We had twenty minutes left, so I poked around in a few of the other shops until it was time to meet everyone."

"So the next time you saw Lynn was in front of O’Malley’s?"

"Yes. She never said anything about any appointment. Are you sure about that?"

Jo wasn’t sure. She glanced out the window, trying to picture the group. The antiques store was at the north end of the street. Lynn would’ve walked that way. The pub was across the green, and the men would’ve headed that way. The high-end shops were two streets over, so after they left Del’s secondhand store, Tara would’ve gone down the side street to get to those. Amber would’ve gone right next door to get her nails done, and Julie would’ve been in and out of the other stores on the street. None of that told her much.

"I don’t really see how any of this has anything to do with Lynn being killed. Honestly, I think you’re wasting time here. No one in my group of friends would’ve killed her."

"That may be. But we need to establish timelines and get everyone’s statement in order to determine who really did kill her. If it wasn’t one of your group, then telling us everything you remember about that day will help us figure out who it was." Sam leaned across the desk toward Julie. "Is there anything else you can think of that you haven’t told us?"

Julie’s gaze flicked from Sam to Jo and back to Sam. The chair rocked slightly. She shook her head. "No. I think that’s it."

"Okay, then you can go."

She left, and Sam looked at Jo.

"I don’t think she’s right about her friends. I think one of them is a killer," Sam said. "None of the other campers have any connection to Lynn, and there seems to be some good motives brewing here."

"Yeah. Jealousy. Greed. Maybe even revenge."

"Right. Maybe Lynn was jealous of Noah and Amber and she was killed by accident in a passionate fight with Noah."

"Or maybe Amber didn’t want Noah to take up with Lynn again. Maybe Julie was right and Noah was about to get rid of Amber. If she thought he was going back to Lynn, she might have thought that making sure Lynn had a little accident would prevent that from happening."

Sam leaned back in his chair and looked out the window. "Maybe Julie doesn’t know everything. Friends often hide things from each other. Maybe Noah and Lynn’s breakup wasn’t as amicable as he said it was. Maybe they argued about the company. Maybe Lynn’s appointment had something to do with her making sure she was going to get complete control."

As usual, Jo was in sync with Sam’s line of thinking. "And maybe Noah found out and wanted to stop her."

Chapter Twenty-Five

They interviewed Dean Winters next. He was a quiet guy. Tall and handsome with that geeky computer-software look that girls sometimes went for. He was wearing shorts and sandals with white socks. It was way too early in the season for sandals up north, but Sam didn’t bother to tell him that.

"Truth be told, it was a little stressful at work," Dean said in response to Sam’s question about the company problems. "Money was tight, and Tara was really clamping down on spending."

Sam consulted his paperwork. "That’s Tara Barrett, the chief financial officer of the company, right?"

"Yep. Tara can wring blood out of a stone. That’s why she was great at the job. She could source the things we needed at half the cost." Dean shrugged. "But I guess that wasn’t enough. We were really counting on this new release."