Page 88 of Puzzle for Two

Flint looked startled. “Do you?”

Well, yes. Zach had always hated being called Zachariah. It sounded too much like Jedediah, his least favorite character on the 1970s PI show,Barnaby Jones. But somehow over the past few days he’d gone from detesting Zachariah to kind of liking it. When Flint said it, anyway.

“I don’t mind,” he told Flint.

Brooke did a doubletake. “Okaaaay. Anyway, from everything I could find out, Alton was purer than the driven snow.”

“I’d say he had a strong sense of self-preservation,” Zach said, “but clearly not strong enough.”

“He was too arrogant to believe anyone would really come after him.” That was Flint.

Yeah, arrogance had probably been a factor in Alton’s demise. Being rich provided a certain amount of insulation, and Alton had clearly mistaken insulation for Kevlar.

“Chico knows plenty, you can bet on that. But he’d probably have to be subpoenaed and dragged into court to talk. It sounded to me like he had every intention of staying on at the Beacher estate.”

“He’s got his eye on the rich widow,” Brooke remarked.

Zach was startled. “How do you figure that?”

“I saw his photo in the paper. He’s hot. And he knows it. Were you aware he graduated from San Jose University with a degree in business?”

“Uh, no,” Flint said.

Zach said, “Who are you and what have you done with my kid sister?”

“If Chico knows where the bodies are buried, he also knows enough to keep his mouth shut.”

Flint said to Zach, “We’ll be lucky if we don’t end up working for her.”

“I tried to warn you.”

Brooke checked her notes. “The same is also true of Zora. There are no pending lawsuits, criminal actions, or judgements against her, either personally or professionally. Which, in her case, makes sense because she almost never leaves the compound. I think the agoraphobia is for real.”

“It’d be a weird thing to make up,” Zach said.

“People do weird things when they’re motivated by hate and anger.” Flint looked thoughtful. “So, no divorce proceedings filed by either of our principals at any time?”

“Nope.”

Flint shot Zach a look of commiseration. “All those promises he made you.” He shook his head sadly.

“Not funny,” Zach said.

Flint laughed. So did Brooke.

Zach thought it over, sighed. “Okay. We’ll just have to keep digging.”

“And that’s exactly what I did,” Brooke said with triumph. “When I couldn’t find anything on Alton or Zora, I started going down our list.”

“Our list? I didn’t give you a list.”

“Good job,” Flint told Brooke.

Which, yes, that show of initiative was unexpected and…good.

Zach said, “Ransford lives out of state, so we’re not going to—”

“I’m not talking about Ransford,” Brooke interrupted. “Ransford isn’t our guy. But guess what? I found a slew of liens against Ronald Jordan.”

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