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want to guess?”
    â€œLord, what is this, twenty questions?” Arlene sat across from Jackie, then lifted the woman’s hand into a dish of warm, soapy water. “Are we playing a game?”
    â€œThe news is very interesting,” Glenn said. “Come on. I’ll give y’all a few clues.”
    â€œYou’re acting totally ridiculous.” Jackie puckered her plump, pink lips into a pout.
    â€œIt’s a man who left town fifteen years ago.” Glenn sipped from the cola can. “He lived over in Myer’s Trailer Park. You dated him a time or two, Arlene. And so did you, Jackie.”
    â€œYou can’t mean Johnny Mack!” Arlene’s big hazel eyes widened; her mouth gaped open.
    â€œJohnny Mack is coming back to town?” Jackie asked, her voice quivering slightly. “But why would he come back, after all these years?”
    â€œYeah, I wondered the same thing,” Glenn said. “While I was changing out the light fixture in Penny’s office, I heard Mayor Ware talking to the DA on the phone. Seems some guy claiming to be Johnny Mack Cahill had called the DA’s office and was asking some questions about Kent Graham’s murder.” Glenn finished off his cola and tossed the empty can into a nearby wicker wastebasket. “That phone call sure as hell upset James Ware. He called Miss Edith right away. Me and Penny heard every word.”
    â€œWonder how Johnny Mack turned out?” Arlene smiled, then sighed. “Now there was a man for you. Even at twenty, he was a force to be reckoned with wasn’t he? Folks used to say the likes of him would wind up in jail for sure.”
    â€œI still say, why would he come back to Noble’s Crossing after all this time?” Jackie repeated her question. “He hated this town as much as it hated him.”
    â€œWell, it seems Kent Graham’s murder isn’t all Johnny Mack was interested in,” Glenn told them. “I heard James Ware ask the DA what possible interest the man claiming to be Johnny Mack Cahill could have in Will Graham.”
    â€œA very good question. Why would he be interested in Will Graham?” Arlene asked.
    â€œAre you saying that Johnny Mack Cahill is coming back to Noble’s Crossing because of that boy?” Jackie lifted her hand out of the water. “But why?”
    â€œWeren’t you listening, honey pie? That’s what the mayor wanted to know.” Crossing his big arms over his rotund chest, Glenn leaned back on the sofa.
    â€œWhy would Johnny Mack give a hoot about Kent Graham’s kid?” Arlene asked. “Those two despised each other.” Arlene reached for Jackie’s hand, but she jerked it away.
    Jackie turned around to face Glenn. “That boy isn’t anybody to Johnny Mack. Doesn’t make any sense why he’d be interested.”
    â€œCould be the old rumors are true about Johnny Mack and Kent being half brothers,” Arlene speculated. “If that’s so, then Will would be Johnny Mack’s nephew.”
    â€œCould be,” Glenn said. “But I got my own notion about why he’d come back to town, if he thought that Will and Lane needed him.” Glenn glanced from his girlfriend to Arlene and then back to his girlfriend. “We all know Will’s adopted, so that means, somewhere, Will has a real mama and daddy. Right?”
    â€œRight,” Arlene said. “Lord have mercy! Now I know who Will reminds me of. He looks like Johnny Mack did when he was a kid. Why didn’t we see it before now, Jackie? You and I were as close to Johnny Mack as anybody in this town.”
    â€œSpeak for yourself,” Jackie said.
    â€œExcuse me, Ms. Cummings, but the truth is that you and I both dated Johnny Mack.”
    â€œEveryone knows that you dated him on and off for years, whenever a certain someone else wasn’t available, but I never really dated him. He pursued