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that be?”
    â€œEight a.m.”
    â€œDid you have a conversation with him?”
    â€œWhat’s this all about? Is it illegal to call that fat doofus a perverted mistake of nature? Because if he’s complaining about me, I have grounds to charge him with harassment.” I drew myself up to my full sixty-two inches.
    A condescending sigh escaped Chief Redfern’s lips. The svelte Constable Vanderbloom just kept scribbling in her ratty black notebook.
    Then I remembered the flashing lights and activity in the cemetery as I passed it last night.
    â€œDid Julian Barnfeather have a heart attack or something?”
    â€œYou don’t sound too broken up about the possibility of something happening to Julian Barnfeather, Ms. Cornwall,” Constable Vanderbloom observed.
    â€œLook, if Julian is sick or hurt, well, I’m a little sorry, but he won’t be receiving a get well card from me.”
    â€œA sympathy card to his wife would be more appropriate,” said the constable.
    â€œGo on! Are you telling me he had a wife? And he’s dead?” Then a sudden thought struck me. “What happened to him?”
    Chief Redfern replied, “The autopsy report hasn’t come back yet. His wife called us when he didn’t show up for dinner last night. We sent an officer to the cemetery.”
    â€œBecause,” I said, like he hadn’t spoken, “he could have been lying there dying while I was working. Maybe if I had put my tools away like I should have, I would have found him in time to call an ambulance.” I shuddered at the thought of anyone, even Julian, lying in the shed, waiting for help that didn’t come. Nobody deserves to die alone.
    Suddenly, strong hands gripped my neck and pushed my head so far between my knees that my forehead touched the dirt. The hands held me down and all I could do was flail my arms and yell, “Stop. I haven’t done anything. You’re hurting me.”
    â€œCareful or she’ll be screaming police brutality,” said Constable Vanderbloom.
    I was picked up immediately and held hanging a foot off the ground. I kicked him in the knee.
    â€œGoddamn it!” He dropped me, but I managed to land on my feet. “What did you do that for? I thought you were going to faint.”
    â€œI never faint.” My heart was beating wildly, and I hoped I wouldn’t make a liar out of myself as my vision started fading to black at the edges.
    â€œThen, if you’re up to it, I have a few more questions.”
    â€œGo ahead.” My head still felt like it might fly off into the clouds, but I wasn’t going to admit to it.
    â€œCould you see the shed from where you were working?”
    I took a deep breath and my vision cleared. “No. The shed is in the middle of the cemetery surrounded by tall shrubs. I was working closest to the fence and Main Street.”
    â€œSo you didn’t see Mr. Barnfeather at all after eight in the morning? What about lunch and calls of nature?”
    â€œI have a key to the bathroom behind the office building at the entrance to the cemetery. You can’t see the maintenance shed from there. And I didn’t stop for lunch yesterday.”
    â€œDid you see anything out of the ordinary?”
    Neither cop noticed Ewan Quigley step out of his trailer behind them, take one look, then back quickly inside and close his door. And, between Rae’s trailer and the Quigleys’, a figure in dusty black leather and multiple chains draped across his chest melted back into the trees.
    â€œNo, and I didn’t budge from my corner except for one trip to the bathroom. I have excellent bladder control.”
    Chief Redfern’s lips compressed. “Can you describe the people you remember seeing?”
    I wasn’t going to be much help. I tried to avoid anyone I knew while I was working. It was just too awkward.
    â€œNot really,” I said slowly. “The cemetery is a