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This time it turned out to be on the money, though, didn’t it?”
    “I didn’t kill him,” I protested yet again.
    “I know that, Suzanne.”
    Wow, that was a real change of pace coming from him, to accept my innocence so easily.   “How do you know that?”
    “The body’s already starting to stiffen up.   That means that unless you hung around after you killed him waiting for me to show up, or you came back to get something you missed the first time, you probably didn’t kill him.”
    “Thanks, Chief.   That’s such a relief hearing you say that.”
    “Don’t go thanking me just yet.   I still need to hear everything you know about this guy.”   It was clear by his expression when the next thought struck him.   “Did you tell your mother about this man?”
    “No.   I never breathed a word about it to anyone but Grace.”
    He frowned.   “I don’t mean to sound rude, Suzanne, but that’s not like you, is it?   I have a hard time believing that you didn’t even tell Jake.”
    “I tried, but my call went straight to voice mail,” I answered.
    An ambulance parked on the street by the clock, and paramedics got out to examine the body.   It didn’t take them long to realize that he was a lost cause.   “There’s nothing we can do, Chief,” one of them said.   “Want us to bag him up for you?”
    “Not until my guys get here.   Thanks for coming so fast.”
    “All part of the service.   Call us if you need us.”
    Before they were gone, two of Chief Martin’s deputies showed up, including one who was a frequenter of my donut shop.   Officer Grant nodded to me as he approached, but he didn’t say a word.   Our friendship had gotten him into hot water on more than one occasion, and I didn’t consider it a slight in the least that he came as close as he could to ignoring me.  
    Grant had a large, thick bag with him, and Chief Martin said, “Get pictures and video of everything .”
    “Got it, Chief,” he said, and then Officer Grant got to work.
    To the other officer, Chief Martin said, “Take your flashlight and start a perimeter search of the area.”
    “What exactly am I looking for?” the officer asked.
    “In general, anything that looks suspicious, or doesn’t belong here.   Specifically, we’re looking for the murder weapon.”
    “How was he killed?” the officer asked.   I thought it was a reasonable question, but the chief just frowned.   “We haven’t determined that yet.   Just keep your eyes open.”
    “Will do,” the man said as he turned on his thick police flashlight and started his search.
    “Should I go home?” I asked the chief as his men went to work.
    “Don’t you have a donut shop to open?” he asked me.
    “Sure, but I wasn’t sure that you’d want me to open the place this morning after what happened here,” I admitted.
    “You might as well go ahead and work.   I know where to find you if I need you.”
    “Good enough,” I said as I walked down to Donut Hearts, leaving my Jeep parked right where it was.

 
    Fifteen minutes later, I had fresh coffee, so I put some in cups for the crew, locked up the shop, and walked down to deliver the brews.
    The chief took one gratefully, as did two of his other officers.   Grant was busy at the moment, but I set one aside for him.  
    “Any luck so far?” I asked.   “I still don’t even know what killed him.”
    “From my preliminary examination, it appears that it was a blow to the back of the head,” the police chief said.   I was startled by how willing he was to share the information, but I wasn’t about to point it out to him.
    “Who would do something like that?” I asked, more out of curiosity than anything else.
    “Off the top of my head, I can think of a couple of people who had a motive to want to stop him,” the chief admitted.   “And I’m about to go wake one of them up and question her.   Would you care to come along and soften your mother up for me?”
    I knew the