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inside.”
    “Why? Why won’t he see me?”
    “We’ll talk tonight, okay? Honey?”
    “Yes?”
    “I know you want to go to him, but don’t. He won’t see you. Trust me on that, okay? Promise me?”
    Dana didn’t want to promise, but she did.
    “I’ll tell you why tonight. Clarence won’t be there, and you and I can have a long talk. He loves you, you know.”
    Dana’s breath caught in her throat. Did Reece tell her that? Did he actually say it?
    “Oh, by the way, I met your ex-husband. He’s an asshole.” Then Jeraldine hung up.

Chapter Ten
The Sleuth Sleuths

    C larence drove into Corley. He located the police station, a small brick building on the main street. One uniformed officer glanced in his direction, then shifted his focus to an older woman with a halo of tight curls framing a face creased by a suspicious frown.
    “What can I do for you?” she asked Clarence.
    “Like to talk to someone about the murder of Rayanne Johnson.”
    “That’d be Micah. He’s the chief of police.”
    When she didn’t say anything else, Clarence asked, “Where might I find Micah?”
    The man in the uniform walked toward him. “That’d be me.”
    Micah didn’t look like Barney Fife, but he didn’t look like Wyatt Earp either. Clarence took out a card and handed it to him.
    Micah looked at it. “Boston, Massachusetts, huh? Don’t tell me you came all the way down here to investigate a murder in Booniesville.”
    Micah mispronounced the name of the state like a lot of people did. Massatooshitts. Clarence pinched his chin. “Booniesville?”
    “Sure. Isn’t that what you big city guys think of us down here? Don’t deny it.”
    “Hadn’t given it much thought, Micah. This is just another job. Doesn’t matter where it is. Fact is, I come from a town in Missouri that’d make Corley look like a metropolis.”
    “Don’t say.”
    “Yup. Right in the middle of nowhere.” Corley’s chief of police probably thought he was bullshitting him, but he wasn’t. “Now what can you tell me about the murder?”
    “You working for the guy who done it?”
    “No, I’m working for the lawyer of the man wrongly accused.”
    “Don’t seem wrongly accused to me. We don’t get too many beheadings ’round here, and there he is, not thirty miles away, done it before.”
    “He was exonerated.”
    “Hmm, so I heard. But it sure is a coincidence, ain’t it? How many beheadings you ever heard about?”
    “I peg it for a copycat.”
    “Hmm, maybe. Have to be someone who knew about him, though, wouldn’tcha think? I remember the to-do about his buying property in Harold County, but I didn’t much remember the particulars. Doubt others did around here either. Looks like someone did, though.”
    “Yes, if it’s a copycat, then I suspect it would have to be someone who knew about him. Does narrow the field. Will you help me?”
    Micah hesitated. “What’d you want to know?”
    Clarence pulled out Reece’s picture. “Ever see this man around here before?”
    Micah took the photo and studied it. “No, can’t say I have, but I know this is the guy. Picture’s been in the paper. Besides, if he planned to do what he did, I doubt he’d come in here and get acquainted.”
    “Good point. Would you show me the police report? I know you’re not obligated to, but I’d appreciate it.”
    Keep it simple, Clarence. He didn’t want to seem like some city slicker showing off, trying to make locals look like yokels. That had never been his style. Get on their wavelength, be one of them. Hell, he was one of them.
    The sheriff eyed him.
    “A man’s life might depend on it, Micah. All I want to do is give him his best shot, and you’re the man who can help.”
    “The sheriff’s boys went over her apartment with a magnifying glass. There was a lot of blood, but not much else in the way of clues. Whoever killed her didn’t leave anything to go on. Can’t imagine how he left the crime scene without being noticed, though.