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just learned.  I’d been hoping for a bit of useful information from Gabby, and instead, I’d gotten an avalanche of it.
    Now we just had to sort out our suspects and see who had the opportunity to kill Sully Jackson.
    At least we had a pretty solid grasp on when the murder had taken place.  The time of death was usually not so specific, but we’d been on the site just after the fatal attack, so we had that going for us, which was something we couldn’t always count on.
    That fact, plus the information Gabby had provided about likely suspects, might mean that we’d be able to wrap this case up quickly.
    I wasn’t holding my breath, though.
    It had been my experience that nothing was ever that easy, and in the end, it turned out that I was right on the money this time as well.
     
     

 
    Chapter 5
     
     
    When I got back to the cottage, I was surprised to find Jake sitting out on the front porch, swinging impatiently as he stared back toward the park.  “Hey.  What’s up?” I asked him as I approached.
    He jumped off the swing as though he were sitting on a spring.  “What took you so long?  I was about ready to come after you.”
    “Jake, I warned you that it might take some time to get Gabby to open up.  I was kind of surprised how well it went, myself.”
    “Did you have any luck getting any information out of her, or do we need to start our investigation from scratch?”
    “I’ll tell you all about it, but let’s go inside so I can warm up my hands.  I know that the calendar says that it’s officially spring, but I didn’t wear a heavy enough jacket for the walk.”
    “Would you rather warm your hands up with the truck heater, instead?” he asked.  “It blasts better heat than you’ll get inside without the fireplace going.”
    Not many things worked well on Jake’s ancient truck, but the heater it sported was still first rate.  “Are you that eager to get started?” I asked him with a grin.
    “You would be too, if you’d been sitting here waiting.”
    He had a point.  “Okay.  You drive while I warm up my hands.”
    My husband looked surprised by the speed of my agreement, but he was too smart to question it.  Jake jogged around and opened my door for me, something that I didn’t think I’d ever tire of.  “Where do we go first?” he asked.
    “Well, it’s going to take a few minutes before I can tell you everything so we can come up with a plan.  We could always park at the donut shop and chat there.”
    “No, that might give some folks the mistaken impression that you’re open for business.  Why don’t we go to the crime scene and chat there?”
    “You want to go back to the wagon factory?” I asked him.
    “Call it whatever you’d like, but you knew what I meant.”
    “I suppose it’s as good a place as any,” I said as the heater kicked out enough warmth to cook a roast.  My hands had gone past getting warm and were now starting to roast in the oppressive heat.  “Could you turn that down a notch?”
    Jake grinned at me as he did as I’d requested.  “I told you it was a good heater.”
    “I never doubted it for an instant,” I said as Jake drove past Grace’s place.  Her company car was gone, and I wondered where she was off to.  One thing I was fairly certain of was that she wasn’t investigating any murders.  It appeared that part of her life was over, at least for the foreseeable future.  Whether she’d ever come back to it was anyone’s guess, but I knew from our recent conversation that it wouldn’t be any time soon.  We drove past the donut shop, through the center of town, and then onto the road toward Union Square, though we didn’t have to go anywhere that far.  Just on the edge of town limits, Jake pulled into the parking lot of the old wagon factory.
    We weren’t the only ones there, though.
    A police squad car was parked in front of the building, and one of the police chief’s officers was out front, apparently standing