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person well, you’ve got a much better shot at picking up on a lie, but otherwise it’s a crapshoot. Like I said, lying is a natural human ability and we’re all probably a lot better at it than we want to admit.”
    “You said that Brad McAllister’s lies were different.”
    “Yes.”
    “What did you mean?”
    “Brad was a different kind of liar,” she said quietly. “He was ultraviolet.”
    “Ultraviolet?”
    “My private code for evil.”
    “Heavy word.”
    “It was the right one for Brad, trust me. The ability to lie is a very powerful tool. In and of itself, I consider it to be value-neutral, sort of like fire.”
    “But like fire it can be turned into a weapon, is that it?”
    “Exactly.” She folded her arms. “You can cook a meal with fire or burn down a house. In the hands of a person with evil intent, lying can be used to cause enormous damage.”
    “What makes you think Brad McAllister was evil? From all accounts he was a devoted husband who stuck with Elizabeth through her nervous breakdown.”
    She whipped around in the seat, suddenly fierce and furious. “That image was the biggest Brad McAllister lie of all. And it really pisses me off that it still stands, even though the bastard is dead.”
    He absorbed that. “What did McAllister do to make you dislike him so much?”
    “Brad didn’t stick by Elizabeth while she went through her nervous breakdown. Hecaused her breakdown. But Elizabeth and I have given up trying to make anyone, including Archer and Myra, believe that. As far as the whole town of Stone Canyon is concerned, Brad was a heroic choirboy right to the end.”
    Jake gave that some thought. “Okay, what’s your theory of the murder?”
    She hesitated and then sank slowly back into the seat. “There doesn’t seem to be any reason to doubt the cops’ version of events. Brad probably did interrupt a burglary in progress.”
    “Now who’s lying? You don’t believe that for a minute, do you?”
    She sighed. “No. But I don’t have a better answer, either.”
    “Not even a tiny theory?”
    “All I know is that Brad was evil. Evil people collect enemies. Maybe one of them tracked him down and killed him that night.”
    “But you have no motive, aside from the fact that Brad was not a nice person.”
    “Sometimes that’s enough.”
    “Yeah,” he said. “Sometimes it is.”
    There was a short silence.
    “By the way,” Clare said after a moment. “We need to watch for the Indian School Road exit.”
    “Why?”
    “Because my motel is on a street off Indian School Road,” she said patiently.
    “Thought you said your hotel was out at the airport.”
    “I lied.”

Chapter Four
    The best that could be said about the Desert Dawn Motel was that it made no pretense of being anything other than what it was: a run-down, low-end, budget-class establishment from another era. The two-story structure was badly in need of a coat of paint. Rusted air conditioners thundered in the night.
    Most of the landscaping had died back in the Jurassic. Only a few hardy barrel cacti and one wilted palm had survived. The letters in the red and yellow neon sign snapped and crackled and blinked annoyingly.
    Clare felt a distinct pang of embarrassment when Jake eased the BMW into a parking space near the entrance to the shabby lobby. She suppressed it immediately.
    Jake turned off the engine and regarded the limp palm tree that graced the cracked concrete sidewalk.
    “You know,” he said, “if you had mentioned that you were coming into town this evening the Glazebrook travel department would have been happy to make reservations for you at a slightly more upscale hotel. I’ll bet they could have found you something where the bathroom isn’t down the hall.”
    “There’s a bathroom in my room, thank you very much.” She unclasped the seat belt and opened the door.
    Jake got out and took her wet clothes out of the trunk. Together they walked toward the lobby.
    “Mind telling me why you chose this place?” he asked politely.
    “Maybe you didn’t know that I was fired from