Chief Garvey’s cruiser was parked out front as I climbed from my car and entered the station. My stomach roiled, and I wiped my hands down my jacket to alleviate the cold sweat. I gave Helen, our dispatcher, a curt nod as I hurried past. She was on the phone with someone and waved in response.

Logan sat at his desk, his feet propped up and a VHS tape in his hands.

“That from Sal’s?” I peeked toward Chief Garvey’s office. His door was open, the light on.

“Yeah, I got it from him before he closed up for the night. Problem is, the last VHS player we have is busted.” He cast a glance to a beaten-up TV/VCR combo that had been collecting dust in the storage room for the past decade. “We haven’t needed it in forever. But Sal still depends on technology from 1985, so I’m going to have to rustle one up from somewhere. I’m just trying to figure out where.”

“Call Porter. I’d be willing to bet the County Sheriff’s Department has a VHS player for tapes like this. If that doesn’t work, get Sal on the phone and ask if we can stop by his store to use his VCR.”

He chuckled. “Oh, I asked Sal if I could use his VCR. He says he doesn’t have one. All he has is a recorder, and he religiously changes the tape every morning when he gets to work. But he’s never had a reason to look at them.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me right now.”

Swinging his legs down from his desk, he said, “I wish I was.”

“Call Porter. If he can’t find one, get in touch with Lewis at the pawnshop. Surely he’s got one sitting around somewhere in the back.” I was just wasting time, trying to pull myself together before confronting Chief Garvey.

“I’m on it.”

“You got anything else for me?”

“Nothing good. No one has seen hide nor hair of the judge—”

“That reminds me—tell the guys to be on the lookout for a man with a Jersey accent and light eyes.”

He cocked his head, his tired eyes incredulous. “That’s all you got?”

“For now. I saw him at the diner today, but got the call to go to the firm fire, so I missed him.”

“Why is he a person of interest?”

“Just a feeling. He didn’t do anything in particular, but his accent doesn’t fit, and even Benton agreed that there was something off—”

He rolled his eyes. “Benton, huh?”

“Don’t start.”

“I’m not starting anything, but it seems like you have a new partner on this case, and it’s not me.”

“You’re my partner. We’ve just been dividing and conquering today. Though we’re pretty short on the conquering part.”

“No shit!” Chief Garvey’s gruff yell came from his office. “Quit stalling and get your ass in here, Arabella.”

Logan tried to look amused, but I could sense the worry beneath the surface. We’d been too close for too long for me to miss it.

“Wish me luck.” I adopted a swagger I didn’t feel and walked into the lion’s den.

Chief looked even more haggard than usual, his tired eyes perusing me, the dark circles beneath them like pools of unrest. “Sit down.”

I closed the door behind me.

“You didn’t have to do that. Logan would probably love to hear me go over all your fuckups of the past forty-eight hours.”

Sitting, I crossed my legs at the knee and waited for the onslaught.

“How the hell did you manage to let someone burn down the law firm right under your nose? All that evidence, gone, with no way to retrieve it.”

I wanted to argue my case, to tell him there was no way to stop the fire unless I was clairvoyant, but when he got a head of steam like this, it was better to let him go.

“And that.” He pointed to my temple. “How the hell did you get hurt?”

“Just a scratch.”

“I asked you a question!” He slammed his meaty palm on his desk, the jolt knocking over a photo of him and Lina. “Damnit.” With a gentle touch, he sat it back upright.

“The shooter at Judge Ingles’ place. He aimed for me, missed, but I got a piece of wood from the doorframe right here.” I tapped the spot where Benton had removed the splinter. “Not a big deal.”

“You almost dying from a bullet to the head is a very big deal!” He leaned forward, his arms on the top of his desk, pushing into his unused keyboard. “What about Vivi? And May Bell?” His gaze travelled back to the photo of he and Lina—she was holding a trophy from when she won the high school 4H competition. “I’m already losing Lina…” He sat back, a deep sigh escaping from him as he rubbed the heels of his palm into his eyes.

“I’m being careful, Chief.” I kept my voice low, trying to placate him before he got worked up again. “As careful as I can be. But I have to find this guy. There’s something bigger going on here, something I’m only seeing bits and pieces of. I need more of the puzzle to surface before I’ll know what it is. But I’m working on it.”

“I know you are, but this deal with Judge Ingles fleeing town, the fire, the deaths—the phone’s been ringing off the hook, and people want answers. Mayor Baker wants to talk to you, so does that jumped-up DA. I told them both to pound sand. We’ll call them if we need two more bumbling idiots gumming up the works. Helen’s been fielding calls from media outlets over in Columbus and all the way up to Tupelo. This sort of thing doesn’t belong in Azalea. And each second that ticks by is a second lost. You need to get this case solved before it goes any colder.”

His constant berating began to wear thin, cutting through the layers of armor I’d built over the years—layers already weakened from too little sleep and not enough food.

“Chief, I’m doing everything I can. Maybe if you hadn’t sent me out to the edge of town to investigate okra theft, I would have—”

“Don’t give me that shit, Arabella. You need to do your job. All of your job, or I’ll find someone else who will.”

The armor cracked. “Bullshit! There’s no one who would do this job with its shit pay and you constantly breathing down their neck. I’m beginning to think I was the only one dumb enough to accept the position.”

He smirked. “Sounds about right.” Some of the tension left him, and he leaned back in his chair. “You were definitely a fool to take a job working for me.” He sighed again, the sound verging on creaky. “What a fucking mess.” He pinched the bridge of his gin-blossomed nose.

“I’m going to investigate until it’s solved.” I took a deep breath and plunged ahead. “And on that note, I need to know why you went to see Randall King last week.”

He opened his eyes, resting his sharp gaze on me. That look was probably the same one he wore when he was a detective like me twenty-five years ago, before the drinking and the sadness started eating away at him. I only hoped that wouldn’t be me in twenty-five more years.

“Wh-What did you say?” His tone was the thin paper cover around a stick of dynamite.

“I know you went to his office last week. I want to know why.”

“Oh, now I’m a suspect? That’s what you call detective work?”

“Chief, I’m following every lead, just like you taught me.” I pulled out my notebook and pen, clicking it for emphasis. “Why were you there?”

“Jesus, Arabella.” He shook his head. “You really want to do this?”

“I have to.”

He scratched his neck, his beard in need of more than just a trim. Dropping his hand, he went lethally still. “Yeah, I went to see that son of a bitch last week. And I’m glad he’s dead.”