The police chief was livid when he saw the check with Celia’s signature. “I can’t believe this!” Jim Shoemaker said. “All this time, I was thinking we’d made a mistake. That any minute now we’d turn up evidence that would exonerate her. But it gets smellier and smellier. A boyfriend, that check, her past…It all adds up to Celia Shepherd being a killer.” He slammed the side of his fist into a file cabinet with a clash, then swung around. “Look, I don’t want us dragging our feet on this. If Celia’s the killer, let’s nail her. Get a warrant to search her house again, and find whatever evidence you can. Last night you were just trying to find what had made Stan sick. This time you’re collecting evidence for the grand jury.”
Sid leaned back hard in his chair. “What if we’re wrong? What if there really is another killer out there—maybe even Lee Barnett—and Celia’s innocent?”
Jim’s eyes bore into him. “Do you think she is?”
“No.”
“Then let’s not waste our time chasing rabbits. My experience tells me you look at the most obvious first. Celia’s the most obvious suspect. If she’s guilty, something in that house will tell us so.”
Sid left his office and radioed for one of the squad cars to come and pick him up. Chad Avery was the first to arrive. “Where we going?” he asked as Sid got in.
“To the Shepherd house. We have to search it again.”
“You got a warrant?”
“I’m stopping by Judge DeLacy’s office on the way.” He radioed Simone and asked her to dispatch one more evidence technician to the Shepherd house.
“We gonna be pawing through food and upchuck again?” Chad asked when he cut the radio off.
“No. This time we’re lookin’ for somethin’ even more substantial. Somethin’ that’ll tell us, once and for all, that Celia Shepherd intended to kill her husband.”