Sanford Aiken had opened his shop door and was putting the cup of coffee he’d been carrying down when Bernie entered.
“Yes?” he said, looking up. “Can I help you with anything?”
“As a matter of fact you can,” Bernie replied as she approached the counter.
“A leaking faucet at the shop? A blown gasket?”
“No.” Bernie smiled her winningest smile. “Problems of a different nature.”
“Ah.” Aiken drew out the ah. “I take it you’d be referring to what happened at the reenactment.”
“You would be right.” Bernie tried to sound as if he was the smartest guy in the world for figuring out the answer.
He leaned forward, careful not to knock his coffee over. “I’ve been expecting you.”
“Really?” Bernie kept smiling. “Why’s that?”
“Well, I heard you and your sister were going around asking questions and generally stirring up trouble.”
Bernie pouted. “Is that what people are saying?”
Aiken nodded gravely. “It is indeed.”
Bernie tapped her nails on the counter. “Stirring up trouble is an interesting phrase.”
Aiken took no notice of the nail tapping and lifted the lid off his coffee, blew on it, and took a sip. “Especially when it applies to you two. You especially. You’re never content to leave things alone, are you?”
“It sounds to me as if you’re worried,” Bernie replied.
“Me?” Aiken pointed at himself. “What would I be worried about?”
“Sounds to me as if you have a guilty conscience.”
Aiken made a dismissive noise. “Hardly. All I’m sayin’ is that shopkeepers shouldn’t go messing around like you’re doing. You lose customers that way.” He looked up at her. “Frankly, what you’re doing is a waste of time. If you ask me, you should be spending your time finding a good lawyer for Marvin because he’s going to need it.”
“I’m not asking you . . . at least not about that,” Bernie told him, forgetting about being charming.
Aiken sniffed. “Have it your way. But why bother with this investigation you and your sister are trying to conduct?”
“Trying to conduct,” Bernie repeated. “How about are conducting?”
“If it makes you feel better to say that, then by all means.” Aiken straightened out the collar of his polo shirt. “But a reliable source has told me that the police are going to arrest Marvin soon. After all, he is the obvious suspect, isn’t he?” Aiken shook his head. “You can’t deny that.”
Bernie crossed her arms over her chest. “To me or Libby or my dad, he’s not.”
“Well, he is to everyone else,” Aiken shot back.
“And who, exactly, is everyone?” Bernie demanded.
Aiken harrumphed. “The town.”
Bernie raised an eyebrow. “The entire town?”
He corrected himself. “I was speaking metaphorically. I meant the people at the reenactment.”
Bernie didn’t say anything.
“Well,” Aiken continued, “you have to admit the evidence against Marvin is pretty damning.”
“It’s all circumstantial,” Bernie told him.
Aiken shrugged. “If that’s what you wish to think. Not that I necessarily agree with the town,” he hurriedly added. “I don’t want you to think that.”
“Then what do you want me to think?” Bernie asked.
Aiken swallowed. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“It’s a simple question, Sanford.”
“All I’m trying to say is you’re a tad prejudiced what with your sister and all.” He pointed to himself. “I was there. I saw what happened.”
“That is what I want to talk to you about.” Bernie was tired of dancing around. It was time to ask the questions she’d come to ask.
Aiken turned his hands palms upward. “I don’t know what I can tell you that you don’t already know. After all, you were there, too.”
“Yes, but I was in the gazebo setting up for the picnic. You were down near the shed.”
“I know where I was,” Aiken retorted.
“You were there when the weapons were given out.”
“They weren’t given out. Marvin put them on the bench and we took our own.”
There it was. The statement Bernie had been waiting for. “Then why did you tell the police that you thought you saw Marvin handing a musket to Devlin out of the corner of your eye?”
“I . . . I . . . did think I saw it,” Aiken insisted.
Bernie frowned. “So let me get this straight. First, you’re telling me Marvin dumped all the muskets on the bench and then you’re telling me he gave a musket to Devlin. Which is it?”
“I’m not sure,” Aiken confessed. “I saw him handing something to Devlin.”
“What?”
“I-I thought it was a musket,” Aiken stammered, “but then I started thinking about it and I’m not sure anymore.” He hung his head.
“Then why did you tell the police Marvin handed Devlin a weapon?” Bernie demanded.
“But I didn’t,” Aiken protested. “I told the police I thought he did. That’s different.”
“Evidently not to the police,” Bernie told him.
Aiken took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “Are you saying I’m responsible for the police suspecting Marvin?”
“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“That’s not fair,” Aiken wailed. ”You wouldn’t want me to lie, would you?”
“Not at all. I’d just like you to tell the truth.”
“I’ve already told you,” Aiken whined. “I can’t be sure. It was all so confusing out there and we were all hot and running around trying to get everything in order for the show to start. It was chaos. No one was paying attention to anyone else. Were you watching?”
“No,” Bernie admitted. “I was setting up.”
Aiken smiled triumphantly. “See.” He shook his head and straightened up the display of flashlights next to the register. “Such a pity how this turned out.”
“Yes,” Bernie agreed. “I really feel bad for Marvin.”
“No. I meant for Rick. Poor guy. He was trying so hard to make Longely a tourist destination. What is it they say about no good deed going unpunished? I think this is going to affect his chances of running for mayor, don’t you?”
“Probably,” Bernie said.
Aiken tsk-tsked.
“You sound as if you care.”
“I do,” Aiken said. “I was going to vote for him.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s going to help the small businessman. He’s going to get us tax credits. He’s going to get the sidewalks cleared in the winter. Stuff like that. If you were smart, you’d get behind him, too.”
“I’ll think about it,” Bernie lied.
“Good.” Aiken glanced at the clock and back at Bernie.
“Hey,” she said. “Did you see Chuck Grisham at the reenactment?”
“Why?”
“He said he was there, but I didn’t see him.”
“He was there. He just left early.”
“Why do you suppose he did that?”
Aiken shrugged. “Maybe he just couldn’t stand watching us anymore. We were pretty lame.” Aiken glanced at the clock again. “Now if you don’t mind, I have a big order to fill.”
Bernie nodded. “Well, I’ll get out of your way. There’s one other thing I’d like to clear up if that’s all right with you.”
“And what would that be?” Aiken asked in the voice of the long suffering.
“I’m wondering why you told Brandon that story about Monica Lewis?”
Aiken put down his coffee cup hard enough that a little of the brown liquid sloshed over into the top. “Story?”
“Story,” Bernie repeated firmly.
“That wasn’t a story.”
“Monica says it was.”
“So you’re accusing me of lying?” Aiken demanded.
“How about embellishing?”
“This is the thanks I get for trying to be helpful?” Two blotches of color appeared on his cheeks.
“Now you sound like my mother,” Bernie told him.
“It wasn’t a story,” he insisted. “It was the truth. You of all people should thank me.”
“For what?”
“For trying to help Marvin.”
“You just told me you told the police that Marvin gave Devlin the musket. How’s that helping him?”
“No. I told you that I told the police that I thought I saw him doing it. But then I started feeling bad. I mean, what if I was wrong? So I told Brandon about Monica because I knew he would tell you.”
“Well Monica says everything you told Brandon is a lie.”
“She would say that, which is funny given that she’s constitutionally incapable of telling the truth,” Aiken responded.
“In fact, she says”—Bernie closed her eyes trying to get it right—“that you had a thing going with David Nancy’s wife.”
Aiken wet his lips. “That’s absolutely rot.”
“Monica says that you weren’t too fond of Jack Devlin, either. She said that you blamed him for cutting your affair with Cora short. She said you were furious with Devlin.”
Aiken leaned forward. “Why should I be furious with that jerk?”
“Because he took Cora away from you,” Bernie said.
“Ha. He was welcomed to her as far as I was concerned.” Aiken drained the last of his coffee from his cup, crumpled it up, and tossed it in the wastepaper basket below the counter. “All she ever talked about was herself. She was exhausting. David was glad to have her off his hands. Gave him a rest.”
“Who gave who a rest?” Tony Gerard asked as he walked in. Then he looked at Aiken and Bernie and said, “I can come back at another time.”
“No no,” Bernie said. “I was just coming to see you.”
“She’s investigating Devlin’s death,” Aiken explained.
“I thought that was all settled,” Gerard said.
“Not according to her.” Aiken nodded in Bernie’s direction.
“I thought they were arresting Marvin.”
“She’s trying to prevent that,” Aiken informed Gerard.
“Do you mind if I talk?” Bernie said to Aiken.
He shrugged. “Not at all. Be my guest.”
“Then who do you think is responsible?” Gerard asked Bernie.
“For Devlin’s death?” Bernie asked.
Gerard nodded.
“How about you,” Bernie said.
“Me?” Gerard yelped. “Are you nuts?”
“You were there. You could have handed Devlin the musket as well as anyone else.”
“But I didn’t.” Gerard raised his hand. “I swear it.”
“He didn’t,” Aiken echoed. “He was helping me get my uniform on straight.”
“Then who did?” Bernie demanded.
“I don’t know,” Gerard said.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Bernie said.
Gerard looked at Aiken and Aiken looked at Gerard. Neither man replied.
“If you don’t know, why did you say what you did to the police?” Bernie asked.
“Marvin kept on yelling at us,” Gerard said. “It was very confusing. The whole thing was confusing. First, he wanted us to go here, then he wanted us to go there. He wanted us to take the muskets, then he wanted us to wait, then he told us to take them.”
“He couldn’t decide what he wanted,” Aiken said. “He was very nervous.”
“Yeah, but he shouldn’t have taken it out on us,” Gerard said to Aiken. “It just made things worse.”
“Is that why you fingered him?” Bernie asked in as casual a tone as she could manage. “Is it because you were pissed?”
“I didn’t finger anyone,” Aiken cried. “I wish you’d stop saying that. What I’m trying to tell you is that everything was chaotic. In truth, I’m not really sure what I saw.”
“In truth. Now that’s an interesting phrase coming from you,” Bernie said.
“You have no right to say things like that to me,” Aiken snapped.
“I have every right,” Bernie retorted.
“I think you should leave,” he told her. “I think you should leave now.”
“I think maybe you’re right,” Bernie said. This was getting nowhere. But as she turned to go, she had another thought. Granted her idea was far-fetched, but it also explained Aiken’s and Gerard’s conduct. “Did someone tell you to say what you did about Marvin to the police?” she asked, turning back.
“No,” Aiken said.
“Absolutely not,” Gerard told Bernie. “Why would you think something like that?”
“Because it’s the only thing that makes sense,” Bernie answered.
“Not to me,” Aiken declared.
Bernie pursed her lips while she studied the two men, not sure if she believed them. “If you want to do the right thing, you know where to find me.”
As she walked out the door, she shook her head. She didn’t expect to hear from them.