As the media delved into Marshall’s background in search of a story, Booker hoped they would discover relatives of Marshall’s. Because Marshall had always been private about his past life, no one knew anything about his family. As far as Booker knew, Marshall had never married and had no children.

  Although Booker had never become a close friend of Marshall’s, they were friendly to each other. After all, they often did business together, working to keep the town safe.

  However, one night, Booker had found Marshall in one of the town’s bars. He had stopped in to hear a local band and found Marshall sitting at a table in the back of the room. They had shared a few drinks, and as they sat together, Marshall had shared a little about his life. His parents had died when he was eighteen and he was the only child.

  When the band took a break and they could hear each other better, Booker had asked Marshall where he grew up.

  “Here. In Spring Falls, like you,” he replied. “The town was different back then.”

  Booker thought back to his youth in Spring Falls. Fifteen years younger than Marshall, he only remembered the town as a great place to grow up.

  “How so?”

  “Hard to explain,” Marshall answered. “Dirtier maybe. Not as charming as it is now. Not as nice a place to grow up as it has become.”

  “Well, a lot of that has to do with you, Marshall,” Booker had said. “You’ve been mayor for a long time. If things have changed for the better, much of that has to do with you.”

  Marshall smiled and nodded, and they’d clinked glasses. That had been years before, and Spring Falls had only gotten better since then. Booker thought that the town had lost a great man, and people would mourn him for a long time.

  After the coroner arrived and the body was removed, Booker and his team walked through the house. At first, Booker had thought the death was simply an accident. Marshall, in his hurry to get to his vacation, had tumbled down the stairs. They had found his suitcase close to his body. He must have tripped, and then the weight of the suitcase kept the momentum going.

  But soon it became apparent that something was wrong. Searching the house, they realized it was empty. Booker’s first thought was that the house looked staged. And when the realtor showed up, ready to install the lock on the door and put the For Sale sign in the yard, his suspicions were confirmed.

  It was only then that a chilling thought gnawed at Booker. It was possible that Marshall’s death was not accidental. There were anomalies that he couldn’t ignore. A seemingly innocuous yet glaring clue nudged him toward this conclusion. The notable absence of Marshall’s computer. The device, which seemed as much a part of Marshall as his own arm, was nowhere to be found.

  This realization cast a new, unsettling light on the situation. Someone else had been in the house. Marshall was skipping town. Why? Did someone push him down the stairs? Why?

  None of it made any sense. Why would someone kill a man as beloved by the town as Marshall was? The puzzle pieces didn’t seem to fit together. None of it fit what Booker knew about Marshall.

  Unconsciously brushing his hair back, something everyone knew he did when he was confused or worried, Booker studied the stairs with the pool of blood at the bottom that had come from the wound on the back of Marshall’s head—apparently caused by Marshall hitting his head on the edge of a step as he fell. And just in case Marshall was still hanging around listening, Booker promised him he’d find out what had happened and why.

  The next phase of the investigation was just beginning, and the answers to what happened to Marshall would unravel secrets that Booker could not have foreseen or believed. Marshall was a hero in Spring Falls, and nothing Booker knew about Marshall had ever made him think otherwise.

  But then, as the truth was revealed, everyone would shake their heads and say it wasn’t possible. But it was. Marshall had fooled them all until he couldn’t any longer.

  Nine

  Judith was still lying on the couch when Nancy poked her head into the room. Normally, she would have closed the door and slipped away, but this time she knew what she had to tell Judith couldn’t wait.

  Hesitating in the doorway, she tried to think of the best way to wake Judith up, but was saved from doing so when Judith, with her eyes still closed, asked, “What’s up?”

  “Sorry to wake you up, but there is something you need to know.”

  “Not sleeping, thinking, and resting my eyes.”

  Hearing the tone of Nancy’s voice, Judith sat up and, patting the seat beside her, said, “What’s wrong? Sit. Can I get you something?”

  Sitting beside Judith, her head bent down, trying to hide her tears, Nancy whispered, “Marshall is dead.”

  “What do you mean, he’s dead? He’s on vacation.”

  As Nancy repeated what she knew—that Marshall had been found dead at the bottom of his stairs—Judith kept shaking her head. It couldn’t be true. He was headed for a well-deserved vacation. He had promised that when he returned, he’d help her with a project she was planning, converting one of the empty office buildings in town into a homeless shelter.

  Although they didn’t have a homeless problem, Judith suspected that there were people who hid the fact that they were on the streets or living in cars. She was determined to help anyone who might struggle with being unhomed. She thought that word was stupid. If you didn’t have a home, then you were homeless. But no matter what it was called, Judith felt it was wrong. Judith had planned to work with Marshall to gather funds for the renovation of the building and turn it into small apartments. But it would also have a common room for training and computers that everyone could use.

  And she knew there were other programs that Marshall had promised to help with when he returned. One of them was a program Cindy had started. She was teaching anyone who was interested how to make something she could sell online for them. Cindy was thinking about quilts or weaving, but one woman had asked about making chef aprons. She had made them for all the chefs at ParaTi’s and when she found out how much they loved wearing them, she thought she could turn it into a business with Cindy’s, Mimi’s, and Janet’s help.

  In fact, Judith thought that what Marshall had lined up to do when he returned from vacation was going to keep him busier than being a mayor.

  All those thoughts flew by in Judith’s head. As she stood, she felt groundless and unsteady. Without Marshall helping the town as he always had, what would happen?

  It was so inconceivable, she asked again, “Are you sure?”

  Nancy nodded. “Yes, my friend at the paper called me. The news is spreading like wildfire. What do you want to do?”

  Judith held up a finger for Nancy to wait a minute, picked up her phone and called Booker. When he didn’t answer, she tapped her foot for a minute and then sent a text to all the Ruby Sisters, including Booker, Bruce, and Daniel.

  “Did you hear? What do you know?”

  A flurry of “yes, no, what do you mean, I don’t know anything” flooded in. Another flurry revealed who didn’t know what had happened. But no one knew more than that. Booker didn’t answer.

  In fact, seeing the flood of texts, Booker had frowned, and then turned off the sound on his phone. He couldn’t have this. Not now.

  Sighing, he finally texted back, “I can’t answer any of this, and you’ll have to leave me out of these conversations for now.” Adding a second later: “Please.”

  Seeing Booker’s answer, Judith knew it was more than what Nancy said. Marshall didn’t just fall down the stairs. Something else happened, and she would find out what it was. Marshall wasn’t a close friend, but she had known him well enough. Not only was he her first boss, he had changed Spring Falls for the better, for which she, and she knew all the townspeople, would be forever grateful.

  Picking up her purse and fluffing her hair out from where it had flattened when she lay down, Judith said, “Cancel my appointments, please. Probably all that would happen anyway would be gossip about Marshall. I’m heading out.”

  Nancy didn’t need to ask Judith where she was going. She had worked with Judith long enough to know that she wouldn’t be able to leave this alone. She’d have to know more, and she would gnaw at the puzzle of why Marshall was dead until she found out the answers.

  At the door, with her coat and boots on, Judith turned and looked at her office. It looked the same as it always did. And she wondered how that could be true. A hero of Spring Falls was dead. Something should have happened. A thunderclap, an earthquake. Something.

  Not trusting herself to speak, Judith waved her fingers at Nancy, who was now standing at her desk, her phone tucked between her shoulder and ear, doing what she always did. Taking care of things.

  Nancy nodded back. What was there to say? Nothing could be exactly the same after this. Marshall held the town together. Who was going to do that now that he was gone?

  Ten

  Tanner heard the news while seated in one of his favorite diners in Spring Falls. The diner was tucked behind the main buildings downtown, on the corner of two well-maintained alleys. The eatery was a popular haunt among the local college students, and its bustling energy was further brought to life by its spirited owner, Margaret Williams, someone he worked with on the Town Council.

  He’d always sit in the back thinking, trying to be as invisible as possible. Or at least hoping he was less noticeable sitting in the back. He didn’t look much older than the crowd that was usually there, but he still felt a little self-conscious, as if he didn’t belong. Feeling that he was an impostor wasn’t unusual, nor was feeling as if he didn’t belong. Both were as familiar to him as the color of his eyes when he looked in the mirror. He had long ago stopped wondering if everyone felt that way. It was hard enough to deal with it himself.

  For as long as Tanner could remember, he had struggled to look as if he was sure of himself. He had learned the hard way that pretending he was confident was a necessary survival skill. But for him, it was almost always an act. One he had perfected over the years, but still within himself, he was always sure that who he was could never be enough. For anything.

  So, on the Zoom call with Judith and her team that morning, he had said as little as possible in case he screwed up somehow. Instead, he nodded and smiled and made notes on his iPad, which he used instead of paper. Like Marshall’s computer, it was always wherever he was.

  He was good at keeping notes. Actually, when he was being kind to himself, he admitted he was good at quite a few things. He was an excellent student. He studied hard. He was a good accountant, going over everything until he was sure it was right. He was even a good ballroom dancer, having once dated a woman who insisted they take ballroom lessons together. She hadn’t stayed around, but the love of ballroom dance had.

  As he savored the best Mexican food he had ever eaten (not that he had much experience with any other Mexican food, having lived a fairly secluded life), he reviewed the call with Judith. It amazed him how well she managed the meeting. Each person had a chance to talk and ask a question. Then someone else would share what they knew or thought about the situation.

  The discussions were fascinating, and he learned more in those ninety minutes about working with clients than he thought possible. Although he had questions, they weren’t ones he could voice out loud until he knew he could trust everyone.

  In fact, he thought he might never talk to anyone other than Judith about what was bothering him. Tanner knew that he’d have to do it soon, but as usual, he was stalling. What if getting help from Judith was the wrong thing?

  Having taken his last bite of food, savoring the flavors as long as he could, Tanner was closing up his iPad, ready to go to his office, when Margaret rushed over to him as if the restaurant was on fire.

  Tanner had met Margaret not long after he moved to Spring Falls. For some reason, she noticed him. Later, she told him it was because he seemed familiar. But after trying to figure out if they had ever met before, they gave up and decided it was just one of those things.

  And it was because of Margaret and all the people she knew that he had ended up on Spring Fall’s Town Council. She had picked him, she said, because they needed someone young, and new to Spring Falls so he would see it with fresh eyes. At first he had said no, but she kept insisting, pushing almost every button he had about doing the right thing.

  Campaigning was one of the worst things he’d ever put himself through, but Tanner had done what Margaret asked of him to get elected. He shook hands, smiled at press gatherings and somehow had ended up on the Town Council, the youngest member they ever had, as they constantly reminded him.

  Once he was elected, Margaret had made it clear that she didn’t want Tanner to be part of Judith Zoe’s stable of accountants. At the time, he had agreed. That was over a year ago. He had never asked Margaret why. Perhaps she thought it would be a conflict of interest.

  But as his client base grew including some small businesses in town, he realized he was over his head. He had heard about Judith Zoe as soon as he moved to Spring Falls. Imposing, slightly intimidating, but everyone always said that Judith knew right from wrong and fought for it.

  Tanner wasn’t sure he saw things that clearly. He needed guidance. And that’s why he approached Judith, hoping she’d say yes, knowing Margaret would not be happy with him. Which meant he was more than a little worried about telling her he was now part of Judith’s team. It would be hard to explain to Margaret that he needed more expertise with one of the clients he had, and that’s why he asked to join Judith’s community of accountants and bookkeepers.

  Truthfully, Tanner thought he would be a better Town Council member if he knew more people and more about how the town functioned. He wasn’t particularly impressed with the rarefied view he believed the Council had of Spring Falls. Yes, he was getting to know Spring Falls, but Tanner felt that there was much more going on that he needed to know to be good at his job as a Council member.

  He might be insecure about who he was, but Tanner knew himself well enough to know he needed to know as much as possible about something or someone in order to satisfy his curiosity and his driving need to do the right thing. However, that didn’t mean he wasn’t often trying to please people, and it was the conflict between those two drives that sometimes kept him awake at night.

  So when Margaret rushed over to the table, he was afraid that she had found out about Judith before he could tell her and was angry at him. He was preparing to apologize, but not back down. But as she got closer, he realized Margaret wasn’t angry. She was crying.

  “What’s wrong?” Tanner asked, standing so quickly he almost tipped over his drink, catching it before it spilled.

  As Margaret stood staring at him, all the fears he ever had about doing the wrong thing flooded over him and he felt as if he would faint, only vaguely recognizing that she probably wouldn’t be crying if he had done something wrong.

  Tanner watched Margaret’s face change to worry as she realized he didn’t know what had happened.

  “You don’t know, do you?”

  “Know what?”

  Margaret reached over and pushed Tanner back in his seat, and then gently holding his hand, she leaned in and whispered, “Marshall is dead.”

  Eleven

  An emergency meeting of the Town Council took place within hours of the news. Margaret arranged it, practically dragging Tanner out of the restaurant and taking him with her as she made phone calls to the other three Town Council members.

  As they arrived, Margaret hugged each one as they came through the door, whether they wanted it or not, and led them to where she wanted them to sit. Despite her previous tears, Margaret was in her element. To Tanner, it seemed that the fact that the man they had all known and respected had died was now simply an item on Margaret’s agenda.

  They were meeting in the Council room at City Hall, tucked beside the larger room where they held Town Hall meetings. The entire building was abuzz. Tanner thought it literally sounded like a giant beehive, and he struggled to not get pulled into the emotional chaos that swirled through the air.

  Groups of people were standing in the halls crying, while others rushed from room to room carrying stacks of papers. Tanner wondered if anyone knew what they were doing. Without Marshall, would anyone know what to do?

  Yes, Marshall had retired, leaving Margaret, as head of the Town Council, as interim mayor. But everyone knew that once Marshall returned from vacation, he’d act as a consultant to make sure the transition ran smoothly. Everyone also knew that Marshall would help get Judith officially elected mayor at the next election.

  Watching Margaret in action, Tanner realized something he hadn’t noticed before. He should have, but he had been too busy trying to fit in to actually take in the fact that Margaret was probably the reason every one of them was there.

  Of course, he was on the Council because of Margaret, but so was Colin Parker, a slim, well-dressed man who always looked as if he stepped out of a fashion magazine. Tanner considered Colin an opinionated know-it-all and always tried to sit far away from him, not wanting to be part of his ongoing commentary. He tried not to let on how much he disliked the man and he wondered why Margaret had chosen him as a Council member. Maybe because, as the owner of a large real estate office, he had connections.

  Barbara Green arrived next. She had approached Tanner when he first joined the Council about hiring him, but in the end had stayed with the accountant she had for years. He knew Barbara owned a nursery in town and employed a crew of landscapers who tended to many of the lawns and gardens in Spring Falls.

  The last person to arrive was Walter Lane. Walt owned a bookstore in town, with a small cafe attached to it. He was one reason Tanner had wanted to join Judith’s team and get to know Judith, because it was Walt who had recently hired him as his accountant, and Tanner had already noticed a few discrepancies and wasn’t sure what to do about them. Walt had warned him he would find problems, and he hoped Tanner could help him determine what he could do to fix them.