Chuck shrugged. 'Fact is, the kid doesn't have the money to pay the fines.'

'Can't his father help?'

'His daddy figures Josh earned those tickets himself and he should pay them the same way. I applaud the sentiment, so we're trying to work out some kind of payment plan.'

Probably why Josh and Suzanne were fighting as they drove away. He wasn't going to have money to take her out anytime soon. 'Well, I have to say I'm relieved that Josh came to you on his own.'

'You were worried he had something to do with the shooting?'

'It crossed my mind didn't it yours?'

'Of course. Josh is dating the woman's daughter. Maybe Mom wasn't happy about it. Maybe there's an inheritance involved. Maybe a lot of different things. Love, greed, sex, revenge the motives for murder are as old as these mountains. Fact is, though, that Josh didn't have to stop to help you and certainly wouldn't have, if he'd just shot out the tires of a car a few hundred yards up the road.'

'You have a point.' AnnaLise was thinking about it, when Chuck spoke again: 'Is now a good time for you to tell me about Ben Rosewood and a certain reporter on cold winter nights in Wisconsin?'

Eighteen.

'How . . .' she cleared her throat. 'What do you mean?'

'My meaning, I believe, was pretty clear: when were you going to tell me about the affair you had with Ben Rosewood?'

'It's over.'

'So he told me.' Chuck's face . . . well, it didn't look like Chuck's anymore.

'He told you?' AnnaLise felt ambushed. First, according to the chief, Ben was 'a pain in the ass,' now he was an informant?

'The man did, yesterday. And you confirm it, every time I mention his name.'

'What did he say?'

'I'd like to hear it from you.'

AnnaLise swallowed. 'Grumpy' wasn't looking so cute anymore. 'Yes, we had an affair for about a year. It ended almost a month ago.'

'Who ended it?'

'I did.'

Chuck's eyes flickered. 'Rosewood says the opposite.'

AnnaLise wasn't surprised. 'Ben is a man who doesn't like to lose. At anything. I can show you the text messages, if you like.'

She started to paw through her purse for the cell.

'You ended a year-long affair by text message?'

'Of course not. What kind of person do you think I am?'

'I know the kind of person you used to be.'

AnnaLise stopped searching for the cell and looked at her friend. At the man who'd been more than a friend. 'Chuck, I- '

'The texts?' He nodded toward the bag.

AnnaLise nodded and returned to digging through the bag, trying to hold back tears. I don't cry, she told herself. I never cry.

'Chuck, you're scaring me,' she said without looking up. 'I'm me, AnnaLise Griggs. Remember?'

'I remember. But a woman is dead and you admit having an affair with her husband. I need to ask these questions.'

'I had an affair. Past tense.' AnnaLise tried to sound calm, despite the knot of fear growing in her stomach. Not to mention the self-loathing. 'And if you honestly think it's a factor, shouldn't you be looking into Ben as well?'

'Except he's the one who came to me.'

'Ben thinks I killed his wife?' The knot was more like a boulder now. 'That can't be right. I just talked to him yesterday, too and he seemed fine. In fact, he was blaming the accident on Joy for serving wine to Tanja.'

'I assume he's a good actor, not surprising for a trial attorney. Or maybe he hadn't noticed the missed call from you on his cell phone yet.'

'Missed call? When?' AnnaLise was wracking her brain. When was the last time she'd called Ben? She couldn't even remember.

'The night of Tanja Rosewood's accident and yours. In fact, not an hour after you left the scene.'

Left the scene? A uniformed officer had taken AnnaLise and Daisy to Ida Mae's and 'Oh, wait. I know.'

'Then I'd be grateful if you'd tell me and clear this all up.' Still no clue as to how the chief of police because this clearly was the 'chief,' not her friend Chuck was reacting. His face gave nothing away.

'Daisy and I were at Ida Mae's and Daisy mentioned that the car Earl Lawling had spotted was yellow. I immediately thought of the Porsche.'

'And called Rosewood?'

'To see if he and his family were all right,' AnnaLise said uncomfortably. 'Early that afternoon, we'd seen them at Mama's and Tanja asked how long it would take to get up to the spa.'

'So you knew where she'd be.'

'Yes.' AnnaLise was staring at her friend in horror. 'But Daisy and I were together at her doctor's appointment. Chuck, you can't possibly think I stalked this woman and shot out her tire!'

'Like I said, Lise, I don't know what to think.' The use of the nickname was the only trace of warmth.

'Listen to me, Chuck. I dialed Ben's number that night because I was worried. Then Daisy interrupted me toward dinner, so I hung up. And was glad that I had. I'd been badly shaken up by the accident and had some wine, so I wasn't thinking clearly.'

'As it happens, you were. It was both the Porsche and Tanja Rosewood.'

'But it was no longer my . . . duty to call. You've got to believe me. Ben and I were over unequivocally and irretrievably back in Wisconsin two weeks before I drove here to Sutherton because of Daisy's '

'You can stop there. I know the rest.'

'Here.' AnnaLise was fumbling out her cell phone. 'Let me punch up the messages. I kept them all they'll prove I ended it with Ben and he wasn't taking no for an answer.' She was frantically pushing buttons. 'You should be looking at Ben for this, not - Oh, no.'

'What?' Chuck leaned forward.

AnnaLise looked up from her phone. 'They're . . . All my saved text messages from him are gone.'

Ben must have deleted those messages yesterday, AnnaLise thought as she escaped Chuck's office, barely raising her hand in acknowledgment of Charity's 'see ya later, AnnaLise.'

The DA had her purse in his hand, bag open, when she'd come down the stairs at the inn. If he'd looked under text messages and his name, the conniving asshole could have deleted the whole bunch with one push of a button.

But why? To erase all record of their relationship? Then why would he have gone to Chuck and admitted the affair?

The obvious answer scared AnnaLise more than the question. Ben was no longer trying to pin Tanja's death on Joy he was trying to pin it on AnnaLise instead. But it didn't make any sense. No one yesterday knew that someone had fired at Tanja's Porsche, striking the tire and sending the car off the road.

No one, that is, except the killer.

Nineteen.

You wouldn't confuse the Torch of today with the Griggs Market of even just a year ago.

Gone were the deli counter and shelves full of bread, cans and dried goods. The walls of the big square room had been painted slate gray and round tables filled the floor in front of a half-moon stage. On three walls, long, bar-height tables gave patrons a clear view of the entertainment.

It was at one of these counters that AnnaLise and Joy sat, not paying the slightest attention to either the decor or the performer, tonight a thankfully subdued pianist.

'Wow,' Joy said, tossing back a tequila shot. 'It's just like Fatal Attraction. You love that movie.'

'Not when I'm cast in the role of Alex Forrest.'

'Who's he?'

'She. You know, the character played by Glenn Close? Michael Douglas's one-night stand that rapidly becomes his worst nightmare?'

'Honestly, who but you would remember that whack-job's name? All I know is she boiled a bunny. You didn't do that, right?' Joy was signaling for the waitress.

AnnaLise, on the other hand, had been nursing her glass of Hefe-Weisen, a North Carolina wheat beer from Olde Hickory Brewery, located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

She'd also been trying to figure out why she was talking to Joy, other than the fact that she already knew about AnnaLise's affair with Ben. 'No, of course I didn't boil any bunnies. Or puppies or kittens, for that matter.'

The waitress who'd just arrived at their table turned on her heel.

'Now see what you've done?' Joy said, watching the woman disappear in the other direction.

'It wouldn't hurt you to pace yourself anyway.'

'This was my first. Besides, I'm surprised you're not hitting the stuff harder, given the circumstances.'

'"The circumstances" are exactly why I need to keep my wits about me. I could go to jail for something I didn't do. Oh my God, this state has the death penalty. I could fry.'

'Nah, execution is by lethal injection here. Sort of The Big Sleep, courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Correction.'

'Cold comfort,' AnnaLise muttered.

'Cold is right. But I don't see what you're worried about. From what you told me, it's your boyfriend's word against yours.'

'My ex-boyfriend,' AnnaLise hissed, 'is a district attorney, a prosecutor. If anyone knows how to frame someone, it's him, the slimeball.'

'And they say love is blind.' After the waitress shunned them, Joy raised her empty glass for the bartender to see and got a nod in return. 'So, let me get this straight.'

'Better hurry before that shot gets here,' AnnaLise interjected. 'Or you won't be able to get anything straight.'

'As I was saying,' Joy plunged on, unfazed: 'You think your DA killed his wife and is trying to pin the murder on you, right?'

'Right.'

'But why?' Joy nodded her thanks to the waitress who deposited the tequila crisply and departed immediately.

'Sure, I'll have another beer,' AnnaLise called to the waitress' back before returning to Joy. 'The why of framing me? No clue, except that I dumped him. Maybe his ego can't take it.'

'And so . . .' Joy prompted.

AnnaLise was warming to her subject. 'And so, think of it: District Attorney Benjamin Rosewood kills two birds with one stone. Gets rid of the wife and sticks it to the former lover as revenge.'

'Hmm.' Joy seemed to be taking AnnaLise's advice and nursing this second tequila. 'I like it. She's rich, I suppose. The wife, I mean.'

AnnaLise nodded. 'Loaded. Or at least her family is.'

'Well, there's your motive.'

But AnnaLise was thinking back to her conversation with Chuck. "Apparently Ben asked permission to use the shooting range while he was in town.'

'Not very smart, if he intended to kill his wife.'

'True, but . . .' The reporter leaned forward. 'He never intended for the bullet to be found. The whole thing would have been written off as a tire blowout if it hadn't been for Earl.'