When Steve sent a betrayed glance her way, Riley said, "Sorry, Steve, but a man's dead. We have to find out who murdered him and why. We will find out. If you and your people had nothing to do with it, now's the time to convince us."
Jenny spoke up then to say, "I still believe we should have our lawyer present."
Riley studied the dark woman thoughtfully. She was the only member of the group other than Steve who had anything at all to say; the other ten people-five men and five women-seated in the great room of their rental house were all silent and fairly expressionless.
They were a rather varied group, ranging from mid-twenties to nearing retirement age, but otherwise looked like any other visitors to Opal Island in their bright-colored shorts and thin tops, with most sporting at least faint cases of sunburn.
Riley was picking up a general low-level anxiety in the room, which made perfect sense given the situation, but nothing to make her overly suspicious of the group as a whole.
Jenny, though…Jenny was different.
Jenny was worried.
…not what I wanted. How could it be? But…I didn't know. I thought his mind had finally been opened, that he…I thought he had changed.
Interesting. And told Riley a lot. But before she could follow that lead, Jake was pressing again, determined to get his questions answered now that they had a tangible connection between these people and the murdered man.
"People who have nothing to hide don't need a lawyer," he said. "No offense, Ash."
"None taken." Ash was sitting slightly behind Riley at the big dining table, their chairs turned so that they faced the group ranged around the living room, and only he and Riley knew that the hand he rested casually on her shoulder was neither casual nor possessive but a necessary conduit between them.
And a vital source of strength for Riley.
Sitting on the other side of the table, Leah had noted the contact with a smile; Jake appeared more irritated every time he looked their way.
He doesn't hide his thoughts very well. Definitely doesn't like me being with Ash. But whether it's because of me or because of Ash, I can't really tell…
Why am I thinking about this shit?
"I think Jenny's right," Steve said, clearly uneasy now. "Why don't you go away and get your warrant, Sheriff, and we'll get our lawyer, and then we'll see."
Riley didn't have to be able to read him to know Jake was on the point of saying something hotheaded and completely unnecessary, so she spoke before he could.
"Steve, I promised your group wouldn't be harassed and I'll make sure that doesn't happen. But we need to know what you know. Wesley Tate was the one who called you, yes?"
"Yeah."
Ignoring Jake's affronted body language as he stood before the entertainment center and in what should have been the focal point of the group, Riley continued to calmly question Steve.
"But you had never met him?"
"No."
"Then why were you even willing to talk to him? You must have gotten plenty of calls from reporters on fishing expeditions, calls from others intent on causing you trouble. What made the call from Tate so different?"
"I told you. He knew people."
"What people?"
"Dammit, Riley, you can't expect me to answer that. Some of them don't practice openly."
"Gee, I wonder why?" Jake muttered.
Instantly, Steve said, "Because of suspicious people like you, Sheriff. We're supposed to have religious freedom in this country, you know."
Before Jake could follow what would certainly be a hotly impassioned tangent, Riley surprised most of the people in the room by asking a quiet question.
"How long had you been divorced, Jenny?"
Going pale beneath her tan, Jenny said, "What?"
"You heard me. Wesley Tate was your ex-husband, wasn't he?"
Steve reached for his partner's hand. "She doesn't have to answer that."
"Steve, don't be an idiot." Riley kept her voice matter-of-fact. "A connection like this would certainly show up in a deep background check, so why try to hide or deny it? Besides, they were legally divorced, right? So she wouldn't benefit financially from his death. And if they've been divorced as long as I think they have, any old hurts and resentments are undoubtedly past and forgotten. Jenny has no motive to have murdered Wesley Tate."
At least…I don't think she has. Focus, dammit!
Steve frowned but didn't try to stop her when Jenny finally spoke.
"We were divorced more than ten years ago," she said, something of relief in her voice. "Married less than five. He…couldn't accept my nontraditional lifestyle choices."
Flashing back to her dream-or memory-of seeing this woman serving as a naked altar in a ceremony about as far from traditional as it was possible to get, Riley wasn't sure she blamed him. But all she said was, "And since then? Any contact with him?"
"Not much. He sort of made it a habit to call around Christmas, just to check and see how I was doing."
"Do satanists celebrate Christmas?" Jake wondered aloud, either too intrigued by the question or too pissed at having the interview taken out of his hands to care about going off topic.
"Not the way Christians do," Steve said flatly.
Riley got them back on track. "So why did he contact you out of the blue?" she asked Jenny.
"He said he just wanted to help. There'd been…a few incidents, as Steve told you, where we were living near Columbia. Made the local news. Wes saw it, he said. He was worried things would get worse, that there was a general climate of intolerance in the area. All the supposed occult stuff during the last year or so here in the Southeast."
Riley nodded. "Yeah, we investigated some of that." Bishop reminded me about that too. But it was all bogus. Or most of it was bogus… "So Tate was worried about you. And?"
"And he said he knew of a safe haven. He told us about this house, said it was a nice, peaceful place with gorgeous views and that nobody would bother us. He said he knew-for certain-that there were like-minded people living in the area."
"But he didn't name names."
"No. Afraid not."
"And you still haven't been contacted by any of these like-minded people?"
"No."
"Okay," Riley said. "Did he say he'd meet you here?"
"He said he might spend some time here on the island, that maybe we could get together and talk," Jenny replied. "But it was all very casual, nothing at all set in stone. He said he'd call if he did come. He never called."
"And you didn't suspect he might be the man killed on Sunday night?"
"No. Why would I?"
Jake broke in again to say, "Well, excuse me, but you didn't seem all that surprised or broken up when we told you it was him."
"Not all of us show everything we feel, Sheriff," she said, rather pointedly scanning him up and down and then looking away dismissively.
Riley was conscious of a fleeting wish that she and Ash had come out here alone to talk to these people, but reminded herself silently of her unofficial status. And spoke quickly before Jake could explode-as he showed every sign of doing.
"Did you really think he'd changed his mind after all these years?" she asked Jenny.
The dark woman hesitated, then smiled faintly. "No. Not really. I wanted to think so, but it was far more likely he just wanted to find out if I was still serious about my lifestyle. He never remarried. I don't think he ever really gave up on us."
"Which," Jake said to Steve, "gives you a motive to murder."
"Hardly," Steve said. "You see, I know Jenny is committed to our lifestyle."
"Assuming we accept that," Riley said without looking at Jake, "you still need to account for your presence in the clearing where Wesley Tate's body was found on Monday morning. You were there Sunday night, weren't you?"