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didn’t put her foot down now, the reporter would return again and again, each time on a flimsier excuse than the last time. If he wouldn’t leave when the police were potentially available to arrest him for trespassing, she’d never get him to leave the next time he invited himself to her property, looking for an interview. “You probably want to take my statement, anyway. As soon as Loring leaves, I’ll tell you what I know about Melissa.”
    “ We’ve got your name, and we know where you live,” Peterson said. “That’s all we need from you.”
    “ You don’t want to know where I was last night?” The police should have been grilling her by now, not verbally patting her on the head. “Don’t you want to know whether Melissa and I had argued recently?”
    “ Not really.”
    Maybe they knew something she didn ‘t. “So you know who killed her?”
    “ We’ve got a pretty good idea.” Peterson looked past her, checking out the forensic team’s activity at the scene of the crime again.
    “ A pretty good idea?” Helen felt outrage on Melissa’s behalf. The nurse had been annoying, but that didn’t mean she’d deserved to die, or that her killer should escape punishment. “We’re talking about a murder here. Shouldn’t you be considering all the possibilities until you have a beyond-reasonable-doubt certainty?”
    “ We will consider everything, ma’am.” Peterson dragged his attention back to her.
    “ I must have misunderstood you, then,” Helen said. “You’re planning to have someone else interview me later. A lead detective, maybe.”
    “ I’m the lead detective.” He gestured at his nametag which did, indeed have a Det. in front of his name. “Hank Peterson. The forensics will tell us everything we need to know. There isn’t anything useful that you can add.”
    “ But I’m the one who found her. Right where I live,” Helen said. “I should be the prime suspect.”
    “ You?” Peterson smirked. “Don’t worry, ma’am. You aren’t even on the list.”
    “ Why not?” Helen said, annoyed by his dismissive, condescending attitude. “Everyone knows I detested Melissa and was desperate to get rid of her. Maybe I came back from court yesterday, and she was still here, and I lost my temper and bashed her over the head.”
    “ I don’t think so.”
    “ Why not?”
    “ You aren’t strong enough, for one thing.”
    “ There was a tree limb near her body,” Helen said. “Something that big would do most of the damage by itself, and all I’d have to do is lift it and toss it in her direction.”
    “ You couldn’t lift it.”
    “ Sure I could,” Helen said. “I’m stronger than I look. And then there’s the adrenaline factor that would make me even stronger while I was angry. She really did know how to push my buttons.”
    “ Look,” he said. “It’s obvious you didn’t kill her, and I’ve got better things to do than interview someone I’m sure didn’t do it.”
    “ Better things? Like looking for a suspect?”
    “ We already have one,” he said. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but if it will set your mind at ease, we already have a solid theory of what happened. There’s been a rash of late-night burglaries around here the last couple years, and I’m betting this is related. A vulnerable woman, like you, living all alone, is the perfect target for a burglar. He came here intending to rob you, Melissa surprised him, so he killed her.”
    Peterson sounded so certain, and it was his job to investigate these things, so maybe he was right. It still rankled that she ‘d been dismissed so easily. “I just want to be sure you find the culprit, officer, and lock him up.”
    “ So you admit you didn’t kill Melissa, after all,” Peterson said with a self-satisfied chuckle that made Helen think someone was going to kill the homicide detective before long, if he didn’t develop some better people skills.
    “ Don’t worry,” he said, in that