Page 113 of Murder on Charity Lane

“No! No, that’s not a yes.”

“So you think that between four and six months ago, Frank himself searched how to painlessly murder an old man?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know what Frank searched.”

“Who else has access to the laptop,” Nicholas asked, “other than you and Frank?”

“Karina. The cleaners, the gardeners. Anyone we ever invited into the house.”

“We?” Lily-Ann asked, then tapped a quick message on her phone.

“They. We. I did a lot of the inviting. Anyone could’ve used the laptop.”

“Anyone could have,” Sophie said, “but who would have?”

“I don’t know. Nobody.” CJ started crying silently. “Ev … everyone loved him.”

Apparently that was too much for Ocean. She crossed the room, slipped onto the sofa beside CJ, and put her arm around her.

CJ buried her face in Ocean’s shoulder and sniffled. “Everyone loved Frank.”

“Possibly not everyone,” Lily-Ann said, because the moment called for rationality, not sympathy.

Mrs. B tsked. “Lily-Ann!”

“Unless you think he tripped?”

CJ raised her head. “Of course I think he tripped!”

“Well, I think you’re lying about the online searches.”

“Why?” Mrs. B demanded. “Why would you think that?”

“Anything else is too bizarrely unlikely. Four months ago, someone else used CJ’s work computer to search for ways to kill her boss? And did you see how she reacted?”

“Like a person! There’s no reason to attack her.”

“We’re not here to attack CJ, Mrs. B,” Nicholas said. “We’re here to help her. However…”

“We can’t help her if she doesn’t tell the truth,” Hamilton continued, looking up from the group text Lily-Ann had sent, telling everyone to press CJ.

“That’s true.” Sophie’s sweet smile turned sympathetic. “I’m sorry, CJ, but he’s not wrong.”

“Very not wrong,” Nicholas said.

Sophie put her hand on Nicholas’s arm. “We’re the only people who won’t assume you’re guilty. It’s us or nobody. And we don’t care what’s legal, we only care about what’s right.”

“Is that—” CJ sniffled. “Is that true?”

“Yeah,” Ocean said. “All too true.”

“We don’t judge,” Lily-Ann told CJ. “None of us is in a position to judge. For example, I’ve searched for ways to poison Anthony.”

“You have? Why?”

“Curiosity,” Lily-Ann said.

CJ’s teary gaze flicked to Ocean. “Um…”