Gemma made a thumbs-up sign. “Right here. Right in the garden. Weather permitting. I’ll check the weather.” From the back pocket of her jeans, she brought out her cell phone and swiped through to the forecast. “Sunny. A little windy, though. Otherwise, the weather looks like Sunday could work.”
“You’re all crazy,” Lando stated. “There’s no way you can pull off a wedding by Sunday?”
Gemma grinned. “Watch us. We love a challenge.”
Lando shook his head and walked back into the kitchen. “I’m fixing cereal before work. Anybody interested in breakfast, grab a bowl.”
“He’s just grumpy,” Gemma said as she threw out her arms to encircle Luke and Lianne. “Seriously, if you want to get married Sunday or any time in the next month, the garden won’t be in full bloom like it would be in April, but it’s still a darn good place to hold the ceremony.”
“I don’t want to rush Luke,” Lianne offered with a chuckle.
Luke kissed the top of her head. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll show up. What about you?”
Leaving the couple to work it out, Gemma turned on her heels and headed back to the kitchen.
Lando looked up from his cereal bowl. “You think you’re pretty sneaky about getting Luke over here, don’t you?”
Gemma got down a bowl from the cabinet and joined him at the table. “Nothing sneaky about it. I called and asked him straight up if he was happier without her. He said he wasn’t. He took it from there.”
Lando clucked his tongue. “He did look miserable when I opened the door.”
Gemma swatted him on the arm. “Then don’t give me a hard time about it. It was just a matter of time before both of them realized it was silly to stay apart.”
“You know best,” Lando supplied. “Before you hit me again, I really didn’t think their spat would last this long.”
“Now that my work here is done, what have you got on the agenda for today?”
“I promised Lianne I’d check on Ritter’s paperwork. Then I need to head out to Jocelyn’s house and have a little talk with her.”
“Hmm. Is Zeb going with you?”
“No. Why?”
“Mind if I tag along after I get my chocolate delivery squared away?”
Lando cocked a brow. “You are the mayor. If you want to come along, I can hardly stop you.”
“That’s a warm invitation if I ever heard one. I just want to get a feel for who this woman is. Anna Kate’s older sister sure didn’t trust Jocelyn Williams very much. I want to see for myself why that is.”
“Sure. I don’t mind. In fact, maybe that’s a good idea.”
“Then I’ll finish up and head to the store. What time is good? Will ten o’clock work for you?”
“Make it nine-thirty.”
“Does this Jocelyn work?”
“No. She apparently lives off a trust established by her parents and left to her and Sandra when the women were in their early twenties.”
Gemma stopped eating, her spoon held in mid-air. “Can you say motive? When did you find out that little detail?”
He held up his phone. “Dale finally dug a little deeper into the Trask family. It turns out, they were quite well off, leaving the bulk of their estate to their two daughters, Sandra and Jocelyn.”
“When did the parents die?”
“1998. Automobile accident coming back from a trip to San Francisco. It seems they were on the 101 on a rainy night and veered off the roadway for some reason, ended up in a culvert upside down. The couple was killed instantly. Dale has asked Marin County for the accident report, so we’ll know more when that comes in.”
“You’re not willing to say it, are you?”
“Say what?”
“That Jocelyn Trask Williams just moved to the top of your suspect list.”
While waiting for Gemma to get to the station, Lando did another deep-dive background check into Jocelyn Williams. As much as he wanted to believe she hadn’t been involved in the family murders, he was beginning to think his predecessor had left out a huge chunk of the puzzle. He went back over Reiner’s investigative notes. He reread portions of the lab reports, then studied the crime scene photos.
By the time Gemma knocked on his door, he had concluded that Jocelyn had been lying all along. “You’re not gonna believe this, but Jocelyn’s airtight alibi might not be so airtight.”
“I thought she was out of town, away at college.”
“According to Reiner Caulfield’s notes, yeah, which is what I based my original belief on. But reading further into the notes from weeks after the murders, it