Murder of a Small-Town Honey

fa­vorite flower and brand of chocolates?'

He looked guiltily at May. 'I asked your mother.'

There is no such thing as privacy in a small town. Haven't I just watched a bunch of people learn that the hard way? Skye straightened. 'Let's get back to Vince's questions about Mike's stealing. He never took valuable items, just bits and pieces. People mostly thought they'd misplaced things. When the police searched his place they found boxes of sunglasses, pens, ashtrays, key rings ... you name it. A lot of the stuff had people's names on it.'

'Why would he do something like that?' Jed asked.

They all looked at him in surprise, as he rarely con­tributed to conversations.

'Well, Dad,' Skye replied, 'Mike's family wasn't any­thing like ours. His father was an alcoholic and abusive. He must have always felt like an outcast.'

May asked, 'How do you know all this?'

'Wally told me about Mike's dysfunctional family. I'm guessing the rest from my experience as a psychologist,' Skye said.

May frowned. 'Seems that people are always just telling you something.'

'After all this,' Simon said, 'maybe next time someone tries to confide in you, you'd better not listen.'