One Bad Apple by Sheila Connolly Page A

interrupted. “Detective, you can’t think she had anything to do with this. She wasn’t around that night—she was in town, with a bunch of witnesses.”
    The detective fixed Seth with a stare that Meg found hard to read. “You know what time he died? Didn’t think so. We have to look at all the possibilities. She knew the victim—we’ll be looking into that. She certainly knew that the tank was sitting there, open. The time frame is loose, and it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to narrow it down much. So we have to consider her. And you as well.”
    “Me?” Seth said.
    “You also knew about the tank. And you have a certain interest in the development project, don’t you?”
    “Fair enough. But we’ve been working on that in a public forum. Why would I want to kill the man?”
    “I can’t say. All I am saying is that we’re going to look into it. You can start by giving us a list of people who knew that there was a convenient hole in the ground where they could hide a body—and assume that it wouldn’t be discovered too fast.”
    Another van pulled up outside, and the detective stood up abruptly. “That’ll be the lab guys. Ms. Corey, I don’t have to tell you not to leave town, do I?”
    Where else would she go? “I’ll be around. You can reach me here or on my cell phone.”
    “All right. Seth, when’s your guy due?”
    “Anytime now.”
    “I’ll go check in with the team, and then they’ll let us know what they need. Ma’am.” He gave Meg a cursory nod, then let himself out the door.
    Meg, Seth, and the police chief sat silently for a moment. Art was first to break the silence. “Damn, what a mess—in more ways than one. I’d better get out there and do my duty. Seth, the guy’s got a point. You’ve got as much reason as anyone around here to try to derail this project. Not that I think you’d go so far as to kill anyone. But still, he’s got to check it out.”
    Seth sighed. “I know. Remind me again why I ran for office, will you?”
    Art smiled. “You’re a glutton for punishment. Ms. Corey, nice to meet you. I just wish the circumstances had been a bit more pleasant.” He followed the detective out the door, leaving Meg and Seth alone in the kitchen.
    “What did he mean, you’ve got issues with this project?” Meg was trying to make sense of the undercurrents among the men.
    Seth met her look squarely. “As a Granford selectman, I have to consider the needs of the town. Heck, I encouraged bringing in outside investors. We need them. But it’s a big chunk of my land that they’re talking about. That didn’t become clear until we were well into discussions. So I’m caught in the middle. And then the project kept growing, and so did the part of my property they wanted. Marcus could see it as a motive. He knows how these things work.”
    Meg laughed grimly. “Funny thing—part of my land is affected also, although I didn’t even know that until the day before yesterday, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. And I suppose the detective could point to other motives for me. Maybe I’m supposed to be the jilted woman who killed Chandler for revenge. I just snapped when he showed up unexpectedly. Or maybe I killed him because he made unwanted advances. Or didn’t make advances but spurned my unwanted advances. Do I make a more convincing murderer than you do? Maybe you and I did it together. Or did one of us hire somebody else to do the dirty work?” Meg could sense hysteria bubbling up in her chest and managed to shut herself up.
    Seth gave her a small smile. “Look, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ll see what they find when they pull out the body and clean out the tank. We’ve got a lot of questions to answer before we start worrying about how suspicious we look. Right now, I’d better get out there and do some damage control.” He hesitated, and Meg wondered what he wanted to say.
    “Yes?” she prompted.
    “Look, I can’t imagine that you want to