Skating Under the Wire: A Mystery (Rebecca Robbins Mysteries) by Joelle Charbonneau

her hands as a tear streaked down her face.
    “He doesn’t have alibis. Does he?”
    “I don’t know,” she whispered. “When Bernie died twelve years ago, I started spending Thanksgiving at one of my daughters’ houses. Joey never wants to go. He prefers to pay a visit to his dad’s grave and spend the rest of the holiday alone. Everyone around here just assumes he goes with me. I’ve never said different. At first because it was no one’s business but Joey’s, and then because I was worried.”
    “Then he might have something to do with the robberies?”
    “No. Yes. I don’t know.” Eleanor pushed out of the chair and grabbed a tissue from a box on the counter. “Joey’s always been my quiet child. With five older sisters, he never had a chance to get a word into the conversation. He broke into your mother’s rink because he wanted attention.”
    “He got it.”
    Eleanor sighed. “Yes, he did, and he never lost it. He lives rent-free. He has a good job. Joey would have no reason to break into anyone’s home and steal.” She turned and looked me dead in the eye. “I promise you, Rebecca, my boy isn’t the person behind these crimes.”
    Conviction filled her voice. This wasn’t the same tone she used when snowing kids into believing that a shot wasn’t going to hurt. I should know. Growing up, I fell for that line every time.
    No, this wasn’t Eleanor’s vaccine voice. This was something different. Which made me wonder. “Did you search his room?”
    “Yes.” Her cheeks flared with color, but her eyes stayed locked on mine. “I also checked the trunk of his car, looked through the Internet search history on his computer, and peeked at his bank statements for large deposits. The victims of the robberies are my friends. If I’d found anything that hinted Joey took from them, I would have turned him in.”
    Crap. I believed her.
    Trying not to be disappointed with the loss of my best and only suspect, I stood and asked, “Do you know if Joey is working at home today? Sean hasn’t put Joey on the suspect list yet, but he might. If Joey can come up with an alibi for even one of the crimes, it’ll help keep him in the clear.”
    Oof. I found myself squashed against Eleanor’s ample chest. When she let go and I could breathe again, she said that Joey had been working in the home office when she left that morning. He planned on being there all day.
    When I drove up to the Schaffers’ sprawling brick ranch home, I spotted Joey through the large picture window exactly where Eleanor had said he’d be—sitting smack in front of a computer screen. The empty jumbo-sized coffee cup and the overflowing wastepaper basket filled with candy wrappers, empty chip bags, and scribbled-on Post-it notes told me he’d been there a while.
    Joey was painfully shy when he invited me inside and asked if I was here for computer help. When I explained why I stopped by, his shoulders straightened. Under his shaggy blond hair, his brown eyes lit with excitement. Being a criminal suspect was clearly the most thrilling thing to happen to Joey in a long time. Too bad he had an alibi for the first five Thanksgiving Day break-ins. Otherwise, he might have marched himself down to the sheriff’s office and turned himself in just to break up the monotony of his day.
    “For those Thanksgivings I drove to Dixon and helped cook dinner at a homeless shelter.”
    Wow. Joey had just gone from shy and geeky to heroic and selfless in two seconds flat. “Why does your mom think you spent those Thanksgivings alone?”
    He shifted his feet and shrugged. “Mom loves family holidays. I didn’t want her to feel like she had to come with me. Before my dad died, he said we should volunteer at a shelter. Every year he said he was going to do it, but he never did. After he died, I decided to do it as a way of honoring him. It made me feel good about myself, so I kept going back.”
    Double wow. “Why did you stop?”
    The theme from