From Here to Paternity

Bill had abdicated. And we have absolutely no reason on earth to think he had, except that it’s a possibility.“
    “True, but the same applies to the other scenario. If Bill knew his father wasn’t who they thought and had told Doris so, it would still put Pete out of the running and he’d have to shut her up before she could talk about it to anybody else.“
    “Okay, supposing either of those is true, when would Bill have told her? She stormed out of that debate and you found her dead a couple of hours later. He’d have had to tell her during that time. Why right then, after all these years?“
    “Because of the debate,“ Jane said. “Was he there?“
    “I have no idea. I was near the front of the room and wasn’t exactly taking the roll. It was a pretty big crowd.“
    “Don’t you see? He might have been a cold, remote man, but if he’d seen poor Doris being made a complete fool of on his behalf—even though he didn’t want her to take up his cause—mightn’t he have felt so sorry for her that he finally decided to put an end to it? Not let her go out and have that humiliation again?“
    Shelley nodded. “That does make sense. And then he disappeared right after Tenny told him about Doris being found dead.“
    “Oh! Yes, he might have thought it was suicide, like the sheriff seemed determined to believe, and blame himself for taking away the thing she seemed to live for. Or he might have suspected Pete of having a hand in it and gone to have it out with him. Harsh words between them. Pete sees his whole future as a would-be Tsar and all the fame and fortune slipping away and he kills his uncle.“
    “Unfortunately, it’s all in our imaginations. We haven’t any reason whatsoever to believe that any of this happened. And even if it did, we could still be terribly wrong. I mean, what if Bill told Doris he wasn’t Tsar or refused to be and she really did commit suicide? And then Bill himself was killed for some entirely different reason. His death and hers might not have anything to do with each other.“
    “I’d find it hard to believe. Too coincidental.“
    “But, Jane, coincidences do happen. All the time.“
    “That’s true. I’ll get that,“ Jane added as the phone rang. “Hello? Yes, she’s right here. Front desk for you, Shelley.“
    Shelley took the phone. “Yes? He did? I’ll come get them. Thanks.“
    She hung up and looked around for her boots. “Paul left his prescription sunglasses at the desk when he was checking out. I need to go get them before they get shuffled off to the lost-and-found. Want to come with me?“
    “Sure. I’m out of cigarettes anyway and need to buy a pack.“
    “When are you going to really and truly quit?“ Shelley asked with the superior tone of a woman who had quit smoking several years earlier.
    “Someday. Maybe. Possibly very soon, when I find out what a pack costs from a machine at a resort.“
    As they went down the road—the solitude of the path through the woods wasn’t at all appealing with a murderer around—Jane said, “I don’t want the kids out of our sight again until we leave. Mel’s with the little boys, but I want to know where Katie and Denise are.“
    “We’ll hang out at the lodge watching for the shuttle. It drops people right at the door. We’ll grab them as they get off. And Mike has to come back that way as well.“
    “It’s really too expensive to go home now?“
    “Jane, a last-minute ticket would probably cost six or seven hundred dollars. Each.“
    “No! Aren’t there exceptions?“
    “Sure, but running away from a murder scene, especially when you’ve found two of the bodies, isn’t one of them.“
    “So nice of you to remind me,“ Jane said wryly. “Damn! That sheriff, Bumblefoot or whoever he is, would dearly love to pin this on me, I’ll bet. I’m a nice, handy outsider.“
    “Don’t worry. Nobody could seriously imagine that you had anything to do with either one. And Mel may know a whole lot more next time we talk to him.“
    “We need to know a whole lot more. Especially about Bill’s death.“
    “In what way?“
    “Where he died, for one thing,“ Jane said. “If he was killed someplace else, it obviously means it had to have been a strong man, or maybe even two people, who moved him to the side of the bunny slope. But if he was killed right there, it could have been anyone. All the killer had to do was prop him up where he fell and put the snow around him.“
    “True. And