“Do you want me to sign my part of the criminal petition alongside you?”

“Let’s put the kettle on before we sign a thing,” I said.

Ruth sat down in a kitchen chair and laid her keys next to the fruit bowl.

“I ran that flower shop for twelve years before I ever met Bob,” Ruth said.

“He told me he paid for the Westfall land with money he inherited from his mother.”

“He told me his mother left him nothing but two silver teaspoons,” I said.

“He had a different tale for every town in the county,” Ruth said.