He stood in front of a podium covered with media microphones. The setting was the large marble central floor of the county courthouse. Then the press conference started. Mason nodded. I did. I fully expected him to attack before we could get it fixed. I nodded. Just a minute, Mason said. There are two questions I should like to ask. Arch Mix is dead, isnt he? Valentine took a swig of beer.Good for you, Travis. You kickass champ. I did, yes, sir. Yes. You hired Dave Fletcher to do the fake shooting, knowing that the press would know it was a fake almost immediately. There was a silence and then he said,Howd you get tied up with Roger Vullos outfit? Before I could say anything he held up his hand, palm outward like a traffic policeman, and said, “Dont worry, I haven’t been running a check on you. Jenny’s got a friend that works down at Vullo’s place. They gossip a lot. Sometimes it’s useful. I hope so, Mason said. I dont dare to shoot any bullets to find out. Well make a reasonable test. That part is fine. But we still have no idea who killed Sara. It wasnt me. Do you know where Cowl was when Sara was killed? Stone brought it down to eighty.There was a time, he said, “when there was no speed limit on the motorway. He lifted his lanyard from around his neck and looked at his security badge. He had not been in the building when Ewes had been murdered. So maybe someone had stolen his badge and then returned it before he woke up at his home in the suburbs, which he did not think was likely at all because the timing was just too tight.Or maybe someone hacked into the system and set me up as the fall guy. That was also not easy to do. But for the person who had sent an email that could not be traced by the best in the business, it might be a piece of cake. This whole business is absurd, Alder said. I was excited Saturday night, and I was confused yesterday morning. I didnt realize any lawyer was going to browbeat me….