The team met in a conference room – which appeared to also double as the break room, if the McDonalds' bags in the garbage and the faint smell of fries were any indication.

The woman with them was Wanda, who did…something related to the coroner. She'd explained when they met her, but it hadn't quite made sense.

"What is it you do, again?" Sylvester asked. "I'm sorry."

"I answer phones for the police department as well as the coroner's office," Wanda said.

"For like the non-emergency line?"

"No, both," she said. "We're very rural. I answer the phone, transfer the call to the police station if it's an emergency, send the info to them if it's not, and then direct folks when they have a question about something related to the coroner. My office is in front of his."

"Ah." Sylvester glanced at Toby and shrugged.

"Rural life," Toby said.

"Probably pretty easy to get away with a crime in places like this," Florence said quietly, as if to herself. Paige glanced at her.

"I am just so sad about Lauren," Wanda said. "That whole family is just coated in tragedy."

"That so?" Happy asked.

"Her mother – Lauren's mother – died of a brain aneurysm when she was just five years old. Her father remarried when she was nine, to a woman quite a bit younger than him, and then he died six months later in a factory accident. Left behind her, her seven year old brother, and a twenty – two year old widow who suddenly was a single parent to two kids who hadn't taken much of a liking to her yet. But damn if she didn't stick around and step up for those kids. She worked her ass off to provide for them and let them stay in the town they'd grown up in, where their grandparents lived. To give them stability and consistency. Lauren always said that letting Diane in – that was her stepmother's name – was the smartest thing she ever did."

"Where is Diane now?" Happy asked.

"She's in Tacoma. Lauren's brother's got some health issues and she's taking care of him. You know, she said when Lauren and Tim got married that she could take care of Derrick with less guilt now that she knew that Lauren was going to be okay. She felt safer throwing her energy into him instead of splitting it. She trusted Tim. A Navy SEAL. Why wouldn't you trust a serviceman? I can't imagine sweet Tim had anything to do with this."

"Well," Happy said, "I think, statistically, there are bad people in the military. Just based off of the sheer numbers. There's bad doctors, you know, and shady mechanics. And service workers, and law enforcement, and computer programmers, I mean, you're never going to find a profession that's entirely made up of good people. And I think the bad apples in the military sometimes get away with more than they should, because they use the good reputation of the armed forces to their advantage. People trust them, and give them the benefit of the doubt, because of what they do. The bad service workers, they just get fired."

Wanda gave Happy an appalled look. "They brought you to investigate Tim? Couldn't find someone who doesn't hate the military, huh."

"Wanting bad people to face consequences for their actions is not hating the military," Walter said. "We're here to figure out if Timothy is guilty or innocent, not decide it."

Wanda moved toward the door. "I will leave you all to whatever this is."

"Well I know I don't like people assuming he's guilty," Paige said, nodding to Wanda before the other woman left. "We all knew him. Did he, answer me honestly, ever give any of you the impression that he was that kind of person? I don't think so."

"Well…"

Everyone turned toward Toby. "I mean, at the time? No. But looking back…"

"What on Earth could you possibly come up with?" Paige asked.

"Uh…" Toby shifted his weight. "Do you remember when he asked you to meet his parents?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember how he asked you?"

"Of course I do," Paige said. "I'm not a child, Toby. You can tell me what you're getting at without all the leading questions."

Toby shrugged. "I just…thinking back, I think it was a bit manipulative how he knew his parents were going to be in town the entire time, but waited not until you'd spent money on a dress, but until you were in the garage in front of the team, to spring meeting them on you. He basically backed you into a corner where you presumably felt pressured to say yes to it."

"Toby, that's not manipulation."

"Did you feel pressured?"

Paige was quiet. "Meeting the parents is a big step."

"Okay."

"What do you mean 'okay?'"

"I mean, I'm not going to force you to tell me every little thing you felt that day. Just…think about it yourself. Be honest with yourself. And then you decide whether or not you felt pressured. Because I know I would have."

"Remember when we were in Ireland?" Happy said suddenly. "He always hated Walter. Walter always hated him. So they were pretending to be all buddy buddy in Ireland. The way that whole thing played out was Walter wound up getting beaten up – off of Tim's advice and actions. But Tim didn't beat him up. He just molded the situation into one where Walter got his ass kicked by other people. He got what he wanted – Walter being in that situation – but he also got brownie points with Paige, and with all of us, by making it seem like he was actually on Walter's side."

"There's a lot of circumstantial stuff in that theory," Paige said.

"Sure. But tell me what proves me wrong."

"He did seem quite pleased with that outcome," Sylvester said.

"You know what? Screw you guys." Paige stood up. "All of you." She stormed out the door, power walking through the offices and out the front. There was a foot path, an incline, leading seemingly to nowhere. She took it. At the top of the incline was a sign that said picnic area, .5 miles. A picnic area would have somewhere to sit. She followed the sign, continuing to speed walk down the path until an empty fire pit and three wooden tables came into view. She sat down on one, regretting it when she realized that the table was damp. Too late to avoid gross jeans now. She stayed put.

Fuck all of them. None of that was wrong of Tim. Walter acted like a child. He'd got beaten up in Ireland because he'd acted like a child. He'd followed her to Tahoe – something in recent years she'd come to find romantic, but today was annoying her again. She remembered how upset it had made Tim, how he'd asked her what felt like a million times for reassurance that she'd gone there for him and only him, how he'd passive aggressively spoken later about keeping what was his, knowing Walter heard.

Paige supposed that his possessiveness over her after only a handful of dates was a bit much. But also…wasn't Tim right to feel insecure about her and Walter? After all, Walter was who she'd wound up marrying. Walter was the love of her life. He was jealous because he'd read the room correctly.

And his somewhat violent tendencies…he was a Navy SEAL who probably had PTSD. That he was trained to use violence, that he had past trauma…that didn't mean he would have ever turned that on her. Or Lauren.

And yet, Lauren was dead, and the husband usually did it.

She didn't know what to think.

"Paige?"

"What do you want, Florence?" she said, not looking over her shoulder.

The pine needles crunching told her that the older woman was coming closer. Then she appeared in Paige's peripheral vision. "Can I sit?"

"I guess."

Florence lowered herself a couple feet away from Paige. "You know I understand what it's like to feel ganged up on."

"I don't feel ganged up on."

"They were dog piling you."

"Okay. I agree with that."

"I never knew Tim," she said. "Now I don't like him, don't get me wrong. Because you and Walter are supposed to be together and he complicated that." She smirked. "But in all seriousness, I don't have a horse in that race."

"But you also think he did it."

"I just know how rarely Toby is wrong. And I know that Toby wouldn't say he thinks Tim did it unless he was absolutely sure, because he knows how much that would hurt you. But we still have to, you know, look at the house and the evidence and…stuff. And we're going to give the opinion that the evidence tells us to give. It's going to have nothing to do with your relationship history or any of their feelings about the guy."

"But that's just it," she said. "We're here because of that. You know they didn't open up the phone book and close their eyes, and then just happened to point at us."

"I think they probably did pick us for a reason," Florence said. "But we can't spend time trying to figure out why. We'd probably outsmart ourselves twenty times over."

"Like that scene with the poisoned drink in The Princess Bride," Paige said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, but I trust it's a good example." Florence looked down at her feet. "You were there when Tilly was born. I was in denial. I was sure that Toby could find a way to stop it from happening. But…she came that day anyway. Sometimes things are the way they are even if you don't want to believe it. Same with me and my group. I was in denial about needing help. I thought I just had to get away from everyone who I loved and I'd be my own person again. But it wasn't that that was preventing me from being whole. I needed something else. And I don't know how great a metaphor that actually is. But the point is, I was wrong about a lot of things. And it's hard to come to terms with a situation being so different than what you think it is or want it to be. But denial doesn't help. I hope Tim didn't do it. But if he did…not to get too tough love on you, but you'll have to find a way to process that."

"You know what's really weird?" Paige asked.

"What?"

"That somehow, of everyone, it's easiest to hear all this from you."

"That's not weird. Our recent history is way more important than what's distant. And if you think about it, it makes sense. Sometimes you need your partner. Sometimes you need a friend. And I'm a friend who's almost uncomfortably similar to your husband."

Paige couldn't help but laugh.

Both of their phones buzzed at the same time. Paige got to hers first. "It's Walter," she said. "Happy and Toby are going to the house. They'll need you when you can."

Florence nodded. "I'm on it."

A second message came through, this time outside of the group chat. Walter's phone to Paige's phone. She looked at it.

Take your time. I love you.