By the time Adam returned from the hospital with the statement from Sarah Ritter, Beckett was hip-deep in financial records that made her want to cry from the sheer volume of them. Legal bills always generated reams and reams of bank statements, and Hill's case was no exception.

'How did it go with Sarah at the hospital?' she asked without looking up.

'Really well, though my findings aren't going to make you happy.'

Now Beckett did look up from the paper trail she'd generated and narrowed her eyes at him. 'What the hell does that mean?'

'Good news, Sarah will be fine, but the bad news is her version of the events lines up that someone brought in something with raw peanut oil between nine-oh-five and nine twenty.'

'That's very specific.'

'Sarah said she felt fine until Nicky got there, that's when she started feeling crumby and the teacher took her to the ladies room to make sure she got there in one piece. The only thing that changed was his arrival and he's got a history of not following allergy protocols.'

'You're right.' Beckett held up Nicky's disciplinary file. 'Two in-school suspensions and extra-curricular probation last year for the incidents. And while I agree he does look like a good suspect right now, there are a few others on the hit list too.'

'Oh?'

'Mm-hmm.' She pulled out another file, found its summary sheet. 'Three students filed grievances against Wayne Hill, two academic and one personal, and even better, they had dismissal slips during the time of the murder.'

'You send me to the hospital and you find all this out? Should I be insulted I was rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?'

'Adam, come on.'

'Alright, alright. I'm just-'

'Getting antsy about the wedding and wanting something to take your mind off it,' Beckett finished for him with a smile. 'Just like Espo and Ryan and Gil all were, and just like my husband was too. It's okay, just don't let it bleed into your worklife.'

'I'll try.'

'Good. Isn't your bachelor party this weekend, too?'

Adam nodded, folded his arms on his chest. 'Yeah, and what's that about work and personal space?'

'OKay, you got me. Clap me in irons.'

'I'd rather do that to that little twerp Nicky Tee.'

Beckett bounced the tip of her pen on her ink blotter calendar. 'What is it about that kid that has given you such a hate-on for him?'

'He's the microcosm of my teenage misery. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't unpopular or unliked, just the really rich kids-'

'The kind like Nicky-'

'-They made my life hell.' Adam scratched the back of his head. 'I'd like nothing more than to stick him with a murder charge to prove to him that charm and money and a name don't mean shit when you're a cold son of a bitch.'

'Now that I can buy, but in the meantime we've got a couple other suspects that warrant some investigation too.' Beckett passed him a few pages from the disciplinary file. 'Starting with these characters.'

Adam dragged over a chair, sat down to read. She'd given him the two academic grievances, both being very similar complaints against Hill. The first was Dexter McBride - he'd stated that he'd had immovable family plans the day of the entrance exam to the AP algebra and geometry course and had scheduled the exam on his own time with a tutor and official proctor to oversee it, well within the parameters set out by the AP course governing board. Hill had been unbending, stating that he could not make an exception for someone who decided that flying to Antigua a day before March break officially began was more important than his academic future. As a result, Dexter had not been admitted to the fall program and was forced to take it as a summer semester class, meaning the kid had been denied nearly half his summer vacation.

The second one, Ashley Archer, had also had immovable family plans regarding her AP entrance exam only hers was not a vacation, it had been bereavement as her grandmother had passed away three days before the exam date and she'd been required to go to Ohio for the funeral planning and services. She'd made arrangements much like Dexter had and taken the exam with a tutor and official proctor on the reccommended make-up date. Just as with Dexter, Hill had been unwilling to yield in the slightest, stating that if Ashley had known of her grandmother's illness prior to that week, she should have spoken to him and informed him sooner than she did.

The day of the murder, Dexter and Ashley had both been circulating in the school to promote an upcoming spirit event against their archrivals; incidentally Calliope Thrace had a long-standing rivalry going with Marlowe Prep for boy's soccer. Plenty of motive and opportunity to slip away for a moment, and since they were also in classes with Nicky, it was plausible enough for the teenager to cover for his friends. Whether he knew or not that would make him an accessory after the fact Adam wasn't sure but he knew from just the initial meeting with the little punk that he'd have no compunction aiding a murderer.

'Who do you want to take first?' Beckett asked.

'Can I have them both, and you can go blind on financial records?'

Beckett gave him a wary look but nodded, and turned back to her computer as Adam went to his phone to make contact with the families and request interviews with them. She really wanted to get started on the phone records and the financials - okay not really but she wanted them done and out of the way and that meant to finish them she had to start them.

She'd just touched the tip of her highlighter to the first page of phone-calls when she sensed a body hovering near her desk. A quick glance up had her smile impatiently. 'Watkins, how can I help you?'

'There's a Mister Peter Jonas here to see you about the Wayne Hill investigation?'

'Right, send him over.'

Beckett shelved her annoyance at being staled once more on the paperwork side of things but she'd told Adam as much that this case would be very messy people-wise and a small part of her was glad to be proven right. She turned around the crime scene photos so the victim's estranged husband wouldn't see them as Watkins brought him over. The man was slender, built much like Ryan and had such a pale milky complexion Beckett had to wonder if when they'd been together he and his hubby hadn't been called Ebony and Ivory.

'Mister Jonas, thank you for coming down.' Beckett rose to shake his hand and she could see in his muddy green eyes the signs of shock and disbelief, and the signs of weeping. 'I'm so sorry for your loss.'

She held out her arm to gesture him towards the visitor's lounge, followed him in where she poured herself a fresh plain coffee. 'Can I offer you a coffee or a cold drink?'

'No, thank you, I...God, I can't believe Wayne is really gone.' Peter took a seat on the worn couch, leaned forward so his elbows rested on his knees, eyes downcast. 'Our marriage fell apart but it doesn't mean I didn't still care about his well-being.'

'What was the root of your breakup?'

'He was cheating on me, with a woman,' Peter sneered. 'I think that makes it even worse than if I'd caught him with another man, because the answer to the ultimate question you ask a cheater was quite obvious. He didn't think I knew, but I knew. The spouse always knows.'

'Do you know who the woman was he was having the affair with?' Beckett asked, sitting down across from him and the man looked up at her now, eyes narrowed.

'I'm sorry, I don't see what this has to do with Wayne's death. I thought I was supposed to come down here and identify his body.'

'You'll have to speak to our medical examiner, Doctor Parrish-Robbins, who is looking after Wayne at the morgue. I'm the lead investigator into his death.' Beckett inched forward, hoping her body language would cut through his emotions. 'I need to ask questions like this. I'm not being salacious, but if you tell me he was having an affair with a woman, he could have broken things off and she could have poisoned his coffee, causing him to go into anaphylactic shock.'

'God.' Peter shuddered visibly, huffed out a breath. 'Carolina. Carolina Witt, she's a teacher in his department at the school.'