Quirky Sleuths. Big Murders. Very Bad Alibis.

Retired school secretary Mabel Quince remembers every emergency contact, custody note, late pickup, permission slip, and suspiciously temporary address in Port Bellwether history. So when school board candidate Darren Pruitt is found dead in the records closet during a retirement-and-reunion fundraiser, everyone else sees current politics. Mabel sees an old student file that does not match the story Darren built his campaign on.

The sheriff wants procedure. Deputy Carrow wants Mabel to stop touching boxes. Darren's enemies want everyone looking anywhere but the past. But Mabel spent thirty-two years watching families tell tidy stories under fluorescent lights, and she knows paperwork often records the truth long before people are ready to admit it.

Someone believed an old school record had disappeared for good. They forgot Mabel Quince remembers where everything belongs.