His first wife had died of cancer two years ago. Last summer he met Veronica in a restaurant where she was working as a waitress, and a month later they were married. Shortly after their honeymoon, Mason collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack. At first the death was ruled as natural causes, but an autopsy revealed a massive amount of the stimulant epinephrine in his tissues. With that discovery, the Santa Barbara police, led by Detective Carlton Lassiter, opened a murder investigation. They only had one suspect, and when they found multiple used “epi-pens”-one-shot epinephrine auto-injectors used to treat anaphylactic shock-in Veronica’s medicine cabinet, she was arrested and charged with her husband’s murder. The rest of the article was filled with quotes from people who had known and loved Mason.

“So she did it,” Gus said.

“Buddy, why so cynical?” Shawn chided. “Why would she kill him?”

“For a billion dollars and a private island?”

“He was decades older than her. If she wanted his money, she could have waited a few days for him to kick off from natural causes like Anna Nicole Smith did. Only without the whole posing for Playboy and dying of an overdose part. Which is too bad-the Playboy part, anyway.”

“She was twenty-five. He was sixty-eight. He could have lived twenty more years easily.”

Shawn stopped to do the math. “Twenty-five and forty-three is.. . Well, it’s really gross, however long he had to live. The point is, the police arrested the first suspect they could find, and they never looked any further. She’s obviously innocent.”

“You just want to believe that because her blouse was unbuttoned down to her knees.”

“Be that as it may, we’ve got to prove she’s innocent. Or we’re never going to get paid.”

So they got to work. Gus had to admit there was an element of brilliance to Shawn’s plan.