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I waited until I’d finished speaking with the other officer before moving toward the edge of the cordoned-off area. When Max noticed me, he took a step forward, stopping well short of the barrier.

“Josiah?”

For a moment, I saw the man I’d known all those years ago beneath the glasses, the worry, and the unfamiliar distance between us. Then I reminded myself that I was the sheriff, Harvey Sinclair was dead, and Max was a potential witness. Whatever else stood between us would have to wait.

“Max, I need you to stay outside the perimeter.”

“I will. I just wanted to ask whether there’s anything I can do.”

“Not right now.” I softened my voice slightly. “I may need to speak to you later, but for the moment, I need everyone who saw Harvey tonight to remain available. If you remember anything unusual, even something that doesn’t seem important, tell me.”

He nodded. “I saw him earlier. Near the stage.”

“Did you speak to him?”

“No. I saw him talking to someone from the festival committee, then he went behind the bandstand.”

“Did you see anyone follow him?”

Max looked back over the evening, clearly trying to separate what he’d actually seen from what he might have assumed. “Not that I noticed.”

“Did anything about him seem unusual?”

He hesitated, and I waited rather than pressing him. I knew Max well enough to recognize that he didn’t want to turn an uncertain impression into something more definite than it was.

“He seemed distracted. I saw him checking his watch, and he looked like he was waiting for someone. I can’t say for sure.”

I took that in without allowing my expression to reveal whether it meant anything. Harvey checking his watch might have been entirely ordinary. So might his apparent distraction. But Max had seen him near the stage before he disappeared behind it, and I wanted the details recorded while they were still fresh.

“Thank you. I’ll want to speak to you properly once we’ve got the scene under control. For now, stay with Tammy and Ricky, and don’t discuss what you saw with anyone else.”

“I understand.”

I started to turn away, then stopped. There were a dozen things I could have said to Max, none of them appropriate while I stood there in uniform with a murder scene behind me.

“Max?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry this happened tonight.”

The words sounded inadequate even to me. I wasn’t only sorry that Harvey had died, or that Max had been caught up in something frightening. I was sorry for all the things I’d left unsaid, for the years I’d taken from us, and for the fact that I’d once again found myself standing in front of him with no idea how to bridge the distance I’d created.

Max looked at me as if he wanted to ask something. I thought he might ask whether I was all right, whether I’d expected something like this, or whether there was anything I wasn’t telling him. Instead, he nodded and let me return to my work. I couldn’t blame him for keeping his questions to himself. I’d given him no reason to trust that I’d answer them honestly.

I went back to the investigation. Max was still with Ricky and Tammy, and I made a note to speak to him once the immediate witness interviews were underway. I needed to find out exactly what he’d seen near the committee tent, but I wasn’t going to assume that anyone’s recollection would be complete just because they were certain of it. The festival had been crowded, the music loud, and people had been moving between stalls and the bandstand all evening.

The deputies began taking statements and checking who’d been in the vicinity of the stage during the last hour. We needed names, locations, and a clear picture of who had been where before Harvey died. I also asked them to identify the committee members who’d been working nearby and establish who had access to the backstage space. If someone had been wearing a committee shirt, that might prove useful, but it wasn’t enough to identify a suspect. Several people could have been wearing one.

By the time the immediate chaos had settled, the festival grounds felt like a different place. The stalls and rides that had been full of life only an hour earlier stood quiet beneath the lights. People spoke in low voices, and the smell of fried seafood and sweet treats hung in the evening air, an almost cruel reminder of how ordinary the day had been before Harvey’s death.

I checked in with the deputies. We had the discovery witness’s initial account, the time on Harvey’s stopped watch, and a growing list of people who’d been near the bandstand. We still didn’t have a confirmed motive, a weapon, or a suspect. I wasn’t going to pretend otherwise.

Max would need to give a formal statement, and I wanted to hear it somewhere quieter than the festival grounds. I also knew that once the official questions were finished there was something else I needed to say to him. Something that had been waiting between us for far too long.

“Max,” I said when I was able to speak with him again, “I’d like to take your statement at your house. It’ll be quieter, and you’ll have a chance to think without everyone around us. I’ll drive you as you're looking a bit shaky.”

He hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Alright.”