CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Their reaction wasn’t long in coming. For about ten seconds, Rafferty's words shocked everyone into silence, but then a noisy clamour broke out. Charles Shore's authoritative bellow easily drowned the rest, as he demanded, 'What the hell are you saying, man? Why should the boy kill Barbara? It doesn't make any kind of sense.'
'Oh, but it does,' Rafferty contradicted, raising his voice above the continuing hubbub. 'If makes the only kind of sense there is.' In the sudden resumption of silence after he had spoken, he was able to add softly, 'Doesn't it, Maxie?'
Maxie stared at him, with eyes that held more than a touch of his grandfather's arrogance, but none of the old man's strength of character. His mouth fell open as if he was about to defend himself, but his uncle tol
