Lars was a regular son of a bitch, always going on about who was cheating him today and raising stinks about every little thing. Most people figured it was on account of losing both his boys so young—one to pneumonia and the other to Vietnam—but for my money Lars was just born like that. Nothing good enough for him. Didn’t think anyone was on his side. Winifred told the jury, as plain and sober from that witness stand as when I found her standing by him, that there’d been nothing she could do to help him. And I think she meant it, except I doubt she was talking about that morning.
“I don’t know a thing about it, so you can save your breath.” Winifred stumped up the porch steps as Mary Beth’s truck kicked up a dust cloud over the driveway.
“What was she crying about?” I nodded in the direction of the road.
“That’s her business.”
“Everything’s my business in a murder investigation.”
“Marital troubles didn’t get the Hoffman girl killed.” Winifred opened the front door and waved me in behind her.
“You must know a lot about it then, if you can say what did or didn’t cause it.”
She poured out a cup of tea that must have gone cold and set the kettle on for another.
“I know as much as the next person about Hattie Hoffman.”
“The barn’s on your property.”
“When’s the last time you think I made it out there? My arthritis wouldn’t let me get halfway.”
“Oh, I think you could do anything you put your mind to, Winifred.”
She cackled at that and slapped a second cup down on the table. “It’s Earl Grey or go thirsty.”
“Earl Grey’s fine.” I sat down and watched her fix the tea. After she got everything situated, she puffed at the steam over her cup and her tongue loosened up some.
“Course I knew the kids were using it, that’s why I put the No Trespassing sign up on the east side over there, so no one could sue me if the roof fell in on one of their heads. But I haven’t been out that way in years.”
“You didn’t see or hear anything strange on Friday night?”
“Not a thing. Came home from the play and went to bed.”
Something sank inside me when she said it and it wasn’t only because I knew she was telling the truth. I should’ve been up at the school, too, cheering Hattie on, watching her shine for the last time. Drinking in silence, I watched a cardinal land on one of Winifred’s bird feeders out the window. The tea was bitter.
“Mona must be beside herself,” she said after a while.
“She is.”
“I been there. Something shifts inside you after your child dies, like things that were liquid before turn hard and brittle.” She nodded out the window absently, lost in an old, familiar sorrow that was as part of her now as the curls on her head.
I finished the tea and made my way to the door. “Nothing else you know offhand about Hattie, is there?”
“Seemed a little uppity this last year, talking about going to New York and being on Broadway, but I didn’t think so on the way home on Friday. That girl could act. It was something to see.”
“Well, I’m not going to rule out making more sweeps of the property, and the barn’s off-limits until I tell you personally otherwise.”
“Sure, sure.”
“And stop shooting at people or I’ll confiscate your rifle.”
“Mm-hmm.” She walked me out to the cruiser, not worried at all about losing her gun. She probably had five more where that one came from.
“Is Mona still out at the house or did she go to her mom’s?” she asked.
“I don’t know. She was there yesterday.”
“I’d better go see her.” Winifred pulled her worn sweater around her middle, even though the sun was warm today. She looked up at the sky and then around the horizon, sighing. “Kids leaving all the time and the ones that haven’t are getting killed. Men dropping off with heart attacks every other day. Pretty soon this is going to be a country of nothing but old women.”
I flashed her a cheeky grin. “That suits me fine.”
She gave me a nice slap on the shoulder for that as I got in the car. “Oh, go on.”
As I followed my nose over to the Reever farm, I saw I’d missed two calls from Jake and phoned in at the station on the way.
“Del, where are you at?”
“Checking a few things out. Did you find Gerald Jones?”
“He’s in Denver until tomorrow. Says he’s been there since last Wednesday. We’re confirming, but it sounds like a pretty tight alibi.”
Damn. Now my suspect list was down to Tommy.
“I want to talk to him when he gets back.”
“Should we bring him in?” Jake asked.
“No, I’ll go to him. Anything from the forensics team?”
“No, not yet, but—”
“What about Hattie’s computer?”
“You’re not going to believe what I found.”
“Well, you’ve been calling me like a spurned woman all morning. Must be something worth telling.”
“Jesus, Del, I’ve got a lead on the killer. Did you want me to wait around until you’ve had your Dairy Queen?”
I pulled into the Reevers’ driveway and bumped over the mud ruts to park in front of the house.
“What do you have?”
“It looks like Hattie was talking a lot to some guy named L.G.”