Page 42 of Death on Riddle Road

With the Carnells’house out of range of my rearview mirror, I decided that if it was Dova, not Robbie, who set and maintained a distance from the Carnells, I could understand a protective mother’s reasoning.

Our visit with them left a nasty taste in my mouth.

Clara spoke abruptly.“It’s likeGoldilocks and the Three Bears.”

“What is?”

“The three houses.Except we went to the just-right house first, then we had the uptight house and finished with the messy house.”

“Hah.”I made the syllable agree with her.But another observation pushed to my consciousness.“Did you notice—?”

Clara slid in on the tail of my start.“That Payloma didn’t say if she’d been to the hospice or not, had seen Derrick or not?Yup.She was interesting, wasn’t she?”

“That’s one word for her.”

She continued as if I hadn’t spoken.“Prickly exterior.Hard to know if the inside’s also all prickles or if the exterior was developed to protect a softer center.”She paused.“Maybe notallprickles inside.But still could be mostly.”

I took that as meaning she’d also interpreted Payloma as having moments of genuine sorrow, but those moments did not equate to confidence in her innocence.

“Turn left here,” she said.

That wasn’t the way we’d come in.

“Left?But—.The scene where Jaylynn was killed?”

“Uh-huh.”She pointed to an entry to a new development.“That’s where the little house Jaylynn and Derrick rented was.Torn down when this was built.”

“Truly around the corner from Olive and Payloma.”

“Yup.Great for childcare, but I wonder how Derrick felt about it.”

“If you’re saying that drove him to cheat—”

“No, no.Not giving him an easy out.See that stop sign down there?Turn right.”

I did.This road swept down, then up, following curves as it did.

“This whole area’s more built up than at the time of Jaylynn’s murder.”

It didn’t look that built up to me, with a sprinkling of houses, two barns, and horses inside irregular rectangles of fences.

“There.”Clara pointed on the right by one of the barns.“Pull into the drive there.”

It led to the barn, but we stayed at the wide-winged entrance.

“This is about where it happened, from what Ruby said.None of the houses were here then.”

Neither of us got out.Seventeen years later and with the changes, there wasn’t much point.

“This was barn here then?”

“Doesn’t look like it, but I don’t know for sure.Why?”

“Lights.”

She scooched down to get a better angle on the side of the building.

“Donna will know.I’m starving,” Clara added.“How about lunch at Haines Tavern?”