Page 6 of Death on Riddle Road

“Then what do you mean you already found the murderer?”

“The sheriff’s department was called to the scene and found Derrick Dorrio dead.And he was a murderer.”

CHAPTER THREE

“The murder victimwas a murderer,” I recapped.

“Uh-huh,” Teague said.

Still not certain we weren’t talking at cross-purposes, I asked explicitly, “Derrick Dorrio, the father of Robbie, who’s Mamie’s boyfriend, was murdered—”

Speaking those words made me recognize I didn’t know when or where, much less how.And, of course, nothing about who or why.But I pushed on with the question I hadn’t finished.

“—and was also a murderer himself?”

“He had a son named Robert, yes.As for a girlfriend, I don’t know—”

“Mamie.She works at the flower shop her grandfather owns.You know, next to the yoga studio.”

“I know the shop.Have seen the owner and the girl.Don’t know anything about her romantic relationships—”

It seemed impolitic to mention that I knew about them because of a previous murder Clara and I untangled.He hadn’t been a consultant for the sheriff’s department then, but had already made clear his preference for law enforcement investigating murders over Clara and me.

“—but I’ll take your word for it.”

“Thank you,” I said meekly.

His eyes narrowed slightly, but he continued without any audible heightened suspicion, “On the other hand, I do know Derrick Dorrio was charged, tried, convicted, and sentenced for murder.Served that sentence, too — most of it.”

“Who did he kill?”That automatic question came from the small part of my brain not involved in adjusting to this new perspective on the picture in front of me, like one of those trick images where you see the young woman from another era wearing a hat elaborate enough for the Kentucky Derby, until your perception shifts and, instead, you see a crone’s profile.

“His wife.”

“But Clara said she’s devastated—”

I stopped because that wasn’t what Clara said.She said the son’s mother was devastated.

There were any number of permutations that could let Derrick Dorrio kill a wife and still have the mother of his son be devastated by his death.Most likely a second marriage.

My optical illusion image of a young woman in a Derby Day hat alternating with the old woman added a third possible image.Maybe more.

Teague waited when I fell silent, assembling a new vision.

Then he waited a couple minutes more, because a tap came at the door from the garage into the back hall — I hadn’t closed the garage door — and immediately after the knock, Clara entered.

Which started the Gracie greeting ritual all over, including a disapproving sniff for Clara not bringing her dog, Lulu, the other part of the three-dog besties circle.

When Clara could be heard over the canine greeting, she said with passable casualness, “Oh, hello, Teague.”

“Forget it,” I told her as she hung up her jacket, dusted lightly with snowflakes.“Ned must have called him as soon as you two hung up.He was here when I got home.And now he says Mamie’s boyfriend’s father was a murderer—”

“That doesn’t mean somebody gets to murder him,” she said immediately, revealing she’d already known the dead man’s convicted murderer status.

“—a fact you didn’t mention to me.Or—”

“There wasn’t time.I was going to tell you all about it as soon as I got here.”

“—that he was convicted of murdering his wife.So who—” I turned back to Teague.“—is the woman Clara described as being devastated by his death, along with his son and the son’s girlfriend?”