Page 65 of Death on Riddle Road

“Wouldn’t know it to look at her now, but she was a dead ringer for Ann-Margaret.Not as brainy from what I’ve heard about Ann-Margaret, but determination?Oh, yeah.Beverly wasn’t letting the privileges of marrying a Dorrio get away from her.She got in good with her father-in-law and Yale’s grandfather, too, and that cemented Yale’s position.Emil’s father was a different story.Definitely a branch the family would happily have pruned off.But Emil’s parents worked that to their advantage, basically supported themselves by threatening to drag the name through the mud and having the others pay up.

“Now, Emil’s a different case.He got some more brains and a lot more ambition than most in his line.Instead of trying to milk his relatives directly, he cozied up to the respectable members of the family and got a fair amount of help from them.Benefited both sides, with him bundling his parents off to Florida years ago, while he kept the name out of trouble.”

Something in the way she said that...

“By behaving honorably?”I asked.

She snorted again and Hattie turned her head.“I sincerely doubt it.But nothing he’s been caught at.”

“He and Derrick were friendly when they were younger—”

Donna waggled her hand in aso-sogesture.

I restarted with, “But Emil testified Derrick talked about wanting to work on his marriage and he was Derrick’s alibi witness—”

“Which didn’t cover the entire window,” Donna said.

“True.”I looked at her.“Deliberately?”

Donna looked away, making eye contact with Hattie.“How could any of us know that?”

“He visited Derrick in prison over the years.”I wasn’t so much extolling his virtue as wondering what was in it for him.

Hey, if Clara didn’t like him, neither did I.

“That’s a fact.And in a twist, Emil’s name has suffered by connection with the other branch of the family, particularly Derrick.Yes, I know, Clara, that you don’t think he could possibly suffer enough, but it is notable.”

“He’s a horrible man,” Clara said.

“Never said he wasn’t,” Donna agreed cheerfully.

“But does this have anything to do with Derrick’s murder?”I asked.“Or are you saying Derrick’s relationship with Jaylynn followed that family pattern?Or...”I ended with a shrug.

“No, wouldn’t say Jaylynn followed that pattern.She was young and pretty and maybe a little silly, but she had a good heart, unlike some of the others.”

That matched the image of her Ruby from the post office gave us.

“And Derrick loved her, wanted their marriage to work.”

Clara’s words accorded with her previous view, but the tone indicated wavering.Possibly because Emil was the source of the account that Derrick still loved Jaylynn.

Donna looked at her sideways.“He was smitten with her, to start and went against his parents’ wishes.But her getting pregnant, then marriage, then the baby...Too much reality.Too much responsibility for him too soon.”

“So he started an affair with Dova,” Clara said.

Donna turned to watch the path of one of the greyhounds trotting with purpose toward the far fence line.

Clara and I looked at each other.

Yes, we both read Donna’s body language as saying there was something — probably a whole lot of something — we were missing.

“He did have an affair with Dova,” I insisted.“Everybody knew it, especially after they got married so quickly after the murder.”

“Which was part of the prejudice against him,” Clara slid in.

Donna said, “Oh, yeah, he had an affair with Dova.Eventually.If it comes to that, she might have been the making of him.Beverly said that to me once.Course, then she added,If he hadn’t been accused in Jaylynn’s death.”

Accused, not convicted.