Page 99 of Death on Riddle Road

“Explain to me why finding that label where it sure as heck looks like Robbie went to some trouble to throw it out means hedidn’tkill his father?”

“He tried to get rid of the prescription label,” I said to her as we reached the pair of loveseats.

“Iknowhe tried to get rid of the label,” she said impatiently.“Which he’d do if he gave his father a lethal dose of his mom’s pills—Oh.Ofcourse.Where’s my brain?”

Still oxygen-deprived, like mine.Maybe we needed to take the dogs hiking, instead of watching them run while we sat on a picnic table.

“If Robbie killed his father,” she went on, “he would have known a pillow over his face killed him,notthe hydromorphone.So, throwing the prescription away meant he thought someone used the drugs to kill Derrick.Who would he do that for?The only one he cares about is Dova and she had the pills.”

“Not the only one.He cares about Mamie.”We’d reached the loveseats.

“Mamie?I know she keeps cropping up, but why on earth wouldshekill Derrick?”

“Protecting Robbie.She talked about how upset he was ever since his father was released.Maybe to relieve him of that tension.Or what if Derrick confessed to Robbie that he killed Jaylynn?Mamie could have seen it as simply accelerating nature, worth the risk to spare Robbie more pain and—”

I broke off.We both turned toward the hallway at the sound of approaching footsteps.

****

Robbie and Mamie.

Mamie’s grandfather, too.

That could be a problem.Or not.

Alan took one of the straight-backed chairs and moved it slightly behind the loveseat Mamie and Robbie sat on, which I took as a sign he intended to observe.At least to start.

Robbie’s head was down.So was Mamie’s, except she darted glances toward Robbie.

After letting the silence stretch, I spoke coolly.“Robbie, is Idlewild Cliffs somewhere you go often?”

“Yeah.”He’d had his lie ready.Mamie must have filled him in on what she’d told us.“Spent a lot of time there as a kid.Hiking.Still go when I need to think.”

“You had a lot to think about the day your father died?”

“What do you think?”he snarled.“He’d died and somewomanwas saying he was murdered.”

“But that wasn’t when you took off from the hospice — not when you learned your father had died and not when Rose Gleiner said he had not died a natural death and not even when the deputy coroner called the sheriff’s department.”

He shrugged one shoulder, not looking at us.“I don’t remember.Like I said, I had things to think about.That’s why I left.”

“Only after you saw a nurse bring bottles of pills out of your father’s room and you recognized the name on one as the pain pills Dova had.”

“That doesn’t—”

“That’s why you rushed to your house, found Dova’s pills, drove to the Cliffs, went to the top, pulled the label off, and threw the bottle and label.”

His face went gray.

“The label got stuck on a weed, Robbie.”

Gray turned white.

Mamie looked at him again, but didn’t touch him.

“That’s—That’s not—”

“Don’t bother, Robbie.”My sharp words raised his head to me, then it dropped immediately.