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DAY FOUR

We did not go to the café for a treat this morning.

Instead, we stopped at the bakery around the corner.

First, we had the dogs in the van.

Second, keeping on our outerwear in the bakery made it less obvious we were dressed for the dog park than if we’d had a sit-down snack at the café. Though our outerwear wasn’t the most reputable, either.

That didn’t put off Carol and Linda from waving to us cheerily from one of the small tables along the wall opposite the counter.

After we had our goodies, we stepped over there to say hello.

“How’s the investigation going?” Linda asked.

“Slowly,” I said, before Clara could share anything.

She agreed with a nod.

“That’s too bad,” Linda said. “Even after talking to Rose Gleiner yesterday, huh?”

“And dinner with Teague,” Carol said to her, proving the local grapevine had not lost any of its efficiency overnight. “Of course, he can’t share details with Sheila.”

“I suppose not.” Linda sounded nearly as disappointed as I felt at that state of affairs.

Carol looked at us and lowered her voice. “But you must know by now that Derrick was asphyxiated — you know, smothered,” she added as if we wouldn’t understand the word. “With a pillow.”

“Lots of pillows available at Kentucky Manor,” Linda said wisely.

“Which the killer must have been counting on — that nobody would notice among all the other pillows.”

So the grapevine did not know all. Yet.

“But Rose Gleiner spotted it right away and insisted the authorities take it seriously,” Linda said.

I had a happy image of Deputy Eckles’ head exploding at hearing this exchange.

Unfortunately, it might not do the structural integrity of Teague’s cranium any good, either.

Though they should both be grateful the grapevine didn’t know it was not a Kentucky Manor pillow.

****

“What about Evan Ferguson’s wife?” Clara asked for an opener as she made sure she had the bottom of her jacket under her derriere before sitting. “What kind of name is Quebec anyway?”

We sat atop the most isolated picnic bench in the large-dog enclosure. The three dogs played their canine version of soccer, with Murph mostly the soccer ball and Gracie and LuLu racing him up and down — as well as across — the field. I had no idea how they kept score.

We had the large-dog enclosure to ourselves, but Berrie and the Boston Terriers formed a gang in the small-dog enclosure, along with a pair of newcomers who’d come in, each with a compact mixed pup.

“Quebec means the pathway,” I said.

“It would.”

“Or gift of God or blooming flower or moonlight.”

From approaching grumpy with her previous statement, Clara asked with interest, “Isn’t there another name that means gift of God?”

“I think half the names mean that. Anna, Nathaniel, Dorothea, Theodore. And on and on. Except Sheila — which means heavenly. Or Clara — which means clear—”

“Not exactly a surprise.”

“—or bright.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Researching character names.”

She opened her mouth to ask another question. My morose tone might have persuaded her not to follow up on that. She cleared her throat. “Anyway, Quebec Ferguson is sure possessive enough of Evan.”

“You don’t like her.”

“I wouldn’t say that. Exactly. I wasn’t immediately drawn to her.”

I grinned at Clara. She grinned back rather sheepishly, but added with determination, “Donna doesn’t like her and that says a lot.”

“Donna didn’t say that.”

“Pfft,” she scoffed. “She didn’t need to.”

“Point taken. Still, the math doesn’t work.”

“What math?”

“First, she would have been a young teenager when Jaylynn was killed.”

“There have been cases—”

“You’re thinking of that teenager on Long Island?”

“Amy Fisher. Do you know, I heard her complain that the wife she shot made more money out of follow-ups on the story than she — Amy — did? Talk about gall. Though I could see Quebec having the nerve to—”

“I think she’d be more subtle.”

“Manipulative.”

“Or manipulative,” I conceded. “But she had no apparent motive to kill Derrick. Not to mention, I have a hard time imagining Quebec Ferguson, in her current condition, slipping into Kentucky Manor unnoticed and then smothering a man, even one as weakened as Derrick was.”

Clara addressed the no-motive issue. “If she killed Jaylynn, she might have feared Derrick would expose her.”

“Why now and not any other time while he was incarcerated—”

“He’d finally figured out it was her.”

“How? And how would she know that? And that’s predicated on her having killed Jaylynn when we don’t even know if she was around here then.

If she was, do you think nobody would have known she was gaga about him then and wouldn’t be talking about it now?

And here’s the clincher, if she was nuts enough to kill Jaylynn, thinking that would get her Evan, would she have waited patiently and silently before snagging him only a couple years ago? ”

“That is the clincher,” Clara acknowledged. “Darn. Though I think she could have managed the physical stuff if only she had a stronger motive,” said my friend, whose sweet face and voice could really lead you astray.

Berrie screeched at one of her Boston Terriers. The other two dogs and their humans all looked around at her.

Neither Clara nor I did. Our dogs either. Nor did any of her Boston Terriers.

Amazing what you can get used to enough to ignore.

“Wait,” Clara added, “Let’s take a step back on this. Do we start with Derrick’s murder or Jaylynn’s?”

I turned to her. “That is a brilliant question.”

“Thanks.” Her wide grin settled into seriousness. “What’s the answer?”

“There are a few options, right? Derrick was killed because he killed Jaylynn—”

“Or because he didn’t.”

“Or his murder had nothing to do with Jaylynn’s murder.”

“That narrows it down,” she said, more in sorrow than in sarcasm. “Let’s start with Jaylynn’s murder. Technically, the killer could have been anyone who figured Robbie couldn’t be a witness, so why kill him. Though sparing him does seem to point more to family.”

“His Dorrio grandparents along with Emil. Or Olive and Payloma. And, of course, Derrick.” After a moment’s thought, I added, “Any of them could have gotten her to that isolated spot with a plea for help. And, looking at Derrick’s murder, none of whom has an alibi because it was done in the middle of the night. ”

“Technically the early hours of the morning,” Clara murmured. “But they would have to get into the hospice center without being seen.”

“Doesn’t sound like it would be hard. Sally was irked, but not surprised by Beverly being there. Same for Dova and Robbie. Who knows who else got in without being seen.”

After a moment of discontented silence, Clara shifted back to the original murder. “I bet Beverly didn’t like Jaylynn having the upper hand that Robbie gave her. She couldn’t have known Derrick would be charged, marry Dova, and make her guardian. And that Dova cut them off from Robbie.”

“All true. We hold onto that possibility for now.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No,” Clara confirmed. “It doesn’t hold up. Because if it’s the same murderer, that makes no sense. I could see a motive for Beverly and/or Yale to kill Jaylynn, especially to have more control over Derrick and Robbie. Although that didn’t turn out that way—”

“But what motive would they have for killing their own son?” I picked up her thought.

With little conviction she said, “Unless, they wanted to be done with the damage to the family name. That might work for Emil, too.”

“But why now?”

“They just found out he really killed Jaylynn?”

I tipped my head.

“You’re right, you’re right. They’re far more likely to cover it up.

Protect the reputation or the family name or whatever, not truly be.

.. honorable, if you can call it that. And it doesn’t seem like they were close enough to Robbie to worry that it would upend his life.

Besides, with Derrick so close to dying anyway, why do it? Why not just wait a few more days?”

Upending Robbie’s life...

“Thinking of his son first,” I murmured, quoting Dova. “It’s an interesting needle to thread, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s what Beverly and Yale said was behind Derrick not letting Robbie visit him. On the other hand, he clearly didn’t think of his son before having an affair with Dova. And law enforcement and the jury thought he didn’t think of his son when he shot Jaylynn in front of him.”

“Yet did care enough to not hurt Robbie,” Clara said. “That’s contradictory.”

“That’s a pretty darned low bar — not shooting your own son who’s too young to pose you any threat. So not a sharp contradiction.”

“But then he protected Robbie by not letting him go to the prison when he got old enough to recognize what was going on,” she said.

“Protecting Robbie? Or protecting himself from guilt? Or possibly being confronted by accusations from his son? It was clear Dova was standing by him, but what if Robbie had started to doubt?”

Everyone said Robbie and Dova usually operated as a unit.

But not the morning at the hospice.

Was it the natural cracking that can happen as a child grows up, with his closeness to Mamie contributing?

There was something Ruby had said about Dova...

Got it.

Usually smiles and smiles and moves mountains that way . But at the hospice that day, Dova was uncharacteristically upset. Not wanting Robbie there, exposed to what was happening?

“Mamie is surprised by how upset Robbie is over his father’s death.” My words came out, surprising me a little. Was this the time to share the niggling at the back of my mind? “You and I both said that. When we were talking about looking more closely at each of the things she’s told us.”

“Yeah.” That solitary word of agreement might as easily have been, And your point is?

“Why is he so upset?” I asked.

“Because his estranged father was killed.”

“Estranged. Exactly. And, besides, that accounts for the amount of upset we’d all expect — us and Mamie. But he’s been more upset than that.”

“Maybe it’s because his father was murdered. Or because Robbie’s recognized there will never be a chance to not be estranged now. Or... there are probably other reasons.”

“Uh-huh. What if he’s actually upset about something else, but he’s pretending it’s about his father?”

With her head slanted toward me, she slowly said, “If it’s not about his father, what is he upset about?”