Page 9

CHAPTER NINE

Hell, no, I didn’t know , I thought but didn’t say.

As I swung my gaze toward Clara, I saw Robbie flinch slightly without revealing any surprise, which neither Dova nor Mamie seemed to catch. Completing my swing informed me Clara hadn’t known, either.

“But did the sheriff’s department look into that?

” Dova continued. “No. They landed on Derrick in the first minutes and never considered anyone else. And when they found out he and I had fallen in love, it was like those deputies considered that we’d committed all of the seven deadly sins rolled together, while no one else on earth had cracked a single one. ”

I’d guess they were more concerned about Derrick breaking the law against homicide.

“She had a boyfriend?” Clara’s this-woman-never-said-a-mean-or-judgmental-word-in-her-life voice was far more productive than I’d have been.

“If that’s what you want to call it,” Dova said with a flatness that signified she wanted to distance herself from the topic even though she’d raised it. She turned to her son. “Robbie, if you and Mamie want to—”

“I’m staying,” he said flatly.

Mamie echoed the sentiment without words by linking her arms around one of his, securing herself at his side.

Before Dova made another bid to send Robbie away, when I wanted to watch his reactions, I asked, “Who was Jaylynn involved with?”

“I don’t know,” Dova said.

A lie.

Not one I’d get her to admit, because she clearly meant to shield Robbie from that detail.

Interesting that he’d already known about his mother’s affair.

From his father? Though if Derrick stopped prison visits when Robbie was young would he have shared that tidbit about Jaylynn?

From Dova? That didn’t seem likely, either. That would delve deep into the pot calling the kettle black territory.

“Who knew about her affair?”

Dova lifted her shoulders, making the longer necklace swing slightly.

“I have no idea. I didn’t at the time, even though—” She paused, looking at Robbie.

He was back to contemplating the corner of the office.

“You’ll hear this from others, so there’s no sense.

.. It’s not a secret. Jaylynn and I were friends.

That’s how Derrick and I met. I’m not proud of that, but sometimes friendship isn’t as strong as the heart. ”

She finished that with more fire than anything else she’d said.

Was it cynical of me to think she’d used that line before? If so, I was alone in that cynicism. Mamie and Clara appeared quite affected, while Robbie remained stoic.

“Do you believe Jaylynn knew about you and Derrick?”

Like a light on a dimmer, her fire slid down, but not completely out. “I don’t know. I hate to think she knew...”

“But if she did, how do you think she found out?”

The dimmer switch slid up. “Well, I did not tell her. Why would I? And neither did Derrick. Besides, he told the deputies from the start that he was with his cousin that evening.

“But they didn’t want to hear it. They buried it. That’s why it never came out until the trial. And then that prosecutor had the nerve to make it sound like it was a last-second thing the defense brought up. When they knew — they all knew — all along.”

She seemed to think that settled everything.

“It didn’t have to be that night,” I said mildly. “He could have told her about your relationship earlier.”

“He didn’t,” Robbie snapped. “You heard what my mom said. Besides...”

“Besides what?”

His gaze cut to Dova. I couldn’t tell from where I was if she was eye-warning him not to speak or giving him a go-ahead or remaining neutral.

Whatever her response, he said, with an air of grievance, “If you want to know who probably told her, you should talk to that sister of hers. Real piece of work, that one.”

Dova put one arm partway around his shoulders and he shifted toward her, opening space between him and Mamie.

“I’ve often thought that there’s a connection between us — Jaylynn and me,” Dova said. “Not the one most people might think of, having been married to the same man. But through our loving Robbie. I like to think she’d approve of the job I’ve done raising him. And be as proud of him as I am.”

He said nothing, but I thought I could almost hear his internal rendition of the embarrassed teenager plaint of Mo-om . It made him seem like more of a normal kid.

****

In the car, I asked Clara, “Derrick had an alibi? A cousin?”

“Yes.” There was something more to this than that short confirmation. She added, “The prosecutor laid out a timeline that would have made it possible for Derrick to commit the murder.”

Ah. So not, truly, an alibi. And with her being inclined to think Derrick didn’t kill his wife, she’d been reluctant to spell that out.

“You think there’s more to that?” Clara asked.

“Could be.” I heard the doubt in my own voice. “We have other things to pursue, but maybe we can find out more while we’re also doing something else.”

She nodded decisively. “Like taking the dogs to the park tomorrow. We’ll have to go early to overlap with Donna.”

Donna unofficially ran the dog park and knew as much about the community as Ruby, though often stingier about sharing.

I suppressed a sigh. Morning is not my favorite time. Have I mentioned that? Still, it would be worth it, even if we only wrapped up loose ends.

Speaking of timelines, we had the clock ticking to wrap up this day of inquiry because Clara and Ned had plans tonight.

First, we swung by Teague’s apartment to get Murphy.

“C’mon, Clara—” I said from the sidewalk. She’d barely opened the passenger door.

“Hold your horses, Sheila. You’re not usually this impatient.”

That took me aback.

Not because I felt chastised — hard to feel that way when Clara said it — but because she was right.

Having spent these past weeks with Kit could do that, because of the example she set.

I’d once compared her to Vlad the Impaler on the patience scale and he’d come out better. Not that my great-aunt ever impaled anyone... physically, anyway. With words, with looks... Oh, yeah.

So, a few weeks in her company might have shifted me toward a less patient mode than usual.

I looked around while I waited — patiently — for Clara to catch up.

I’d been at Teague’s place a few times, always for brief and practical purposes. In other words, for the dog. Not for Teague and me.

The apartment building struck me as looking like it should have been part of a big complex, instead of two buildings with a total of ten units.

Maybe big had been the intention, but since these buildings were two or three decades old, adding more seemed unlikely.

They were built from a mix of brick and siding with large windows sticking out in a pattern.

Each unit had a garage taking up half of the bottom floor.

“Okay, got the key.” Clara led the way.

Murphy greeted us with joy.

We didn’t take it personally. He’s a lab mix and would have greeted old Vlad the Impaler with joy.

Teague’s apartment had the essentials, but not much more. The only frivolities were dog toys. They were also the only elements not tidied up.

Teague wasn’t obsessive, but from watching him work on carpentry projects for my house, I knew he tended to clean up as he went.

Did it bother him that I had a finish-then-straighten approach? He’d never indicated that, but maybe I hadn’t paid close enough attention to notice.

“What’s wrong?” Clara asked abruptly as we got back in my sedan, Murphy happily ensconced in the back seat.

“Nothing.”

“You always get moody when we stop by Teague’s place.”

“I’m not moody.”

“Yeah, right. It’s not like we find women’s underwear strewn around the place. So what bugs you?”

What bugged me was wondering how he’d react when I replaced the tale I’d told him of a former English teacher who inherited enough to move here and live without a job with the truth.

How could it possibly be good for his law enforcement career to be tied to someone pretending not to be the person who’d pretended to be something other than she really was for so long?

Much less personal considerations of my hiding a major chunk of my life from him.

But since I was hiding that same chunk from Clara, I went another direction and blurted out, “How well do I really know him?”

“Hah. You do realize that nobody really knows their partner when they commit to each other, don’t you?

You like what you know — you love what you know — and you hope for the best. Then you spend decades and decades and decades learning about each other and still liking and loving what you find out, if you’re very, very fortunate. ”

Stopped at the turn onto the highway, I looked over at her. “You and Ned haven’t known each other that many decades.”

“Nope. I’m quoting Gran. That’s how she was with my grandfather. And now she’s hoping for the same with her boyfriend.”

From photos I’d seen, Gran and that boyfriend made Kit look like an ingenue. I’d only seen photos because the pair had decamped to Belize before I moved here. They did look happy in the photos.

“As for Ned and me, we’re still finding out. And liking and loving as we go.”

Her smile hadn’t left when I dropped her off to make dinner with her husband, then spend their evening together.