Page 123 of Head Room

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Forty minutes afterTom left, Diana started off our video call with her report.

“Scuttlebutt says Ned Irvin was irked that, before anybody got to the fire, the Sherman crew was saying they’d take lead.Irvin came down hard, sayinghewas lead.And pushed his crew to get there first.”

“Was that out of character?”Mike asked.

“Let’s say it was notable.But no one indicated they thought there might be something outright suspicious about it.”

“Did Irvin have a conflict with Jardos?”

“Not that I’ve heard yet,” she said, “but I’ll ask more.”

“As for Frank and Irene Jardos’ involvement with the volunteer fire department, they talked mostly about Irene’s baking.One person said he thought Frank pulled back a little because he’d wanted to get a younger vet involved but the vet — Nance, according to this source — didn’t seem that interested.Nothing major in the source’s view.

“And that, I’m afraid, is all from me.”

“Better than me,” Jennifer grumbled.“Got a rundown on the pattern names of the quilts you took pictures of.”

“Oh?”

I hadn’t realized my syllable held hope until Jennifer said, “No.A couple were specialty quilts like you described her giving to Hannah’s baby.The others were two patterns she made with different color schemes.No help I can see, but you might like the names —Drunkard’s Pathand theContrary Wife.”

Even I chuckled at that, though I also sighed.

“It was way beyond a long shot.Sergeant Jardos didn’t seem to be troubled until lately, well after Irene died.Plus, the time needed for her to make a quilt, multiplied by all the quilts, means for them to be a window into what’s happened...”

“It would have had to start way back,” Diana summarized.

I nodded.“Sorry, Jennifer, if it wasted your time.”

“Nope.More practice for my friend’s algo.He’d be happy to see more.Besides, sometimes your longshots pay off.”

Without taking a break, she went on.“Nothing on the vets’ names you sent me, Elizabeth.No progress on recovering more of the forum Jardos was on — though I can say he hasn’t posted anything on their new home.Didn’t even get more info on that bad cop.Big, fat zero.”

“That’s only since earlier today,” I reminded her.

Unconsoled, she prompted, “Mike?”

“Sorry.Nothing new’s come in from my feelers about the vets and I’ve been too swamped here to reach out.You’re carrying the load, Elizabeth.”

I snorted.“Not that much of a load to date.Though I did find out something I want to tell you all about.It might be a rabbit hole, but...”

“Glad to hear about rabbit holes at this point,” Mike said.

“Okay.Buckle up.”I opened with Jardos’ visit to James, covered Mrs.P’s minor contribution, then started on the meat of Needham’s information.

“Wyoming prides itself on being business friendly.Nips at Delaware’s heels for creating businesses.In fact, it brags that it’s ahead on per capita creation, which is more realistic.”

“Somebody tracks that?”Jennifer asked.

“Wouldn’t take much tracking.Divide the number of businesses by the number of residents and voila, you have a statistic to quote where Wyoming’s winning.”

She snorted.“And they worry about what video games might do to kids’ brains.”

I sidestepped that discussion.“The state’s overall approach offers a contradiction — tightens requirements for identity card, for driver’s license, for voting registration, but keeps the doors wide open for creating hundreds, thousands, even millions of LLCs without revealing their owners.”

I wasn’t getting into the Cowboy Cocktail — the non-alcoholic one.We needed to keep this focused and I could only imagine what Jennifer would say about that.