Page 58 of The Happy Month

“Your mother was hard of hearing?”

“No. Never. Her hearing was pretty scary, actually.”

That just made my visit worthwhile. I had to wonder if the police had already decided what had happened and did what they could to bend the evidence in that direction.

“Was your mother friendly with the Michaels?”

“No. Not at all. I mean, I think she made a cake for them when Pete died but, no. The boys were always outside, playing some kind of sports and making a lot of noise. We could never keep the windows open. We had to have air conditioning, so we didn’t have to listen to them.”

That was probably not entirely true. We were pretty far inland, so it was much hotter than Long Beach. Ronnie and I could get by without air conditioning. I doubted that was the case out here.

“Your mother saw a yellow car and a young girl who may have gone into the house. Did she ever talk about that?”

Connie thought about it for a long time. “Yes. A fewtimes. Before the trial. But then not after that. She felt bad she hadn’t paid more attention. The guy who’s in prison, what’s his name?”

“Larry Wilkes.”

“She heard that he said he didn’t do it, but we knew that couldn’t be true. It had to be him. It couldn’t have been the girl in the yellow car, she was very young. My mother always felt bad because she was in the house when the murder happened, so she didn’t hear the gunshot. If she’d heard the shot… well, there wouldn’t have been a trial even. He’d have taken a deal, and the Michaels wouldn’t have had to go through all that.”

“But your mother testified shedidhear a gunshot.”

“What? No, that’s not possible.”

“You weren’t in court when she testified?”

“No. I was probably in class.”

“Do you remember your mother talking about her testimony?”

“Not really. But I was a typical twenty-something. Narcissistic. Self-involved.”

“You don’t like the police.”

“I had a few run-ins. It was probably around that time.”

I couldn’t help wondering if there might be a connection. Had someone hinted to Mrs. Wickers that if she didn’t remember the gunshot her daughter might be?—

“My mother wouldn’t lie in court,” she said, stubbornly. Though from the look on her face, she was obviously thinking the same thing I was. I thanked her and stepped off the stoop to head back to my Jeep.

“Hold on,” she said. “Why do you think Larry didn’t do it?”

“Because I know the girl in the yellow car did.”

Iknocked on a few more doors, both on Via Amorita and Irwingrove, but no one was home. Back at my Jeep, I sat looking out at a park where some kids were playing with their mothers looking on. I dug out my cellular phone and called Ronnie.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“Busy. I got a new listing. It’s a condo in a building behind The Park Pantry. Andrew and Carl. They were at the commitment ceremony.”

“Oh, that’s great,” I said. I couldn’t remember who they were or when he might have talked to them, but it didn’t surprise me. He managed to get clients pretty much anywhere he went.

“Yeah, they want to buy a house, so we’ll be doing that too.”

That was a good thing. Two commissions. It was also a bad thing. Jumping from one property to another can sometimes be tricky. Not to mention the clients, who are generally kind of nervous can get very nervous.

“I need to go over to Palm Springs. I’m thinking I’ll go over on Thursday morning and come back Friday afternoon.”

“By yourself?”