Page 74 of The Happy Month

Actually, it meant exactly that, but I had to let it pass. I asked, “I’ve heard that Vera liked straight women. Is that what you heard?”

“I did, yeah, but you see that made it even worse. Who wants to read a story about a predatory lesbian? Like I said, she got what she deserved, didn’t she?”

This time, I let Ronnie off the leash. “She didn’t deserve to be murdered. And so what if she liked straight girls? She didn’t rape anyone.”

“That we know of,” Philburn said.

Before Ronnie could continue, I cleared my throat. The international code for shut the fuck up.

“Do you know the names of any of the women she chased after?” I asked.

“If I’d known you were coming, I would have gotten out my notes.”

“If you’d known we were coming you’d have left town.”

Sophia laughed. I hadn’t realized she was still there. Shesaid, “It’s a hundred and twenty degrees, you don’t think we’d leave town if we could afford to?”

She had a point.

“I’ve talked to Harper and Georgia Dawson. He says they weren’t that friendly. But you wrote that they were very close. You even included a picture of them.”

“People lie. Georgia gave me that picture. She was excited about being in the book. She said that Vera was one of the best friends she ever had. Maybe that didn’t make her husband happy.”

“Was he considered a suspect? You made it sound?—”

“You’d have to ask Detective Schmidt that question.”

“He’s dead. I can’t ask him much of anything. When you talked to him, did you get the impression Harper Dawson was a suspect?”

“I did get that impression. But I got that impression about a lot of the people I asked about.”

“Manny and Virginia Marker?”

“Manny Marker was a suspect for a while, but his wife gave him an alibi.”

“What do you remember about Betty Brooks?”

“Nowshewas a predatory dyke. I was convinced it was her for a while.”

“Your book says Vera was raped,” Ronnie said. “That they found semen inside of her.”

“Maybe Brooks found her having sex with a guy and killed her out of jealousy.”

That seemed like a stretch. So far, I hadn’t heard anything about Vera being in a relationship with Betty Brooks. I also hadn’t heard anything about her being bisexual. It felt like the kind of overlay straight people put on things.

“Do you have any proof that Betty Brooks was in a relationship with Vera?” I asked. “Didn’t you write she had a husband and three kids?”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t say that was completely true. My editor added that because too many single women in the book made it sound like they were all lesbians.”

“Theywereall lesbians,” Ronnie said.

“Who was Betty Brooks really then?”

“She’d been married after the war until around fifty-two. Had a kid. Her ex-husband had two more by another woman that she raised for a while.”

“So, you could defend what you wrote as an honest mistake.”

“That’s the nature of journalism.”