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A fter the meeting ended, Doreen wrote up the little bits of notes she had gathered—plus names and contact information on the new women Doreen had talked to today. It was still wide open as to what had gone on—or what could have gone on with Baby Jane—but, hey, Doreen was getting somewhere.

And yet, as Nan frowned afterward, she muttered, “I’m not sure that was any help.”

“It gave us information, and it did confirm that Iris had lost an infant,” Doreen noted.

“You’re really thinking Iris would have killed her own child?” Nan asked, looking at her.

“No, I’m not saying that at all.”

“Not saying anything is close to it,” Richie muttered off to the side, but she could tell that it had pained him to sit in on these conversations. He looked over at Doreen and asked, “Did you tell your grandmother?”

“No, I didn’t,” she said. “I thought that was for you to do, if you chose to.”

He groaned and nodded, now facing Nan. “Doreen took my DNA, and she’s uploading it to the genealogy site,” he shared. “I figured that maybe, at this stage in my life, I should find out the truth.”

Nan sat down beside him, reached for his hand, and nodded. “If nothing else, knowing the truth might help you put it to rest.”

“But what if the child was mine?” he asked, looking at Nan with a haunted expression.

“Then we’ll deal with it,” Nan declared. “Not a one of us has a closet free of ghosts, and, in your case, it’s not as if you were welcome to stay around.”

“No, I sure wasn’t,” he said, “but then I sometimes think I was less of a man for not having stayed around anyway.”

“What would you have done back then?” Nan asked.

Richie shrugged. “Old Buck is still alive and kicking, still making threats,” he pointed out. “Maybe if I had stood up to him all those years ago, he wouldn’t still be bullying people around.” Nan stared at him, and he shrugged. “He was looking at coming here, living at Rosemoor. Then he saw me and made some comment about losers and things like that.” He shook his head, then added, “I just went on by, but it’s obvious that Buck wouldn’t move into Rosemoor because I was here.”

“If he had a choice,” Doreen shared, “then that’s good for him, but it wasn’t your fault. Even if it was, maybe we should buy you coffee as a thank-you for keeping him away from here.”

He smiled at her. “You do have a kind heart.”

She chuckled. “I don’t know about a kind heart. Mack would probably call it a foolish heart.”

“No,” Richie argued, “you’re one of those good people we need more of.”

“Maybe,” she conceded. “In the meantime, let’s not worry about what’s going on in that corner of your world. We can come up with enough trouble elsewhere.”

“You got that right,” he muttered. “I keep hoping we’ll get answers sooner than later though.”

“We’ll get them when they’re ready,” Doreen stated, “and not until then. So no point in worrying.”

He groaned. “I know that. I just didn’t want to hear about it.”

She nodded. “It’s all good.”

“Says you,” he muttered. “There could be so much else going on now.”

“There’s a lot going on, and I’m getting bits and pieces, but nothing is left to be done right now.”

“So Iris is confirmed as the mother of Baby Jane, right?” Nan asked Doreen.

Doreen nodded. “It’s a match to Iris’s DNA. But Buck’s DNA is in the database, and it’s not his child.” At that, Richie straightened and stared at her in shock. She shrugged. “At least I haven’t been told it was his yet.”

Richie slumped. “But that could just mean they haven’t gone through everything in the database yet.”

“Maybe,” Doreen agreed. “Again, this will take time, even though I know that’s not what you want to hear.”

“It’s never what any of us wants to hear,” Nan muttered. “Time is the one thing we don’t have.”

Doreen turned to her grandmother. “Does anybody know the receptionist over at Riverdale?”

“I probably do, if it’s the same one,” Nan replied. “Why are you asking? They tried to get me to move over there at one point in time.”

“The receptionist I spoke to had a name tag that read Tabitha .”

“Yes, I know Tabitha. Why? What do you want to know?” Nan asked, looking at her with bright curiosity.

“When Lilybeth died, I was on my way over to see her. She had left the letter at the front desk, and I want to know if anybody else went to see Lilybeth on the day she died.”

“Ooh,” Nan muttered, frowning at her. “So, you think maybe somebody visited her and knocked her off then.” She rubbed her hands together.

“I’m just saying,” Doreen began, “that we need to eliminate that possibility. If Lilybeth had a visitor, we would then know that much. It was early in the morning because I was trying to get down there quickly. So, it was quite possible it was somebody who was already there.”

“Ha, old Buck’s there,” Richie noted. When she turned and looked at him, he nodded. “And, if he thought Lilybeth would tattle, believe me that he would have had no problem popping her.”

She frowned at that as Nan shrugged. Doreen admitted, “I’m biased, I know, but he’s the one with the record.”

“And it’s that record that’s interesting to me too,” Nan added, “because I would have thought that he had enough money to buy his way out of that.”

“It wasn’t the first time he had hit Iris though—or some other woman.”

“It wasn’t his first time?” Nan asked.

“Nope, it sure wasn’t, but I’m not sure anybody else ever pressed charges.”

“And, of course, if they don’t press charges, it won’t be classified as his first time,” Nan pointed out.

“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t deserve everything they threw at him.”

“Sure, but it doesn’t sound as if he had to pay very much for what he did either.”

“No, I don’t think so. It was just after his wife died. The court or the authorities or whoever put it all down to trauma and grief, so he was given a pretty light sentence, and he didn’t go to jail or prison or whatever. He served time at home. It’s not as if he served any hard time or anything.”

“And since then, any idea what he’s been up to?”

“Trouble,” Richie claimed and then groaned. “As you can tell, I just might have an issue with him.”

“Ya think?” Doreen teased, smiling at him. “ Just might have an issue is a whole different story than going balls to the wall into an issue, so let’s just stick with the facts.”

“You are starting to sound so much like Mack,” Nan declared proudly.

Doreen winced. “The trouble is, Mack is very heavily involved in a court case right now, and he can’t get out to give me a hand on any of this, so I’m flying blind. Yet I did connect with the coroner.”

“Ooh,” Nan said, looking at her in joy. “That could be such a great connection.”

“Could be,” Doreen agreed. “As long as I don’t push the conspiracy theories too much, and I stick with the facts, we might get along just fine.” She smiled at her grandmother.

“Maybe, but I heard she’s a pretty-tough cookie though,” Richie added.

“I’ve heard the same. Yet I’m not against her being a tough cookie,” Doreen pointed out, “particularly if she’s fair.”

“No, we need her fair, and we need her tough, and we need her on the ball,” Nan stated, clapping her hands.

“Absolutely, so it’s all good.”

“Yes, it’s all good,” Nan agreed. “So, what’s next?”

“I still haven’t necessarily found everything I need. We’re still operating blind on so much right now.”

“Of course we are, but you’re still gathering evidence. You’ve already got a family link, and you’ve already got a biological mother for Baby Jane, and what you don’t know yet is whether there’s been a crime.”

“No, I sure don’t, but, with any luck, I will get the answers to that question too.”

“There has to be a crime, doesn’t there?” Richie asked, looking at her. “That poor baby. Buck must have done it.”

“Maybe, but remember that it doesn’t take a whole lot for a baby to die. They’re pretty tender and vulnerable at that age,” Doreen explained. “So, you know, one push, one blow to the head, one something is all it takes.”

“It’s still a crime,” Richie declared.

“Absolutely it’s still a crime,” Doreen agreed, “but I’m also just as concerned as to what could be a recent crime.”

“You’re thinking about Lilybeth again, aren’t you?” Nan asked.

“I am.”

“Dear, I think you’ll have to leave that be. She was ready to go.”

“Maybe so, but I still need to double-check that she didn’t have any visitors that morning.”

“Fine.” Nan reached for her phone and made a call. Doreen heard Nan talking to the receptionist at the Riverdale retirement home. “I was looking at moving over there,” Nan said, “but then I heard about Lilybeth.”

There was more chatter on the other end.

“I know. I know, and I understand that she was ready to go in so many ways, and she was living as a recluse. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to move over there, to be closer to her, so she wouldn’t be alone all the time. It’s so sad. It would be lovely to know she at least had some contact with people, so she wasn’t alone.”

Nan listened to the other woman, her eyes lighting up as she nodded. “Oh, that makes me feel so much better, thank you.” She disconnected, then turned and looked at Doreen in triumph. “She did have a visitor.”

“Who was it?”

“She apparently went to the cafeteria early that morning and spoke with the staff, but she also spoke with a couple men.”

“And who were the men?” Doreen asked.

Nan grinned. “Who were the men? Well, just think. They were both from the Winters family. She talked to old Buck, and she also talked to Clarence.”

“The politician, Clarence?” Doreen asked, frowning at her grandmother.

“Absolutely, the politician, Clarence.”

“And then what?” Doreen asked.

“Then Lilybeth decided she wasn’t feeling great, and she went back to her room and collapsed on the way… from a heart attack.”