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D oreen thought about Sandra’s words long afterward. It revealed so much about who old Buck was that he would try to take away something that somebody cared for and about. Was that what happened to Baby Jane? Had he done it more—not because of Richie or whoever the father may be—to spite the mother and to keep Iris under his control?

Thinking about the old Buck character Doreen had met, the look in his eyes, and what she’d heard about him, she realized that one element of Buck’s personality made the most sense, more than anything else.

She picked up the phone and called Elizabeth.

“And again you call,” the coroner muttered in exasperation.

Doreen winced. “Sorry, I keep forgetting you have a job.”

“I do have a job, and it keeps me quite busy,” she spat. “What did you find?”

“Ha,” Doreen replied. “I’ll call you back in a few days when you’ve got time.”

“Oh no you don’t,” she snapped. “You’ve already distracted me, so spit it out.”

“I wanted to ask you something about the bones.”

“What about them?” she asked.

“Would those breaks have all happened around the same time?”

“Meaning?”

“Apparently old Buck Winters likes to control people and will do anything necessary to make that happen.” Then she explained what Sandra had shared, using Mugs as an example. Doreen finally realized what Richie had been telling her all along.

“Ah, one of those guys, is he?” Elizabeth groaned.

“Plus, as I left his apartment, he threw at least four objects at the door and not in quick succession. His anger lingers.”

“So, what are you thinking?”

“I’m wondering if he would have killed the child in order to keep his wife under control, to keep her terrified, to keep her there as part of his life, even if he didn’t want her.”

“That would be a real bad move.”

“Particularly if the child wasn’t his,” she pointed out. “He could disassociate completely from any sense of emotion about the child.”

“It’s still a bad move.”

“I’m not arguing that at all. Apparently this guy is very much that kind of person. So I could see him taking his frustration out on that child, long after she died even.”

“Oh boy,” Elizabeth muttered. “I’ll take another look at the toddler’s bones. I don’t remember all the details on that particular case, but it’s definitely possible.”

“I’m thinking maybe one beating killed the child, potentially right in front of Iris—maybe more than one. And, if Buck wanted to terrorize Iris further, he would just toss Baby Jane in a pillowcase and chuck her out in the garden.”

“And did they own that property way back when?”

“I’m still going through all the county records, but it looks to be one of their rental properties.”

“So, he could have just walked from wherever they lived at the time and dumped it on a nearby rental land.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Doreen stated, “and of course I don’t want to think that, but…”

“But it’s hard not to, isn’t it?”

“It absolutely is hard not to. Considering Buck was that kind of guy , it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.”

“He shouldn’t get to sail through life without paying for that,” Elizabeth declared, the fury evident in her tone.

“And we don’t know that for sure, and I can only do so much until we get more DNA results.”

“Right, and you think he would prefer to do that to the mother, as versus, say, making the father pay?”

“I think he terrified the father enough early on that he was satisfied the man would never be around Iris again. Maybe he figured that was punishment enough and that no other man would come sniffing around again either. I don’t really know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Elizabeth quipped with half a sigh, now rummaging through something. “It seems as if you have ferreted out quite a bit already.”

“I have ferreted out quite a bit, but I haven’t got it all yet, and there’s so much more that I need to sort out.”

“Of course.” More sounds were heard from her end. “But, in answer to your question, yes, it’s quite possible that all these bones were broken at the same time.”

Armed with that information, Doreen pondered what was going on and how she could prove it because Elizabeth was right. Without any evidence, Buck would get away with it. What Doreen didn’t know was whether anybody else had been involved in the toddler’s death. It was too horrific to even contemplate, yet usually so much more motivated people to do these heinous acts that she couldn’t just write off the chance that one of the sons wasn’t involved somehow as well. She considered whether it was truly just the massive ego of Buck that had done nothing but terrorize this town. If that were the case, why was he even in a retirement home? She wished she could find some more information on that and decided to call Sandra back again.

“Now what?” Sandra asked reluctantly.

“The home where Buck is—Riverdale—does your family own it?”

“Not anymore,” she said. “I don’t think so. There was a time when I think they did, and a big company from back east bought it out, but a condition of the sale was that Buck gets to stay there.”

“Ah, so he wants to be there.”

“Sure, he does. He’s king of the castle there, isn’t he?” she muttered, with a bitterness that seemed to surprise even Sandra herself.

“Understood,” Doreen murmured. “I guess I was trying to figure out whether your cousin Tabitha had something to do with it.”

“I don’t think so, although I think she’s… I don’t want to say she’s learning from him because I think she already learned everything quite well.”

“You really don’t have anything to do with them, do you?”

“No, and I don’t want to, and believe me that they don’t want me to either. Now, if you don’t mind, this is exhausting, and I really just want to forget about it for a while.”

After she disconnected, Doreen contemplated Sandra’s reaction and realized it was a perfectly natural response on her part. A lot of upsetting family issues and a lot of potential issues were involved in all this, but still, one question remained.

“If her mother, Claudia, had been murdered, why?” Doreen asked out loud. “Was it because she was asking questions that nobody wanted asked, or was it something else entirely?”

Knowing that she would piss off Sandra, but needing to find out for sure, Doreen called her back, and when she answered, her voice trembling with fatigue, Sandra muttered, “Please stop.”

“I know. I know, and believe me that I want to stop as well, but I do have to ask you another question.” Then she barreled on, not giving Sandra a chance to refuse. “What was the gain for somebody killing your mother?”

Then came dead silence. Finally Sandra said, “You haven’t figured it out yet?”

“I’ve figured out all kinds of stuff, but figuring out people who are so very twisted means there can be multiple reasons. So was Claudia killed just because she asked questions about her mother, that she wanted to leave the area, or was there something else?”

“I think it was her asking questions, but she also found a baby book my grandmother had hung on to, and I guess nobody had seen it or had found it to throw it away. And that’s when my mother really started asking questions.”

“Which baby book was this?”

“I don’t know for certain, but I presume it had to do with the toddler in the coroner’s office.”

“How would Claudia know about that?”

“Because she was alive at that time, and so was my grandmother. My mother told me that my grandmother had a really bad time over it all and almost had a complete collapse.”

“Ah,” Doreen muttered, “which just lends more credence to the child being your blood relative and also to your family wanting to put a stop to Claudia’s questions.”

“Exactly. My grandmother was hysterical, and she had to be put on medication. Claudia kept the secret until my grandmother had passed away, but once Iris was gone, that’s when my mother started asking questions.”

Doreen winced.

“I don’t know what else it would be,” Sandra said. “That’s why I’m telling you that you need to be careful. Whatever they’re trying to keep from you, they won’t just tell you to leave and hope you go away. They’ll be very clear-cut about it all.”

“Oh, I get it,” Doreen replied. “Still, if that little girl was murdered, somebody knows about it. And, with the burial done out back of one of the family rental properties, that’s just beyond cold.”

“Is that where she was found?” Sandra asked, getting choked up with tears in her throat. “I knew it was someplace in southeast Kelowna, but I hadn’t really figured out where and hadn’t put too much effort into finding out more,” she admitted. “There’s only so much pain anybody can handle. Now please let me get a little rest and distance before you call me back again,” she suggested. “I know I went down this pathway today, but it’s not an easy one to be on. And I really, really don’t want to face the family. If they put me out on the street, I have no place to go.”