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M ack was back at work. He’d phoned the captain last night from her house and then headed straight back to the office. She’d protested about not wanting to send him off to work in the evening, but he just shrugged it off and stated that it was a completely different story now. He needed to go in and to confirm people were on top of this purported death by murder of Lilybeth.

Doreen nodded and didn’t say anything else.

When he turned back to her, she groaned and held up her hand. “I know. I know. It’s an active case now,” she stated in a mimicking tone.

“I would usually say that, yes, but now I’m not so sure, just because you are already involved in it.”

“I didn’t create this mess,” she declared, with a gasp.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that,” he said, taking her hand. “I’m just thinking about how much involvement we need you to have.”

“You need to go talk to Buck Winters and his sons, Clarence and Carl. They are all rotten, so that won’t be any fun. Expect to have things thrown at you.” When he frowned at her, she winced. “Yeah, I didn’t get a chance to tell you about that part.” And she proceeded to tell him about her visit with Buck at the home.

“Good heavens.”

“Yeah, and apparently the family used to own Riverdale, and they sold out to a bigger company—at least that’s what I was told. I guess a large company was buying retirement homes across the province,” she added. “So,… anyway, the agreement with the new Riverdale owner was that Buck got to stay there for life. So, he pretty much just terrorizes everybody else there.”

“Sounds as if they bought him a spot to hide him away.”

“Sure, but it’s also government-subsidized for people who have income issues, and I believe that a lot of the women there don’t feel as if they can escape Buck, where he is free to be him .”

He stared at her, shaking his head as he walked out. Then he called back, “Lock the door.”

She locked the door, then didn’t hear him leave. So she opened her front door and stepped out onto the porch to see him talking on the phone inside his vehicle. He honked at her and then he put away his phone and drove off. She went to step back inside when she noted Richard was out on his front step, watching her. “Everything okay?” she asked him.

His eyebrows shot up. “Everything is okay with me. Is everything okay with you?” he asked, and concern filled his tone.

She smiled at him mistily. “It’s another one of those cases where I was hoping it wouldn’t pan out as I fear it will.”

He rolled his eyes at that. “In other words, you’re up to your usual tricks.”

“Maybe,” she agreed, “but I was really hoping to be wrong in this case.”

“But you weren’t?”

She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t. And that’s really sad.”

“What’s it about?”

“Some lady at the old folks’ home was murdered, and everybody thought she just had a heart attack.”

He stared at her. “Down at Rosemoor?” he cried out.

“No, over at Riverdale.”

He frowned at her. “I did hear something about that.” He pondered it for a moment. “That was Lilybeth.”

“Yes, did you know her?”

“No, I didn’t know her personally, but my mother knew that lot.” He gave a shudder. “Lilybeth was a midwife or something.”

“That’s exactly right. But, if you didn’t have children, you might never get to know her.”

“No,” he agreed, with a snort. “Not sure I would want to either.”

“Do you want to explain that?”

He shrugged. “Everybody knows.… Okay, so I don’t know that everybody knows this, but back then apparently Lilybeth would stay quiet for a price tag.”

Doreen’s shoulders sagged. “Ah, at the end of the day, that is probably why she was murdered.”

Richard stared at her.

“She talked to me before she died. As a matter of fact, she left me a letter, a half-garbled explanation.”

“If she was close to dying,” he suggested, “she was probably trying to clear her conscience.”

“Maybe. I was supposed to meet with her and went down there, more like raced down to talk to her, and she had just passed away. I was there, and the ambulance was literally right there too.”

He just stared at her.

“I didn’t like the way she was talking about leaving me this letter, but I felt this urgency, that, if I didn’t get down there immediately, she might have pulled the letter, and I wouldn’t have gotten it. But I also wanted to talk to her about the contents of the letter because she seemed to be having second thoughts.”

“Of course, so are you thinking that somebody heard you?”

“Maybe heard us, maybe heard about the letter, I don’t know,” she replied.

“Yeah, but did anybody find out that you were the one who was there? That alone is enough to make anybody upset these days.”

She stared at him. “What do you mean?”

“Everybody knows how heavily involved with the police you are, and that’s just a death sentence if you’re a criminal.” He chuckled. “It’s kind of nice actually. The streets feel quite safe these days.”

“Weren’t they always?” she asked.

He pondered that and then nodded. “I guess you’re right. They always were kind of safe. But it’s a different feeling now. It’s helped people care.”

“Then that’s good,” she said. “I’m glad you approve.”

“I don’t approve of your methods, and I surely don’t approve of the mess you bring down on me,” he noted, “but, every once in a while”—and it’s obvious he was thinking about his brother and all that his brother had been through—“every once in a while, you do good work.” And, with that faint praise, he stepped back into his house and slammed the door on her.

She walked back inside her own house and waited until she thought Mack was done driving. Then she called him.

“You miss me already?” he asked in a teasing tone. “I’m about to take a look at our deceased’s room.”

“Is it even still her room?” Doreen asked ignoring his teasing but it did put a smile on her face. “I wouldn’t be shocked if these people may have cleaned it out already.”

“They shouldn’t have touched it, at least not until the next of kin did something with it.”

“Yeah, well, we already know who the appointed representative is, and she works at the front desk.”

He sighed, then asked, “You want to come along?”

“I absolutely do want to come along,” she cried out in delight, and then she froze. “Can I bring the animals?”

“Is there a particular reason?”

“Yeah, you have no idea what that old man is like. He was kind of terrifying.”

He asked, “You found him terrifying?”

“Yeah, I sure did. He’s really mean, old, and crabby, but more than that there was just that… You’ll laugh at this, but he gave me that sleazy serial-killer vibe.”

There was dead silence on the other end. “Bring Mugs,” he stated, “and I’ll meet you there in five.”

And, with that, he disconnected.