Page 42 of To Die For

“No.” Devine eyed Odom. “If it’s really bad, would you still want to go live with your uncle?”

“Depends on what you call ‘really bad,’” she shot back.

Again, Devine was struck by how mature she was. At least in some respects. Then he thought of the book she had been reading and making notes in:Think and Grow Rich.

Devine had been raised in upper-middle-class comfort in Connecticut, provided by his father’s thriving dental practice. He had never been hungry or homeless or anything approaching what Betsy Odom had endured. So he could well understand the lure of being adopted by a rich relative, no matter his morals.

Saxby said, “What will you do to find out what he knew?”

“I don’t have a lot of leads.”

She said, “Well, on another front, we heard from Glass’s lawyers. A hearing on his emergency guardianship petition has been scheduled for Thursday.”

Devine glanced at Odom to see her reaction to this.

The girl was as stone-faced as the first time Devine had met her.

“And if his guardianship is approved, then she goes to live with him where?” he asked.

“He has to remain in Seattle for the RICO case, so he can’t fly off to Europe or Asia with her, if that’s what you mean.”

Devine noted that Odom looked alarmed that this had even been a possibility.

Saxby continued, “But I suppose he could send Betsy to one of his properties. There’s no restriction onhertravel, obviously. But he has to have the emergency guardianship granted first, and I can tell you that DOJ will fight that strenuously.”

Their food came, and while they ate, Devine said, “Betsy, you mentioned your mom talked to you about her brother. What did she say about him?”

Odom kept eating her fried shrimp, dipping them liberally into the cocktail sauce.

“You can’t remember anything?” said Saxby.

Odom swallowed and took a moment to wipe her mouth. “Look, she said he was rich, okay? And that he’d been in the Army. And that he had protected her growing up. I guess my grandfather was not a nice guy, or something like that.”

“Did she know about any of her brother’s businesses?” asked Saxby.

“You mean did she know if he was a crook? I don’t think so. At least she never said that to me.”

“I’m working with a Detective Braddock on Rollins’s murder, but I also need to check out where your parents died,” said Devine. “I know this is really painful, but anything you can tell me about that day would be helpful. If they weren’t drug users, then they died another way.” He added, “I want to find out the truth, like you asked me to do.”

“Why am I just now hearing about her asking you to do that?” groused Saxby. “And don’t say it slipped your mind again. That won’t cut it, Devine.”

He didn’t answer her, but kept his focus on Odom. Devine had a feeling this might be a pivotal moment.

Odom swallowed a mouthful of rice, put down her fork, and played with a piece of parsley on her plate.

He said, “The town of Ricketts is in Asotin County, nearly a five-hour drive away from where you all lived. So around a ten-hour round trip for you and your parents. Why were you even there that day? Did your parents know somebody from there, Betsy?”

She stopped playing with the parsley. “They didn’t tell me. We just went.”

“What did you do while you were there?” asked Devine.

“We had some lunch. A place in the little downtown area.”

“Do you remember the name?” asked Devine.

“No. It was just a crummy place.”

Saxby said, “But do you remember anything about it? The interior? Uniforms the staff wore?”

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