Page 14 of Death on Riddle Road
I couldn’t pin down why, but I felt irritated.
“I guess...maybe...”The jumble in my head found words.“Would a devoted father have left his baby sitting in the back of the car with his mother’s dead body for—How long was he there?”
“I’d have to look at the stories again, but I think...an hour, more?A devoted father couldn’t do that and before Jaylynn’s death, everybody said Derrick was really involved with the baby.Even after the murder, they said at least Robbie would still have one parent who loved him completely.It wasn’t until the trial that people started saying it was all part of a set-up by Derrick, an act, building an image so nobody would think he could do what he was accused of doing.And how cold that was of him — to use his own son that way.”
Ah, now I knew what irritated me.
It was the idea of Clara having a solution she wanted to be true and working from that conclusion.
Kit’s voice in my head screamed to start from evidence and find the solution based on it, not to torture facts to fit an opinion.
“The killer could have been anyone who figured Robbie couldn’t be a witness, so why kill him,” she continued.“Because the baby — Robbie — wasn’t physically hurt doesn’t mean the killer had to be Derrick.
“You’ve been a proponent of Derrick Dorrio’s innocence—”
“I hadn’t thought about it much, to tell the truth.”Until, I suspected, Mamie cried on her shoulder.“I guess Ihopehe was innocent, for Robbie’s sake, because how absolutely awful to have had your father kill your mother — your birth mother.Because even though he’s had a good and loving mother in Dova, Jaylynn did give birth to him.Plus, if Derrick didn’t kill Jaylynn that means...”
“Jaylynn’s murderer is still out there.”
But her thought was different.“It means Robbie’s father was in prison all these years for no reason.That poor kid.”
CHAPTER SIX
Clara’s idea forwhat to do next was to go to the post office to be sure those interfering customers hadn’t kept her from picking up everything Ruby knew.
I countered with talking to Mamie first, but didn’t feel strongly and Clara knew it.
Post office, it was.
After letting Gracie out for a backyard pit stop as the snow lightly accumulated, then toweling her off, we invited her into the back of Clara’s van.
Bringing her would mean dropping her off after our post office visit, but would earn all sorts of brownie points.
Ruby liked Gracie well enough — in fact, well enough to let her in the compact post office lobby when it wasn’t strictly within the rules.But what swayed Ruby the most was that her husband, Ike, loved Gracie and the other dogs.
A car accident had left Ike with a traumatic brain injury.Most days he sat on a chair in the lobby corner, reading the newspaper.
And that’s what he was doing when we walked in.
He didn’t lift his gray head at the sound of the door opening, but he might have caught a whiff ofeau de wet dogfrom the snow on Gracie’s fur, because he looked around and lit up when Gracie went directly to him.
In turn, Ruby lit up at his pleasure.“Well, look who’s come to see you, Ike.Look at her tail go.You’d think there was no one else in the world for her, the way she zeroes in on you.”
Fortunately, there was no one else in the lobby.Both because that meant we could talk freely and had room to breathe.
Watching dog and man, Ruby rubbed at her often pinkened eyes, but no tears showed.“And the girls are here, too,” she added belatedly, nodding hello to us.
Clara didn’t waste any time.“Have you heard more about Derrick’s murder?”
“Just that Mamie’s asked you two to help out and put Robbie’s mind at rest.Not sure knowing who killed his father will do that, but maybe it can’t hurt.”
No surprise she knew about Mamie’s request.Mamie had cried all over Clara at Shep’s Market, which provided one-stop shopping — food for the body and grist for the rumor mill.
“Back up.Even if it’s notmorethat you’ve heard, I’d like to hear it,” I said.
“Need to narrow it down, Sheila.Got a post office to run here.”Ruby waved one hand, then pushed back a chunk of her bright white hair.“Most people think our busy season ends with Christmas, but it keeps going this week and beyond with late senders, returns, and such.”
If late senders and returners piled in on us, we might not have much time.I better focus.
