“And what was it you felt?”
“That Sybil would always be overshadowed by Nola even though she was the better woman. At least I think so.”
“Me too.”
“That Nola had conquered each of those men there, except Ken, I suppose. Maybe she slept with Ralph and Xavier, I don’t know, but she could have had them had she wanted them. Even Ron. If she’d put her mind to it.”
“Could have had Ken, too, I’ll reckon.”
“You think?”
He nodded, then got up and opened the bread box. “I’ll owe you one.” He took out a package of chocolate-covered doughnuts.
“Or two or three.”
“Nola could have had most any man. Maybe not for life, but for a night. She was, I don’t know, I can’t think of the word, like some potion.”
“You, too?”
He smiled, breaking the doughnut in two. “I was a young huntsman. She wouldn’t have looked at me twice.”
“Plenty of other women have. Huntsmen can pretty well have their pick of the litter.” Sister stated one of those hunting facts that everybody knows but few people say out loud. Huntsmen are like rock stars to many female members of the field. It doesn’t seem to work so strongly in reverse. If the huntsman is a female, the male members don’t automatically fawn over her.
He shook his head. “Not me.”
“By the end of the season maybe,” Sister said, teasing him. “But you knew even then, young as you were, twenty-five or so, that Nola could be . . .”
“Cruel. Nola was cruel to men.”
“Well, I don’t know as that’s the right word, but if you knew that about her, you would still have gone to bed with her?”
He straightened his back. “No, ma’am, I would not, but I would have wanted to.”
“I don’t get it.”
“It’s a guy thing. You can know a woman is pure poison and still want her. For some men, they only want her more.”
“Women, a lot of them, anyway, always want the man who will hurt them. The Bad Boy. Maybe it’s the same.”
“Maybe. All I know is when she’d fix me with those blue eyes and start smiling, I could feel the blood in my body burn.”
“She affected women, too. That kind of beauty is erotically charged for both sexes, but to different degrees.”
“Guy kind of had that quality, too. He could have most any woman he wanted. Probably why Fontaine Buruss hated him. Fontaine thought they all belonged to him.”
“Did men dislike him?” Sister asked.
“I think most men didn’t trust him around their women. Or maybe they didn’t trust their women around Guy,” Shaker astutely commented.
“Do you think Guy was sleeping with other women when he was going with Nola?”
“No. Funny, I don’t think he was.”
“What about her?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Ralph Assumptio, for one.”
“Who else?”
“Fontaine.”
“Jesus.” She paused. “Raymond?”
“No.” Shaker would have lied, but it was true. Sister’s husband had not been sleeping with Nola. Raymond had slowed down a bit by then. Got caught too many times and made too many messes.
“That’s a relief.” Sister exhaled. “I would hate to think Raymond was mixed up in this. But he wasn’t, I mean, he wouldn’t.”
“Raymond was a good man. He had a weakness.”
“He did, God bless him.” Sister had spent enough emotion on her deceased husband. She wasn’t going to waste any time dwelling on the negative. “Do you think Ralph, Fontaine, or some jilted lover could have killed Nola?”
“I don’t know. You think you know people, but they can surprise you.”
She waited, lowered her voice. “Sybil?”
“Kill her own sister?” Shaker was genuinely shocked.
“She’d spent her life in Nola’s shadow. And what if Nola decided to make a conquest of Ken?”
“Nola flirted with everyone. And Ken would have to be one of the dumbest men, dumber that snot, to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.”
“Nola?”
“His marriage. He’d just married into the Bancroft family, and his people don’t have doodly-squat.”
“I thought that, too. Well, what about Xavier?”
“She was done with him before first day of cubbing.”
“He held a grudge.”
Shaker shrugged. “I don’t know. Like I said, you think you know someone and then they fool you.”
“You’re a good huntsman. You trust your instincts. What’s your instinct?”
“That the killer is going to break cover.”
“And?”
He reached for his third doughnut. “I don’t want to accuse a man of murder, but I remember that Ralph Assumptio was courting Frances that fall.” She nodded that she remembered and he continued. “He married her at Christmas, and he wasn’t especially happy at his own wedding.”
“Everyone said he got loaded the night before.”
“More. I think Ralph was still in love with Nola.”
“Their marriage seems happy enough.”
Shaker shrugged. “Who knows?”
“You’re right. Who does know?”
“I’m not saying he killed her. I’m saying I think he was in love with her and I think her body being found has shaken him up.”
“Did Guy know she was sleeping with other men?”
“It would have killed him. I don’t think he knew, but time was coming when he would have found out. Too many of us knew her, I mean. Those of us in our twenties. It was bound to come out sooner or later.”
“Would he have killed her?”
“I don’t know.”
Sister frowned. “Maybe he found out that last day.”
Shaker refilled his and Sister’s coffee cups, then sat back down. “Or maybe Nola really fell in love. It happens. Maybe she said good-bye to whoever else.”
“I remember Guy bumped Ralph going over a jump that day. Caused a fuss.”
“They were fixing to fight sooner or later.”
She reached down to pat Raleigh’s head. “Did you tell Paul Ramy what you thought about Ralph back then?”
Shaker shook his head. “No. First off, I couldn’t prove it. Yes, I saw Nola kiss Ralph, oh, spring of ’81, something like that. But that doesn’t mean I could prove she slept with him. At the time I didn’t think it served any purpose other than to upset Paul, who was already upset.”
“Upset him because his son’s girl wasn’t faithful?”
“Uh-huh.” He nodded in agreement.
“Well, have you told Ben Sidell?”
“I did. He’s okay, Sidell.”
“Yes, I think so, too. Why didn’t you tell me?”
He put down his coffee mug. “When have we had time to talk? We’ve been working nonstop to get ready for cubbing, and now we’re cubbing and,” he paused, “I don’t like saying things I can’t prove, things that could hurt people, even to you, and I know you won’t talk.”
“I understand. Oh, before I forget, Jennifer Franklin and her friend Sari Rasmussen are going to work here on weekends, and I expect they’ll show up after school sometimes, too, now that Jennifer’s got her driver’s license. Do you want them to work any of your horses?”
“No. Too hot for them. Especially Showboat.”
“Okay.” She looked out the window. “Fog hasn’t lifted a bit. Well, let’s clean the kennels.” They stood up and took their cups to the sink.
“You know, when Nola first disappeared I figured she was cutting a shine,” Shaker said. “Either she ran off with Guy or she dumped him and ran off with the Prince of Wales. I didn’t worry until a week passed.”
“I did. I figured she’d at least call her mother or sister to laugh about what she’d done,” Sister replied.
“Women like Nola provoke people.”
“This sounds suspiciously like blaming the victim.”
His melodic tenor voice rose. “No. Anyone who lives above the rules gets pulled down eventually. Might take a long time, but people will take their revenge.”
“You’re right.” She washed the cups while he leaned on the counter. “Oh, to change subjects, you know Sari’s mother, Lorraine, is a very attractive woman. She’s been divorced for two years.”