“She’s waiting for the test results. She thinks it’s probably cancer.”
Like her mother, Ruth was one of the most genuine people I’d ever met. But even I was taken aback by her bluntness. I couldn’t imagine Sennebec without Dot Libby’s garrulous, sprightly presence.
“Tell her that I’m thinking about her,” I said.
She nodded but said nothing.
Charley leaped boldly into the void. “I’m curious about those Westergaard folks. How would you describe them, in your uncensored opinion?”
“Well, he’s foreign,” Ruth said. “And they’re very rich, but that’s nothing unusual around here. They both drive Range Rovers the same sandy color, his and hers. And they dress kind of Town amp; Country, if you know what I mean. My mom thinks he’s handsome for an older dude, and his wife is very glamorous. She’s taller than him. I know she bleaches her hair, because she came in once with the roots showing a little. I told her about Wendy at Shear Perfection, but she didn’t thank me or nothing.”
“You’ve got a good eye for details, young lady,” said Charley. “You should consider becoming a detective.”
“I don’t need the hassle. What can I get you?”
I ordered an egg sandwich and a molasses doughnut, since it was still breakfast time by my reckoning. Charley requested the tripe.
“You don’t see it on menus much anymore,” he observed.
“For good reason!” I said.
“When I was a youngster, we had tripe twice a month.”
“Well, you’re the first one who’s ordered it in a while,” Ruth replied with characteristic candor.
Charley shook his head in mock sorrow. “What’s wrong with tripe?” he asked once Ruth had left.
“It’s fallen out of culinary fashion.” I swirled the cream around in my coffee and decided to stop procrastinating. “Jill Westergaard is in total denial about her husband. She told me he’d never cheat on her with a ‘mouse’ like Ashley Kim.”
He dabbed the corner of his mouth with the napkin. “Under the circumstances, I’d cut the woman some slack. She’s had a terrific shock, you know.”
I frowned in disagreement but moved on anyway. “What do you make of the similarities to the Erland Jefferts case?”
“That’s a can of worms no one wants to open.”
We both sipped our coffees. The warm cinnamon smell of baking pies drifted out of the kitchen as Ruth Libby opened and closed a door.
“I thought Ora was going to join us,” I said.
“She’s got a wicked headache.”
“I hope she’s not coming down with something.”
“It’s not that kind of headache.”
The wooden booth creaked as I leaned back against it. Something Sarah had said the night before flashed in my mind. “So how are your daughters doing?”
He winked at me, impressed by my powers of deduction. “Ann’s husband just got a promotion over to Bath Iron Works, making destroyers. As long as people keep blowing each other up, he should be comfortably employed.”
I remembered meeting Ann’s husband at Charley’s hospital bedside: a tubby, neatly barbered guy with an American flag lapel pin and a tone of certainty in his every utterance. My guess was that Charley and I shared the same view of him.
“What about Stacey?” I asked.
Stacey was the younger of Charley and Ora’s two daughters, the one I’d never met. My understanding was that she blamed her father for the terrible plane accident that had left her mother paralyzed. As a result, they hadn’t spoken for a number of years. I was curious whether her father’s recent brush with death had changed the equation.
“She’s been getting her graduate degree in biology at the University of Colorado. She was studying mountain lions. Leave it to Stacey to have a soft spot for fierce creatures.”
“Sounds like her old man.”
“Fortunately, she takes after her mother in the looks department.”
“So what’s happened?” I asked.
He threw back his head and guffawed. “You’re like a hound dog on a scent when you get going.”
“It’s not all that mysterious, Charley.”
“The long and the short of it is that Stacey got kicked out of the university.”
That explained Ora’s headache. “What happened?”
“She punched out her faculty adviser. Knocked him cold, in fact.”
“What happened?”
“She says he groped her, but there’s no proof, since she never filed a grievance. She just clocked him. That makes her the aggressor, according to the university.”
“Can’t she appeal?”
“My estimation is that she was looking for a reason to come back to Maine.” He looked over my shoulder at nothing in particular. “It’s causing Ora fits, in any case. We owe the school some money, and the Boulder DA is still considering an assault charge. Before you came in here, I was just thinking that Kim woman was the same age as Stacey.”
I’d wondered how long it would take for us to return to the matter at hand. “What did the detectives ask you this morning?”
“The usual questions. That Menario is some hotheaded character. He makes a bull look timid by comparison. But at least he doesn’t play games. That pretty prosecutor is another story.”
“Danica.”
His eyes widened in such a way that I could tell my use of her first name had caught his attention. “She’s a sweet peach,” he agreed. “But don’t assume that she’s on your side just because she’s a prosecutor.”
I recounted my ordeal in the training room that morning. He listened, stroking his chin the way he did when he was mulling over a problem.
“So what should I do?” I asked.
The old pilot cleared his throat carefully. “I’d advise you against talking with Mrs. Westergaard to start.”
“Too late.”
“Menario’s going to be looking at Hans Westergaard as the perpetrator until such time as the professor is located. But your DNA evidence also places those Drisko fellers at the crime scene.”
“I think it will, yes.”
“In that case, you’d do well to give them a wide berth.”
“That will be difficult if they really are the ones tearing up Hank Varnum’s land with their ATVs.” Ruth arrived with our plates. I watched Charley slather ketchup on his tripe and instantly lost my appetite. We waited for the waitress to leave before I continued. “I don’t see how the Driskos could have done it anyway. If the medical examiner is correct, then I was at their trailer just before the murder.”
“You’re assuming they didn’t have her stashed somewhere. For all we know, they had her tied up back at the Westergaard house and were just waiting for dark.”
“I guess that’s possible. But they didn’t seem like two guys who were about to go rape and murder someone.”
“How did they seem?”
“I don’t know. Happy?”
“Those things aren’t mutually exclusive, I hate to tell you. Who else do you reckon was at the scene?”
I nibbled my sandwich. “There’s the anonymous guy who phoned in the accident to nine one one.”
“There’s something queer about that call. I hope Menario pokes around a bit. Who else?”
“Me and Stump Murphy. I could add Hutchins to the list.”
The old pilot sucked on his teeth. “I think that’s one theory you’re better off keeping to yourself.”
“Hutchins has a stick up his ass. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“You can’t tell by the looks of a frog how far he’ll jump,” Charley said.
Sometimes my friend’s lumber-camp sayings were too much even for me. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means that reading people is more art than science, in my experience.”
We chewed our food for two minutes. He was correct that I had, thus far in my life and career, proven to be a monumentally bad judge of character. Every time I expected someone to do one thing, they did the opposite.
Charley wiped both corners of his mouth neatly with his napkin. “I have a delicate question I’ve been meaning to ask you.”
“Shoot.”
“Is Sarah pregnant?”
I almost spit out my coffee. “What?”
“Ora suspects she is.”
“No,” I said. “Absolutely not. She would have told me if she was.”