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The truck lurched forward under a heavy foot on the accelerator.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
“I don’t disbelieve it,” Diana said. “After all, I saw it. I just don’t understand why. And I’d really like to, considering the woman held a shotgun on us.”
Our debrief with Mike and Jennifer had to wait until Shelton was done with us.
No big surprise he let Diana go first.
No big surprise, either, that Tom showed up at the sheriff’s department, making sure I was okay and following me home to make sure all over again, before kissing me thoroughly, saying we’d talk about this more, then going home to his daughter.
I didn’t mind the showing up and the kissing, accepted the going home to his daughter as part of the package of our relationship, but the future talking wasn’t my favorite.
“What started it,” I said, “was remembering Mrs. P’s apostrophes. And that reminded me of talking to Robin Kenyon about them.”
“Well, that explains everything,” Diana said.
We couldn’t get all of us together until after Mike’s last broadcast. He’d traded his on-air wardrobe for a t-shirt and probably jeans. The rest of us were in t-shirts, too. I was in bed after a long shower, with Shadow and Suzie Q on nearby beds.
It was a remote pajama party.
“It does explain everything,” I agreed. “Instead of saying Ulla’s and Chester’s, Mrs. P said Ulla and Chester’s. He was Ulla and Chester’s much-loved boy.”
None of the others jumped up and shouted Eureka!
I wrote it out on a piece of paper, then held it up so all could see.
Another couple of non-Eureka! beats, then Jennifer said, “Oh.... Oh.”
“You’ve got it Jennifer?” Diana asked.
“It’s that rule Mrs. P talked about. I don’t remember what she called it, but I thought of it as fighting over custody or joint custody — that’s not what it was called, but my friend’s parents were getting divorced and she had to talk to a judge about stuff like that, so that’s what I connected it to.”
“Makes sense. Now, can you explain it to these other two, who must have been sleeping when Mrs. P taught them that lesson.”
“When each person gets his or her own apostrophe, it’s like individual custody, but—”
“Mrs. P didn’t talk about custody,” Mike objected. “Take it out of custody.”
“Fine,” Jennifer said with irritation nibbling the edges of her voice. “Say you’re talking about... about a new van for the station. If you say Diana’s and Elizabeth’s, then they each get one. But if you say Diana and Elizabeth’s, then it’s joint and they’re sharing one.”
“Heaven forbid sharing a news ride with Elizabeth,” Diana muttered. “Everything would be over by the time we got to the assignments.”
“But that wasn’t about vans or custody—” Mike broke off with a whistle.
He’d gotten it. So had Diana.
Having caught up after her timeout for a crack about having to share a ride with me, she said, “He was Ulla and Chester’s much-loved boy, meant the two of them. Together. When you explained it to Robin, you were saying Wendy and Brenda were not a couple, but Mrs. P was saying Ulla and Chester were. But—”
“Don’t rush it. So, the apostrophes got me thinking of them as couple. A unit. Joint.” I nodded acknowledgment to Jennifer. “And that got me thinking maybe they really had been a couple. I did wonder if I should give it any credence.”
“Not because Mrs. P isn’t an entirely reliable source, but whether she said what I thought she said—”
“With Mrs. P’s enunciation, you heard it, all right.”
“That was the conclusion I came to. In fairness,” I said meekly, “I did immediately dismiss the possibility that Mrs. P hadn’t meant the grammatical distinction.”
“Oh, yeah, she meant it. She wouldn’t have gotten her apostrophes wrong. Not ever,” Jennifer said.
