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“Exactly. The dog. So maybe that lends credence to Brenda’s scenario. Pretty clear, she was angling to the theory that the killer put Suzie Q out of the cabin, or had Keefe do it, so the dog wouldn’t interfere. And Brenda thought that happened hours earlier—”
“If we buy that the dog’s coat was cold,” Diana inserted.
“Barring Brenda being the killer, I think we do accept that Suzie Q’s coat was cold.”
“Which would make the killing hours earlier.”
“As cold as it’s been lately, it could be minutes,” I said and got grimaces in return.
“If Brenda’s the killer, all bets are off about Suzie Q being out, much less the temp of her coat,” Mike said.
He earned murmurs of agreement.
“It would be good to know the time of death,” Jennifer mused. “I might be able to—”
“No hacking,” Diana and I said together.
Jennifer huffed and said to Diana, “Well, if you’d just ask the sheriff...”
“Not happening.”
We might have all turned toward Mike, because he said, “Fine. I’ll ask Aunt Gee — if, when I get her. But no guarantees she’ll answer.”
“So, if we take what Brenda said as true, we’re thinking Suzie Q knows who the killer is. We could set up one of those Perry Mason moments when the dog growls and lunges at the guilty party.”
“I’d guess that’s what the killer was trying to avoid by having the dog outside.”
“If Brenda’s telling the truth and isn’t the killer herself,” Mike slid in.
“Even if she’s the killer, she might be telling the truth about the dog,” I said. “There’s also what she’d said about the Kenyons’ pickup and that it couldn’t have come across the bridge without her knowing. Which is interesting.”
“Why interesting? She could have known that for decades, just from living there,” Jennifer said.
“Or she thought it through since Keefe’s murder,” Mike suggested.
“Also true. Or it could be something she’d considered before that night, making sure there was a way for someone else to be on the property without it being unbelievable that neither she nor Wendy heard anything.”
“Wendy already has an excuse because — at least according to Brenda — she’s an extremely sound sleeper. Partially confirmed by Robin,” Diana said.
Jennifer asked with an edge of disbelief, “You think Brenda would lie to cover for Wendy?”
“No,” came from the rest of us.
We all shifted positions, shaking off the certainty of that response. We wanted lots and lots of open possibilities at this stage, not to be closing off avenues of thought or investigation.
“Things to keep in mind,” Diana said.
“Another one to consider is Randall Kenyon.” I turned to Diana. “Remember Wendy saying he was a hard-charging CEO type? I wonder if that stemmed from her unconscious recognition of conflict there — between Kenyon’s world and the world of the dude ranch?”
“Or,” Diana countered, “because she has tendencies in that direction, too, and has been irritated by Keefe. Remember the sloooow-leeeee?” Before anyone could respond, she said, “But would irritation, even festering for decades, lead to murder?”
None of us had an answer to that.
Jennifer brought us back to Randall Kenyon. “But why would he kill Keefe, when Keefe helped his daughter. Not just staying with her when she got hurt, but what he said about how she changed. Sounds to me like he was grateful.”
I considered that. “You can be grateful for what happened — his daughter changing — but not happy that someone else brought about the change. Especially certain types of people.”
Jennifer said. “Jealous. He was jealous his daughter connected that way with Keefe.”
