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“Can you walk me through this morning?” Jack asked. “Was it routine?”
“As the sunrise,” she said immediately. “Steve was disciplined. This is the off-season so his routine changes in the spring. But he always gets up at four, rain or shine, and he goes to the gym first thing. He uses the one over on Westminster because he says he doesn’t want to be in there with a bunch of meatheads who only do arms every day.”
Jack chuckled. “I don’t blame him. That’s a good gym. They’re open twenty-four seven if I recall.”
“He likes that too,” she said. “He wants to get in and out early in the mornings. He’ll usually drive through and get coffee for both of us on his way home.” Her lips pressed together. “He did this morning. He brought me a caramel latte. It’s my favorite. I don’t get up as early as I used to. I retired a couple of years ago. But I was up by the time he got back. It was a little before six. We sat out here and drank our coffee and watched the sun come up.”
Her voice hitched and Ada put her arm around Lydia’s shoulders, pulling her into an embrace.
“I didn’t realize it would be the last time,” she said. “I would have stayed longer. But I wanted to get showered and get to the store and back before the rain came in. I always do my grocery shopping on Fridays. Martin’s Grocery gets their produce in fresh Thursday night, so I shop on Friday mornings.”
“What time did you get back home?” Jack asked.
“I’m not sure,” she said. “Maybe around seven thirty? I was surprised to see Steve’s car still parked in the driveway. He usually leaves for school around six forty-five.”
“It’s okay, Mrs. Hargrove,” he said. “Take your time.”
“I figured if Steve was still home he could help me bring in the groceries,” she said. “But then when I came inside I could smell…I could smell, and I thought maybe he was sick and that’s why he hadn’t left for school yet. I saw his things sitting by the front door, like he was ready to walk out, so I checked the powder bath off the living room first. But it was empty. So I went to his study.”
She looked up at us then, her eyes wide and wet, her face ashen. “I just don’t understand. He wouldn’t do that.”
“Was the exterior door locked when you came home?” Jack asked.
She shook her head. “We never lock the doors in this neighborhood. Most of us have been here a long time and we tend to pop in and out of each other’s houses. I always have a pot of coffee on for company.”
“Did Steve get any phone calls or news that upset him? Anything out of the ordinary?”
“Not this morning,” she said, biting her lip in thought.
“Another day recently?” he pressed.
“He’s been having meetings this week with administration and his staff. He’s been having problems with one of his coaches and Steve ultimately decided it was time for him to be let go because it was what’s best for the team. You know how things work here. It doesn’t take long for word to travel through the grapevine, and Archie heard from one of the school board members about his termination before Steve could talk to him face-to-face. Archie called and lit into Steve, and then later that night Archie showed up at the house and was banging on the door for a while. We were at our daughter’s house for dinner, so we saw it on the doorbell camera.” She looked down at her hands again. “I’m glad we weren’t home.”
“What night was this?” Jack asked.
“Wednesday night,” she answered.
“Do you know Archie’s last name?”
“Hill,” she said.
I saw the EMTs heading our way and waved them in. Mrs. Hargrove was looking pale and frail again, and I knew our time with her was up.
“What do I do?” she asked, grabbing my hand as I stood to make way for the medical personnel. “I don’t know what to do without Steve.”
“Let the people who love you take care of you,” I told her. “Let’s get you checked out and then Ada can pack some things for you and get you settled somewhere else for a few days.”
“You can come stay with me,” Ada said. “We’ve got the guest room all ready for you. And we’ll go see Livvy. You don’t want her hearing things from other people.”
“You’re right,” Lydia said. “I need to go to my daughter and we’ll all deal with this together.”
We said our goodbyes, and made our way back through the house. The techs were still working, and Lily and Sheldon were working alongside them, meticulously scraping and bagging pieces of Steve Hargrove.
I let the grief wash over me, knowing the chances were likely this was a suicide. But hoping, for everyone’s sake, that it was a murder.
Chapter Three
Once we had Coach Hargrove loaded into the Suburban, Jack followed me back to the funeral home and helped me unload. This was not in his job description, but we all tended to pitch in where needed on short staff and short funds.
