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“Right.”
“It was about a quarter to eight. I remember glancing at the clock. I thought she might be going to get some dinner. She was dressed in jeans and a big parka. Her hair was in a ponytail, and I remembered thinking I hadn’t seen her wear it like that for a long time. She seemed fine, if a little focused, I guess. She never looked around, just kept looking straight ahead. But then she was always focused, even as a little girl.”
“And you didn’t see her after that? Didn’t hear a car come by? Maybe she was getting a ride with someone because her car was left here?”
“I had the TV on, so I don’t think I would have heard that. And that was the last time I saw her,” she concluded miserably.
Devine absorbed this and said, “I ran into Dak Silkwell tonight. He’s a reserved guy but he seemed shaken up by what happened.”
“I’m sure he was.”
“So they were close, him and Jenny and Alex?”
She took time to sip her drink, set the mug down, placed her hands in her lap, and looked at him. “I suppose you need to know this for your investigation. I read where most murders are committed by people you know, friends and family.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“They were all close growing up. Saw that for myself. Dak was all sports all the time. Big and strong, that boy was. Lettered in everything. Thought he was going to be playing professional football or baseball, but it didn’t work out. Guess that’s a pipe dream for most. Jenny was the oldest and the golden child. Everything she touched. Smart as all get out. Kind too. Pretty. We all knew she was destined to do something special.”
“And Alex?”
“Alex is the youngest and is drop-dead gorgeous, and I don’t use that term lightly. Not as smart as Jenny, at least in some ways. She could draw anything, from an early age. I mean really, really talented. The family wanted her to go away to a really great art school, UCLA, Chicago, or Virginia Commonwealth in Richmond. She got accepted at them all.”
“But she didn’t go?”
“No, she didn’t.”
“Any idea why?”
Kingman sighed, and in that release Devine sensed a whole bundle of regrets, not for Kingman personally, or the Silkwells either, but maybe for the whole town of Putnam.
“Alex used to be outgoing, prankish, fun, full of ambition, sort of like Jenny in that way. But then it was like the light turned off and she became withdrawn, moody, scared to...live.”
“What happened?”
She hesitated, seemingly debating within herself. “I don’t really know.”
“You really don’t know what happened to cause that big a change in her?”
“It was many years ago. And whatever it was the family made sure it was all hushed up.”
Devine wondered why Clare Silkwell had not mentioned this.
“So she and Dak stayed here, in the old homestead?”
She nodded absently. “Dak was in the Army for a while and then he wasn’t. I don’t know why. No one ever said.” She gave him a curious look, but Devine merely shrugged. “Then he came back here, learned to be a tattoo artist. And it became his passion. Opened his shop and does really well. Then he invested in some other businesses around town. I think he likes to be a big fish in a teeny pond. And we fit that bill.”
“I guess he and Alex get along, living together?”
“I don’t know how much they actually interact.”
“I thought in small towns, gossip moves faster than jets.”
She laughed softly. “It does. But not for every single aspect of someone’s life.”
“Alex ever come into town?” Devine knew what the man outside the bar had told him about Alex riding her bike into town but not interacting. However, he wanted to hear Kingman’s perspective.
“Very rarely. And then it’s just to get something she needs and then the girl runs back to her hidey-hole.”
