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“So, that gets us nowhere,” Jennifer said.
“We shouldn’t expect to get anywhere yet. Far too early. We want to concentrate on not getting too far—”
“No worries there,” Jennifer muttered.
“—in any one direction because it might be taking us down the wrong path.”
“This also might not be an investigation for us,” Diana said.
“Why not?” Mike asked immediately.
“There are crimes that we don’t investigate,” she said dryly. “All the ones the sheriff’s department solves just fine without us.”
“That sounds like something the sheriff would say.”
Jennifer’s accurate observation brought a tinge of pink to Diana’s cheeks.
She didn’t have the easiest time, being loyal to us and being loyal to Russ Conrad. She negotiated that difficult path with amazing calm — even humor — most times.
I started, “And maybe this will be one of those times—”
Mike’s surprised, “Why would it be?” sidetracked me from finishing soothing Diana’s torn loyalties.
Instead, I said, “Someone shot three times in the head can be a straightforward situation, which is not where we excel.”
“We’re good at twisty,” Jennifer said with relish.
Mike kept to his point. “Yeah, people shot three times in the head after a bar fight might be straightforward. And that’s right up the sheriff’s department’s alley. But a real laidback guy like Keefe, who never harmed anybody in his life, in his own home, away from a lot of people, and with his dog put out of the house?”
Diana cut me a look. What Mike wasn’t saying, might not even recognize, was he had an emotional investment in this death investigation.
“It still could be straightforward,” I said slowly, “but in case it’s not, we should proceed. If we don’t, we lose time and information we can never make up.”
“Agreed.” That came from Diana. Then she added, “As long as we keep in mind that the sheriff’s department’s not sitting around twiddling its thumbs.”
“Yeah, if they did, I wouldn’t know I needed to call Aunt Gee.” Mike continued with some bitterness, “Even if she is a heck of a lot more close-mouthed since Conrad took over. Okay, Elizabeth, tell us what else you two found out.”
Diana immediately slid in an exaggerated, “Of course, Elizabeth will do whatever you say, Mike.”
She was playing that card now? Right after I’d smoothed the gap between her loyalties? Was that fair?
Mike laughed. “Yeah, right. Since when?”
“Apparently since you became majority owner. She told Brenda Mankin that when you tell us to get a story, we get it, by gum.”
“I love it,” he crowed. “Maybe the new station motto.”
“I did not say by gum,” I corrected with dignity. “And it worked. Do you want to hear the rest of what Brenda Mankin and Wendy Barlow said or do you want to gloat about how I got them to talk.”
Jennifer immediately voted. “Hear the rest.”
Mike paused. “Can I save some gloating for later?”
“No.”
“Fine. Go ahead and tell us the rest. But, Diana, let’s talk later, just the two of us.”
She chuckled.
