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Ah. Now that was helpful information.
“Who?” Jennifer barely looked up from typing on her phone.
The rest of us glared at her. Didn’t matter if she meant one or both. They were well before my prime movie-watching years started, too, but you owed that history the respect of at least a modicum of knowledge.
However, her film education would await another opportunity.
“The point is, Cottonwood County does not seem like a hotbed for hired killers operating a lucrative business,” Diana said.
“Well, a while back, there was a story about a guy not far from here who tried to hire somebody to kill his ex-wife to make other charges go away where she was the witness,” I said. “He offered the supposed contract killer $1,000 from his Covid stimulus check.”
“No.” Diana’s protest sputtered into a laugh.
“Yes. Doing his part to stimulate the economy. And apparently his accomplice was his step-sister... who’d just had his baby.”
“Eww.” Was the consensus reaction to that detail.
I recovered first. “So a contract — of some sort or another — isn’t impossible. But it seems far more likely that the killer was acting on his or her own behalf, is local, and had a connection with Keefe.”
“That made the killer both ready to kill Keefe and — possibly — not wanting him to suffer more than necessary to die,” Diana said dryly.
“That’s the theory,” I agreed. “For now.”
“Under that theory, Brenda being sad doesn’t clear her,” Jennifer said. “In fact it would make her more likely. Someone who truly liked him and didn’t want him to suffer, so shot him three times to be sure it was over.”
“And someone with plenty of time and excuse for having messed around with the scene.”
“Maybe somebody who cared about the dog, too,” Mike said. “I know, it could have been selfish putting the dog out — not wanting a witness, so to speak. Not wanting to risk the dog reacting in a way that pointed a finger — or paw. But it also could be not wanting to traumatize the dog.”
“Traumatize her more,” I muttered. “Plus, her being outside exposed her to the cold and predators.”
“Yeah, I get that.” He started to reach for another pizza piece, then stopped. “You know, Brenda being the killer solves the issue of the dog being put outside in a way. She puts Suzie Q out, kills Keefe, then finds Suzie Q outside, which meant finding Keefe, which meant lots of authorities. So Suzie Q wasn’t out long, wasn’t exposed to the cold or predators.”
He got a trio of hmms in acknowledgment of his points.
“What are you thinking, Diana?” I asked her.
“Brenda’s comment about the center cabin blocking her view of Keefe’s cabin...”
“Uh-huh,” I agreed.
“Uh-huh, what?” Jennifer demanded.
“We both think that indicated Brenda likely kept a closer eye on Keefe’s cabin and his activities than she’d acknowledged,” Diana explained.
“I wondered why you were accepting everything Brenda said. You suspect her,” Jennifer said.
“We didn’t say—”
Jennifer talked over Diana’s protest. “You talked about Brenda seeing the dog outside like you didn’t believe it. And if you don’t believe that...”
I glanced toward Diana. She rolled a shoulder, saying this was mine to answer. “It’s not that I believe or don’t believe it, necessarily. It was... Brenda presented a view of what happened — that somebody other than Keefe put Suzie Q out of the cabin, most likely the killer — and she wanted us to buy it, too. And the more she tried to direct us that way, the more I wondered why.”
Jennifer frowned fiercely enough to make me want to warn her of wrinkles-to-come with a reminder of Brenda. “Like she hadn’t seen the dog out at all, but went over there and shot him, then raised the alarm and the dog’s a red herring?”
My turn to frown fiercely and I was in far more danger of resembling Brenda than she was. “That’s an interesting question. Because if she did that — shot Keefe with Suzie Q in the cabin — I wonder how she would have reacted.”
“She, the dog. Not she, Brenda,” Mike said.
