by Raven Snow
“Not sure I have an option to say no here. I pretty much have to be ready.” Eric took a deep breath and got out of the car.
Rowen took a deep breath of her own. She assumed a calm, collected expression and got out of the car as well. Together, she and her husband approached the door. “Here we go… Just pray she’s not familiar with who we are.” She was sure that Orville had talked to her already and likely told her only bad things about the Greensmiths.
Rowen knocked. It took a couple more knocks before someone answered. Fortunately, it was Sadie and not her husband. Sadie was a petite round-faced woman with cute, cherubic features. She was dressed in loose fitting, kick around the house clothes. A baby was balanced on her hip. “Yes?” she prompted, looking Rowen and Eric up and down.
“Yes, ma’am. My associate here and I are from the Lainswich Inquirer. We were wondering if you had a moment to speak with us about-”
“About my brother-in-law?” Sadie’s expression darkened. “You’re Greensmiths aren’t you?”
Rowen grew tense beneath Sadie’s glare. So much for relative anonymity. “Yes, ma’am.” Rowen put on a smile again. “Do you mind if we come in and speak with you for a moment? I promise we won’t take up much of your time.”
Sadie looked back over her own shoulder and sighed. “I suppose it’s fine.” She stepped out of their way, allowing them in.
To say Rowen was surprised would be an understatement. She had no idea why Sadie was willing to give them an interview even knowing who they were. She certainly wasn’t going to argue with her about it, but it was still surprising.
“My brother and my mother both warned me about you.” Sadie walked ahead of them and into the den. There was a baby in a playpen in there already. She sat the baby on her hip down in the pen as well before taking a seat in a chair nearby. “My brother didn’t want me talking with you, but he’s an idiot.” She shrugged. “What do you want to know?”
Rowen took a hesitant seat on the sofa across from Sadie. Was she only giving this interview because she felt vindictive? If that was the case, Rowen wasn’t about to argue with her. “I just have some standard questions for you.” She pulled the tape recorder from her purse. “Do you mind?”
“Go right ahead.” Sadie leaned back in her chair, oddly at ease.
Rowen sat the recorder up and placed it on the coffee table. “So, you’re Edith’s… younger sister?”
Sadie smirked. “I’m her older sister,” she corrected. “But only by a year.”
Rowen nodded. “And which one of you got married first?”
“That was Edith.” Sadie sighed and shook her head. “Married way too soon, if you ask me. Married way too soon, if you ask anyone. None of us thought Timothy was a good match, but you couldn’t tell her that. Oh, no. She just wouldn’t hear of it.”
Rowen nodded, recalling that she had heard something similar from Fran Sweet. “When did you get married?”
Sadie raised an eyebrow like she wasn’t sure how that had anything to do with anything. “A few years after my sister did.”
“Are they yours?” Rowen pointed to the two children now crawling around in the playpen.
Sadie actually laughed at that. “Oh, no. My kids are grown. The one that still lives here is at his part time job right now— at least, he better be. That’s where he told me he was.” She nodded to the two babies. “Those are just some neighbor kids. We look out for our own here in Lichen Hallow. It’s a nice place to raise a family. Everyone was so helpful when I had my little ones. It’s only right to return the favor.”
“That’s sweet.” Even after all the backwards things she had heard about this part of town, that touched Rowen. Prejudices aside, this seemed like a nice community. “Is your husband home?” Rowen had been trying to keep an ear out. After what had happened with Orville, she was nervous about someone interrupting their conversation and running herself and Eric out of the house.
“Not yet,” said Sadie. “He’s out fishing with a couple of friends. He’ll be back this evening, but probably no sooner. That man likes to use every bit of the daylight.”
“Fishing sure does seem to be popular around here,” Rowen commented, trying to keep her question as innocuous sounding as possible. “Did he ever go out fishing with Timothy Lucas?”
Sadie raised one over-plucked eyebrow. “He used to. When he and Tim were still new to the family, my Justin tried to make nice. Of course, Tim turned out to be pretty darn hard to get along with.” She gave Rowen a critical look for a few seconds longer. “My man has a bad back and is one of the world’s worst swimmers. He didn’t kill Tim and hide the body, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“I wasn’t,” Rowen said quickly, even though she had been. “Do you have any theories as to who it could have been, though?”
Sadie seemed to consider that question. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Tim’s own family had something to do with it.”
That caught Rowen by surprise. “Why do you think that?”
“You’ve met Dennis, haven’t you?” she asked. “That boy has a temper. Tim had a temper too. I wouldn’t be surprised if things got out of hand and… well… a horrible accident happened.”
“Your brother Orville also seems like he has a short temper,” Rowen pointed out. “Do you think the same could have happened with him?”
Sadie frowned. This line of questioning was making her progressively more and more angry. “I don’t think so. Orville would have told me. He might seem loud and obnoxious, but he’s a sensitive guy deep down. He wouldn’t have been able to keep something like this to himself.”
Rowen didn’t point out that Sadie had every reason to lie to her if Orville had murdered Tim. It felt like she was already pushing her luck with these questions. “I’m guessing you weren’t too torn up about Tim’s passing?”
“Why would I be?” Sadie didn’t mince words on that particular subject. “Whatever he did to make someone actually go through with killing him, I’m sure he deserved it.”
“Strong words.”
“I have strong feelings about the guy.”
“How is Edith holding up?” asked Eric. It was the first question he had asked and it startled both Rowen and Sadie.
Edith stared at him a moment before answering. “She’s doing as well as can be expected, I guess. None of us think she should be staying on her own right now, but she won’t have it any other way.”
“Why is that?” asked Rowen.
Sadie shrugged. “Heck if I know. She’s always been a little stubborn when it comes to getting herself out of potentially dangerous situations.”
“You think she’s a danger to herself?” asked Eric quickly.
“I’d like to think she has more sense than that,” said Sadie. She didn’t sound so sure about it. It looked like it weighed heavily on her. “But, even if she doesn’t, I can’t force her to take mine or anyone else’s help.”
“Orville looked like he was forcing some help on her,” Eric pointed out. The last time Rowen and Eric had been with Edith, Orville had certainly cut that visit short.
Sadie’s gaze turned to Eric. She was frowning, like she didn’t much want to be talking about her brother. “He has a tendency to butt into things he shouldn’t. That doesn’t mean it actually helps Edith. If anything, it just annoys her. Of course, there’s not a whole lot you can do about Orville either. He’s probably just about the most impossible to deal with in the family. Edith and he have always been real close, though.”
“So I take it he didn’t approve of Edith’s husband?” Rowen asked.
“Why do you say that?” Sadie asked.
“Well, you said that Timothy was cruel to his wife and that Orville was protective of his sister.” Rowen felt like her conclusion was a perfectly normal one to come to.
Sadie shrugged. “I guess they were close. Timothy wasn’t close to anyone I knew of. He was mean and bitter about that, too. To my family’s credit, we tried to warm up to the guy. It
never really took.”
“How long did you try that for?”
“Well it’s hard to put a strict timeline on something like that.” Sadie chuckled. “I know I was one of the first to give up. Sometimes you just get a sense for people, you know? The way my sister was giving in to him and waiting on him hand and foot… It just wasn’t right. I knew it was easy to walk all over Edith. She’s just about the sweetest person you could ever meet. It takes a special kind of evil to take advantage of that.”
“So Orville tried to be buddy-buddy with Tim even after that?” Rowen asked while Eric jotted down few more things.
“For a short while, yes.” Sadie nodded. “Of course, my brother has never been very fast on the uptake. I’m sure he would have put a stop to that a heck of lot sooner.”
“You didn’t mention it to him?”
“It wasn’t my place. Besides, I suppose that a part of me hoped he would be able to make friends with Timothy.” Sadie shrugged. “It wasn’t like Edith was going to leave him. Orville can be a bit of a jerk himself, if you haven’t noticed. I hoped they were the kinds of jerks that would get along together.” She sighed. “Clearly, I was wrong about that.”
“When did they have their falling out?” Rowen asked, pressing on this matter. The more she heard, the more suspicious she grew of Orville.
“Oh, it was years and years ago,” said Sadie. “I can’t even remember the exact date. It was quite some time back.”
“Did the two of them ever go fishing together?”
“Are you getting at something with that?” She didn’t actually wait for an answer. It was obvious enough that they were, in fact, wondering if the murder had been Orville’s doing. “My brother didn’t kill anyone,” Sadie said firmly. “He would have told me.” She sounded sure of that. Rowen didn’t know how she could be, but she left the subject anyway.
“Do you have any idea as to who might have killed Timothy Lucas?” asked Eric, just coming right out with the question.
Sadie heaved a great sigh. “I don’t know,” she said, firmly. “And if I did, I’d send them a fruit basket or something. Tim deserved what he got. He might have deserved even worse, if you ask me. I finally have my sister back. You have no idea how much I missed her… Or maybe you do.” Sadie turned her gaze to Rowen. “You have a lot of family here in Lainswich, right?”
Rowen nodded. She thought she could see where she was going with this, and it was already making her uncomfortable.
“What would you do if someone was abusing someone in your family?” asked Sadie.
“I’d tell the police,” said Rowen, even though she wasn’t sure she would.
Sadie looked rather dubious of that answer as well. “Are you sure about that?” she asked. “What would you do if they didn’t find any proof that your family member was being mistreated? What if the family member you were trying to protect insisted that there wasn’t anything wrong at all?”
That question gave Rowen pause. What she would do would be to try and work some magic. Barring that, she would probably do just about anything it took to keep a family member apart from their abuser.
“We don’t have magic,” said Sadie, like she had somehow read Rowen’s mind. “We can only appreciate it when something like whatever happened to Timothy happens. We try to pick up the pieces left behind.”
That sounded sensible. She still didn’t believe that no one seemed to know what had happened to Tim. Aside from that, the more she talked to this family, the more she wanted to leave all of this unsolved. From all accounts, Tim was a lousy guy. Edith was a lot better off without him. Rowen couldn’t just leave this, though. She knew that. The urge to come up with some kind of answer nagged at her. She had already asked Sadie everything she seemed willing to answer. Sadie looked to be getting impatient.
“If that’s all you have to ask, would you mind showing yourself out? I need to put these little ones down for a nap.” Sadie stood and moved toward the playpen.
“Yeah,” said Rowen standing. “Of course. Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us.”
“We appreciate it,” Eric added.
“Well someone has to, don’t they?” asked Sadie. “You’re just going to keep right on snooping around here otherwise.”
She had a point there. Rowen didn’t mention the time they had spent with the rest of her family already. Sadie, undoubtedly, already knew about it. Better that she quit while she was ahead. Rowen headed for the door. “Thanks again,” she said, stepping over the threshold.
“Uh huh,” said Sadie, shutting the door without another word.
“What do you think?” asked Rowen as they walked.
“I have the beginnings of a theory,” Eric said, not sounding as if he felt terribly certain about that. “I think I might know what’s going on, but it would be impossible to prove.”
“Is there anything we can do to make it easier to prove?”
Eric nodded. “Yeah, but I’m not real fond of it.” He got into the car.
Rowen did the same, getting into the car as well. “What is it?”
“Well, we’ll have to have a run in with some of the family again. Orville would be my first choice.”
“Again? I’m not really sure you could say we had a conversation the last couple of times we were around the guy.”
Again, Eric nodded. “That’s sort of the problem, isn’t it? First we have to lure him out.”
“That should be easy enough. Let’s just have another interview with Edith.” All things considered, Rowen really wanted to talk to Edith a bit more regardless. “He’ll show up if we do that for long enough, won’t he? Heck, he might be there already.”
“He could be.” Eric took a deep breath. “I’d rather do this on my own, but I’m doubting you would let me.”
“You’ve got that right!” Rowen put the car into gear and headed in the direction of Edith’s place, demanding that Eric tell her his theory on the way.
Chapter Fifteen
Rowen wasn’t sure how she felt about Eric’s theory. It was certainly a big stretch. Not that they hadn’t run into cases that were similarly odd before. Still, Rowen was having some trouble believing this one. She didn’t mention that out loud to Eric, but he could probably sense the doubt in her. Regardless, it was still something worth looking into. They were in the area and didn’t have any more promising leads to follow up on. “So, who should do the talking?” Rowen asked as they got close to the house.
Eric considered that question for a moment. “Let me do the talking,” he said, finally. Rowen nodded.
“If you think they’ll both respond to that better.” Rowen popped two tires up onto the curb and parked. Blocking Edith’s car in her own driveway felt a little too much like trespassing. Once they had cut the engine off, she let Eric lead the way up to the front door. She waited for Eric to knock this time
He did, but they didn’t get an answer immediately. It took, at least, five or six subsequent knocks for the door to finally edge open. Edith peeked out at them. “Yes?” she prompted. She spared Rowen a glance before frowning. It seemed she had recognized the both of them all at once.
“Do you mind if we come in, Ma’am?” Eric asked before Edith could say anything.
“I’d really rather not,” Edith said, quietly.
“Sorry.” Rowen spoke quickly. She didn’t want the door to get shut on them. It was barely opened at all right now. “We hate coming back here unannounced like this, but your brother ran us off last time.”
“I’m sure you remember,” Eric added.
Edith nodded. “I do.” She looked down at the floor as if she didn’t particularly like remembering it. “I’m sorry he did that. He can be a little protective.”
“I know how that is.” Eric assumed a smile. “Rowen here is my wife. We can get pretty protective of one another. Sometimes you just can’t help it, you know?”
Edith looked from Eric to Rowen. “Well, it’s nice that you have each other.”
“I agree,” Eric said with a nod. “If Orville barges in on us, it’s no big deal. He’s the one we’re looking to chat with, actually.”
Edith raised her eyebrows and opened the door just a little wider. “What do you need to talk to him about?”
“Well, we’ve talked to most of your family already. You and your brother are the only ones we haven’t gotten to sit down with for very long,” Eric explained.
“You talked to the rest of the family?” This seemed like it was news to Edith. “What did they tell you?”
“They didn’t tell us anything out of the ordinary,” Rowen assured her. “We’re not looking to demonize you in our paper or anything. As far as we’re concerned, you’re one of the victims here.”
Edith’s gaze went to the floor again. She took a step back, letting the door swing open a bit more. “I guess it’s all right if they talked to you.”
Rowen didn’t normally mind talking her way into a home, but with Edith, it just felt wrong somehow. Regardless of what had happened to her husband, Rowen would have a hard time believing that she was at fault for it. She was just too meek, and everything they had heard about her husband had made him out to be such a terrible person. Rowen almost didn’t want to solve this case if it meant sending Edith Lucas to prison.
Eric led the way inside when Rowen hesitated. Edith went to the living room and they both followed. “Do you want anything to drink?” Edith asked, much as she had the first time they were there.
“No, thank you,” Eric said as she headed for the kitchen.
“We’re fine, thanks,” Rowen said.
Edith nodded and went to sit in her chair across from them. “So, you met with my family?”
“Well, we met with your mother and then with your sister Sadie,” Eric explained. “They both seem like fine people.”
“Oh, they are,” Edith agreed quickly. “They’re both great. All of my family is great… Even Orville. I know it doesn’t always seem like it, but he really is.”
