mucky or I have to walk on soft dirt.”
248
HARD ROW
“I’ll keep that in mind when I talk to her tomor-
row.”
“Speaking of talks, how did it go with Cal tonight?”
He shook his head. “It didn’t. First Haywood was
here to drop off a load of firewood to get us through
April. Then Mr. Kezzie came by for a few minutes with
some extra cabbage plants for our garden—”
“We have a garden?” I teased.
“We do now. I mentioned to Seth that it’d be nice to
grow tomatoes, so he plowed us a few short rows beside
the blueberry bushes and somebody must’ve told Doris
you were out tonight because she called up and insisted
that Cal and I had to go over there and eat with her and
Robert. That woman never takes no for an answer, does
she?”
He sounded so exasperated, I had to laugh.
“Then coming home in the truck, I was just fixing
to start and damned if McLamb didn’t pick that time
to call and report his conversation with Mitchiner’s
daughter and grandson. By the time we got back to the
house, it was bedtime and when I went in to say good
night, he had his head under his pillow, trying not to let
me hear him crying.”
“Over Jonna?” I said sympathetically.
Dwight nodded. “I just didn’t have the heart to lay
anything else on him right then.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.” I ached for Cal. For Dwight,
too, who has to watch his son grieve for something that
can never be made right.
He drained his glass and carried it over to the dish-
washer, along with my now-empty coffee cup. I switched
off the kitchen light and followed him to our bedroom.
249
MARGARET MARON
“I don’t suppose McLamb got much out of the
Mitchiner family?”
“Not really,” he said as we undressed and got ready
for bed. “One interesting thing though. He said that the
daughter and the grandson sort of got into it for a min-
ute about the lawsuit. The boy wants her to drop it.”
“Really?”
“McLamb said he all but accused her of wanting to
profit by his grandfather’s death and that she got pretty
defensive.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, he’s going to check out her alibi tomorrow.
