But if she’d
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been in a hospital here in the States, being treated by a properly trained doctor, she might still be alive to this day.
“At the time, and for a long time afterward, I didn’t know any of this. Eddie and I don’t exactly get along, you see, and we didn’t stay in touch. Then, one day, out of the blue, a letter came from Carol-a postcard, really-asking if she and her sisters could come live with me. Just like that. And I said, ‘Of course. Whatever you need.’”
“When was that?” Joanna asked.
“When the girls came home?” Edith asked. Joanna nodded. “Seventeen years ago or so,”
Edith said. “Carol had just turned twenty. She told her sisters that she was bringing them home for a visit. Kelly didn’t want to come, and Carol couldn’t make her change her mind. Once they got here, the girls stayed with me and never went back.”
“What happened then?” Jaime asked.
“Well,” Edith said, “Grady was already gone by then, so I did what I could. The girls didn’t have much of an education-only a lick and a promise, so I saw to it that they all got GEDs. Andrea took to schooling like a duck to water. She got her AA degree from Cochise College in Sierra Vista and then went on to the U of A. She’s working on a Ph.D. in psychology and works as a secretary in the Chemistry Department. They give employees a good discount on tuition, you see.
“Stella wasn’t much of a student, but she had a baby to support, so she got a job waiting tables at PoFolks in Sierra Vista. That’s where she met Denny, her husband.
Couldn’t have met a nicer guy, as dependable as the day is long. He drives a FedEx truck. He and Stella got married when Nathan was three. Denny’s the only father little Nate has ever known.”
“And Carol?” Jaime asked.
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A pained expression crossed Edith Mossman’s face. She shook her head sadly. “Carol never quite managed to cope,” she said. “She bounced from one bad job to another, and no matter where she lived, she always ended up taking in a pack of dogs. It’s hard to find a decent place to live when you have five or six or seven dogs living with you.”
“You mean she’s done this before-gathered up a bunch of stray dogs?”
Edith nodded. ‘And then she’d get evicted and the next thing I knew she’d have lost her job and she and the dogs would be living on the streets or in her car. That’s how come I finally let her move into Grady’s and my mobile. That way I could be sure that, no matter what kind of mess the place turned into, at least she’d have a roof over her head.”
“In other words,” Joanna said, “whenever Carol got into some kind of financial or legal difficulty, she came to you for help.”
“There wasn’t anyone else for her to turn to.”
“Including two weeks ago, when she received the citation about this latest batch of dogs?” Joanna asked.
“That’s right. And, like I said to you the other day, I told her I wouldn’t be able to help out until after the first of the month, when my social security check showed up. In the meantime, she called me from work one afternoon, and told me not to worry about it-that she’d made arrangements to get the money from someplace else.”
“Did she say where this money was supposed to come from?”
Edith shook her head. “No. At least not to me she didn’t.”
“So even though she told you she had the situation covered,”
T22
EXIT WOUNDS
Joanna said, “you came on out to her house with your checkbook at the ready anyway.
How come?”
“Because when Carol said she didn’t need the money anymore, I didn’t necessarily believe her,” Edith replied. “You see, she wasn’t a person who was always one hundred percent truthful. She was more than happy to tell lies when it suited her or when she was trying to save face. Carol may not have had much else going for her, but I’ll tell you this much-she did have her pride. When it comes to that, Carol was a Mossman through and through.”
So is pride what killed her? Joanna wondered. Being poor and proud can sometimes be a lethal combination.
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The interview with Edith Mossman went on for sometime after that, but Joanna had a difficult time concentrating. Her early-morning English muffins had long since worn off. Her stomach was growling so loudly that she worried Edith might hear it.
The questions droned on and on. Did Carol have any enemies? No. Boyfriend? If Carol had a boyfriend, Edith knew nothing about it. How long had she worked in her present position? About six months. Had Carol had any, difficulties at work, either with supervisors, fellow employees, or customers? Not that she had mentioned to Edith.
Taken individually, the answers to all of Jaime’s questions seemed inconsequential.
Together, they formed a picture of who Carol Mossman was and who her associates had been. The hope was that one or another of those slender threads would help lead investigators to the killer. When Edith finally complained of fatigue, Jaime immediately offered to break for lunch.
