Masterson’s female Deputy Lowell, a pretty woman the same age as Miranda, quietly sat watching everyone. She hadn’t said more than two or three words at a time since being introduced back when the FBI had first arrived in Masterson.
Well, no more than two or three words at a time to Knight or any of the others. She knew Miranda well, though. They’d hugged that first day and spoken as if they knew each other well.
Of course, they did. In Mayberry, everyone was related to or knew everyone else. It was almost a given.
The door opened and Miranda stepped in.
There were tears on her pale cheeks. Knight almost said something. But didn’t. He was a professional; he shouldn’t care if a colleague he barely knew was upset over something involving her ex-boyfriend. That was foolish. It was the man in him—the man who was attracted to her—that was making him think like an idiot.
Instead, he just crossed his arms and looked at her. Waited.
Miranda had something to say.
Then again, the woman pretty much always did.
“Listen up, everyone. I’m going to give an update while we wait for Jac to finish with her interview of Jim Hollace.”
“Have we learned anything yet?” Max Jones asked.
She shook her head. “At this point, Jac is in discussions with Jim while they wait for the Masterson County District Attorney to arrive. Jim does say he has information. He’s willing to share.”
“Let me guess—in exchange for leniency for what happened today?” Knight asked.
Miranda nodded. “Of course. And for sharing what he knows about how Helen died. We haven’t told him she was alive when she was buried yet. We need him to give us more information first. I don’t think he is the one who struck her. We have more than one person involved.” Her mouth twisted slightly, showing how she really felt about the situation. “Agent Lorcan and I have arranged for the relocation of Clint’s daughter, Violet, and her nanny, Maggie Tyler. Maggie has definitively identified Jim as the man responsible for today’s attacks. Agent Lorcan and I also saw him in the vicinity today. Today was the result of a drunken grudge against Clint. That’s all. It just so happens to tie into the man who buried Helen. So, we’ll need to set today’s events aside and get refocused on what happened fourteen years ago.”
“We need that information from Jim Hollace to proceed,” Max said. “We’re pretty much stalled until Jac reports in.”
“What did you learn from Jenny Beise?” Knight asked. In the excitement from this afternoon, they hadn’t been able to discuss the interview Max and Dr. Appell had conducted with the young woman, who now went by Kayla. She was twenty-one and living apart from her family while finishing up a nursing degree.
Max shook his head. “All Kayla could give us was what we already knew or suspected. She and her sisters Honey and Marcie—Olivia and Marnie, now—were both ill with a flu virus. As was their brother Luther Junior, who now goes by Luke. She did give us contact information on Luke, as well as the youngest Beise child, Marcie, who now goes by Marnie. Marnie was not quite seven that day, so doesn’t remember anything credible. Their grandmother was responsible for their care that day. All Kayla remembers was sleeping a lot, and being wakened in time to pack her belongings. Her mother was yelling at her oldest sister, and her grandmother was nowhere around. That was the last time she ever saw her grandmother. Before she lay down for a nap. But she was only eight at the time; we can’t fully depend on her account. But I believed her.”
“She gave us an actual timeline, though,” Dr. Appell added. “She remembers her mother coming home for lunch that day. Pauline’s supervisor said that she always went to lunch at 12:15 p.m. Kayla remembers watching four of her favorite cartoons before she took a nap, and right after her mother left at twelve thirty. They were half-an-hour each, so that’s two hours. Two thirty. She said her grandmother fed her some cookies and orange juice and fever medication right before the final program ended, and she took a nap while her brother Junior then took over his turn on the TV.”
“Lesley stated that he got home at five forty-five. His mother was already home,” Miranda said. “He said he thought things had been going on for a while before he got there. So let’s just ballpark an hour or so. No one said Pauline left early, that day. Her shift ended at four thirty, and they lived about fifteen minutes away. Colleen, her supervisor, confirmed she left shortly after four thirty—with her lover. We’ve identified that lover as Jim Hollace.”
“Did any of the Beise children mention going into the barn?” Knight asked.
Miranda shook her head. He’d not once seen the woman refer to notes or her phone for anything. The information was all stored in that brain of hers. “The only one who mentioned anything about being outside at all was Lesley when he arrived home. Junior was throwing up on the lawn.”
Dr. Appell’s phone beeped. She looked down. “It’s Agent Jaclyn Jones.”
“And? Did she learn anything we can use?”
Miranda’s phone beeped next. She read the text quickly.
“Yes. Jim Hollace confessed to burying Helen’s body.” She looked back at the room’s occupants. “But he swears up and down he had nothing to do with her death. She was already dead when he stopped by to talk to Pauline. Pauline persuaded him to bury her mother in the barn.”
“But she was buried alive,” Dr. Appell said. “What does he say happened?”
Miranda texted her friend quickly. A few moments later, the answers came. “He doesn’t know she wasn’t dead when he buried her. Told Jac that Pauline said it had finally been too much
