He ordered her drink and a Budweiser for himself.
“You seem better now,” Cooper observed.
“Cleaner, y’mean? Jobs are good. Keep the mind sharp. Out of depression.”
The bartender brought her her drink and his beer. She clinked her glass against his. “Thank you kindly.”
He half-expected her to knock it back. He was pretty sure he wasn’t doing a thing for her health by buying her alcohol. But she sipped at the drink and even pointed to a table at the far side of the room, away from the other patrons.
Cooper sat down across from her.
“If I talk slow, will I get a second drink?” She eyed him craftily.
“Why don’t we just see?” he parried. “How did Deke know Emma?”
“You know what Deke did before it got sold? He worked at Stillwell Seed and Feed. Damn near managed that company by hisself. And what did he get for his trouble? Jack shit. They sold that company and just went hog wild. Blew through the money. Deke never did find the same kind of work. I tried to help him, but I had my own problems. He bummed around for years until his dying day.” She had a hand around the base of her drink, but she didn’t lift it to her lips, which had pulled down in the corners as she spoke. “He was a nice guy. I know you don’t think so, but he was. If those two Stillwell brothers could ever tell the truth, they’d say the same.”
“Deke knew Emma from working at Stillwell Seed and Feed?”
“Ah, no. I don’t think so. I’m just giving you some background. Deke . . .” Now she did swallow a hefty portion of her drink. “Deke took side jobs, too. Those skinflints never paid him enough. He did all kinds of stuff. He even fell off a roof once, treating it for moss. Really screwed up his back . . . That’s how he connected with that doctor . . . Dr. William Ryerson. Gave him way too many pills. But that’s how he got Deke to do stuff for him.”
Cooper had brought his pad and was itching to take notes, but this wasn’t the kind of interview where that would be acceptable. He would just have to wait until it was over. “What kind of stuff?”
“Well, before he was disbarred, or whatever you call it, from being a doctor . . .”
“Dr. Ryerson still practices.”
She waved him off. “Whatever. Before he left town, then. He wanted Deke to be his little detective. He thought his wife was cheating on him. She had all the money, according to Deke, and this guy wanted a part of it. He told Deke he needed to catch her with her lover, and he wanted Deke to be the one to get the evidence. So, Deke followed her around as much as he could, because he was still working at the Seed and Feed at that point. And then, the big night came up.”
“The hospital event at Hotel Lovejoy.”
She used both of her hands to make like guns, pointing them at him. “You got it. Except it’s the wife who accused him of cheating on her, instead of the other way around. Big fight. Deke wasn’t there, of course, but the doctor was calling him, screaming at him to follow her. She left with some other doctor and the husband was really, really pissed.”
“She said that she left after the fight because he was drunk and she was embarrassed by the scene,” Cooper said.
“Well, sure, that’s what she said, but she really just wanted to go home with the other doctor. Those doctors worked together and they hated each other. And the wife was a bitch. That’s what Deke said Ryerson told him. A bitch with all the money. And she was looking to ditch him for this other one.”
“Dr. Metcalf,” Cooper said.
“Maybe. I don’t know his name.”
“He’s the doctor who took her home that night.”
“Okay, Metcalf. But Dr. Ryerson didn’t know who her lover was, then. So, he had a whole different plan. He wasn’t really drunk. He was fake drunk. He was planning to have a big fight to see who she chose to go home with. Bam. She fell for it. She accused him of being a drunk and a cheater, and then she walked out with this other doctor. So, Ryerson put his plan in motion.”
“What plan?”
“He called Deke and told him to go and teach the fucking bitch a lesson, which Deke went to do. At his house. But when Deke got there, the wife wasn’t back yet. She was off with the other doctor, probably at his place.”
Cooper could see it all, almost as if he were watching a movie. “The babysitter was there instead.”
“Yep.”
“What did Deke do?” Cooper’s voice was stone cold.
She looked up at his tone. “No, no, no! Deke wouldn’t hurt a fly. He would never have hurt her. Never! It wasn’t him. It was probably that kid. That’s what Deke always thought.”
“What kid?” Cooper asked. He tried to keep from sounding so accusing. He didn’t want to stop the flow of information by scaring her silent.
“A high school kid. He was at the back door, talking to Emma. They were fighting. Arguing. So Deke left. He waited around a while, but then something happened and he decided to leave.”
Dug had gone back and talked to Emma. He’d lied through his teeth about that. Cooper could feel his anger boiling up. “What happened?” he asked Campion.
She shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe nothing. Maybe Deke just left. Decided he didn’t want to get involved in that. Later, apparently, the wife came home and found the babysitter unconscious. Luckily, the kids slept through it all. That’s what Deke always thought anyway. He gave praise to God for sparing the kids, but he always felt bad about ‘my Emma.’ That’s what he called her.”
Cooper could hear the faint jealousy in her tone even now.
He knew it was Dug, but he asked anyway. “Who
