I winced. 'I -'
'Okay, okay.' He sounded exasperated. 'I will take the information you've given me and have someone follow up on it. Will that do?'
'Yes.'
'Okay. Now, I'm going back to bed, and I suggest you go home and do the same. Feel free to call me, during business hours, if you have any more ideas. Good night – or morning.'
I hung up feeling foolish, but only a little, and headed to the farm. As long as I was up, I might as well do stalls.
The kitchen light was on when I parked behind the house. Aunt Vi peered out the window and waved, probably recognizing my car's headlights. I tossed hay to Blackie and Duke, cleaned their stalls, then went down to the house. Aunt Vi was still busy in the kitchen. I knocked softly so as not to alarm her, and let myself in. The comforting aromas of coffee and bacon cooking greeted me. Whole wheat toast, butter, and marmalade were set out on the table. With a deep breath, the tension holding me rigid since yesterday drained away. I was famished. After washing up, I gave Aunt Vi a kiss on the cheek and poured myself coffee. She put a plate of bacon on the table and called to Uncle Henry, then returned to the stove and began cracking eggs into a pan.
'You're up early,' she said.
'I couldn't sleep.' I picked up a piece of bacon and took a bite.
Uncle Henry padded in dressed in his robe and slippers, yawned a good morning and sat at the table.
'Why is that?' She asked.
I put bacon and toast on a plate and told them about my adventure with Andrea, then my excursion to The Broken Axle with Delores and Miguel. Aunt Vi's eyes went wide with distress as I told her of identifying Jonathan as Valerie's murderer. She made little consoling noises while stroking my arm.
'I'm glad you went to the sheriff this morning,' Uncle Henry said when I concluded. The half shake of his head that he'd repeated throughout my narration told me he hadn't been too glad about my other field trip.
'Yeah, for all the good it did. They didn't believe me.' I propped my elbow on the table and supported my heavy head on my hand. 'I know the evidence is sketchy, but it makes sense when you consider how obsessed Jonathan has been trying to get me to marry him.' I stifled a yawn. 'He must have killed Valerie after he and I argued in the driveway on Saturday. He was probably thinking if he could get her to back off me I'd be grateful to him and say 'yes' when he proposed. He must have killed her accidentally, then panicked and hired this Lee person to move Nachtfeder, so it'd look like the horse's fault. But Lee got the wrong one.' I took a piece of toast and buttered it, turning clues over in my mind. 'We need to find Lee so we can be sure.' Man, but I was sleepy. It was hard to hold on to individual thoughts as they popped into my head. I yawned. 'It makes sense to me now. I'm pretty sure it does, anyway.' I put my toast down uneaten. Chewing would take more energy than I had at the moment – and small concerns from my conversation with Detective Thurman had begun to shift around like restless children. 'Do you know for a while I thought Greg killed her? But he'd just come home from a business trip and walked into a tragedy. I still think he's scum, though.' I shivered and stifled another yawn. 'I don't ever want to see him again. I hope the Federal Trade Commission shuts him down and my clients get their money back. Serve him right.'
Part of me knew I was babbling. That would have been the part that saw Uncle Henry and Aunt Vi exchange looks, and the part that noticed Uncle Henry helping me up out of my chair and Aunt Vi escorting me to the guest room.
'You need to rest. You've had a bad shaking,' she said. 'Why don't you lie down for a while? You went to the police. It's all over now.' She sat me down on the bed.
'I'll rest for a minute,' I said, easing my head onto the pillow. She covered me with the quilt. 'Aunt Vi?' I curled up and pulled the quilt closer. Weights seemed tied to my eyelids.
'Yes, child?'
'Paul knew Valerie, I'm certain of it. I've been so afraid he had something to do with her death – afraid because, you know, Delores would be upset.'
Aunt Vi sat on the edge of the bed and stroked my hair. 'He was here all Saturday afternoon and evening until Juliet phoned, except for an errand he ran for Henry. Don't bother yourself about that.'
'But he didn't come here after he took me to my car at the airport when he dropped me off. I watched him go up Avenue D. He didn't turn.'
I expect he went to the grocery store. That's where he was headed when I talked to him after Juliet called.'
'Oh. Aunt Vi? Paul seems to have some connection with Greg, too.'
'He'll have to tell you that, dear. All I know is there's no love lost between them.'
She closed the drapes against the lightening of the sky and shut the door behind her as she left. I reviewed the things I knew, and tried to sort through the pieces, but my mind kept drifting. It didn't matter.
It was over.
I let go and drifted toward sleep.
Chapter Twenty
My first conscious thoughts puzzled over why I was at my aunt and uncle's, in bed, in my clothes, with daylight illuminating the drapes from behind. Not knowing what day it was also bothered me-along with some other vague worry I couldn't name.
I washed my face, went into the kitchen, and mumbled a greeting to Aunt Vi and Uncle Henry, who were finishing lunch. I sat, lump-like, in my usual spot at the kitchen table. Before I knew it a steaming cup of tea appeared in front of me. I inhaled the sweet perfume of the Earl Grey, and sipped it slowly.
'Did you get enough sleep?' Aunt Vi asked.
'I think so.' I yawned. 'What day is this?'
'Friday, love. Are you hungry?' I shook my head. 'Juliet called a little while ago. She wanted to know where Delores is.'
'I don't know.' The events of the previous evening and early morning sorted themselves out in my mind. 'She didn't tell me her plans for today. Juliet's sure she's not somewhere at Copper Creek?'
'Yes, she said she's been missing all morning.'
'She's not in her house?'
'I think they checked. Everyone's worried.'
I thought again, sipping more tea. Coffee would kick-start me faster. My head was still woolly. Perhaps she had gone to the sheriff's office. But she'd told me to go. I couldn't think of any possible explanation. I'd have to look for myself.
I left my aunt and uncle's, promising I would call them should I learn anything, and drove home. I brushed my teeth, changed clothes and drove to Copper Creek. Juliet watched my approach from the office window, her arms folded and a frown on her face.
'Have a nice nap, sleeping beauty?' she snapped as I walked in.
'Gee, I'm sorry, Juliet.' I laid on the sarcasm. 'I was up late and then at the Sheriff's Office at four this morning.'
'Delores is missing, and no one knows where she is. You saw her last. Where is she?'
'Give me the key to her house.'
She scowled, but went to her desk and got the ring of keys from the top drawer. 'I already checked. She's not there.' She threw them at me and missed.
'Well, I'm going to check anyway.' I plucked the key ring off the floor.
Delores's home, a single-story modern rambler at the far edge of the Copper Creek property, was quiet and tidy. Someone had washed the breakfast dishes and lined them up to dry on the drain board – most likely Delores. Mail was stacked neatly on the desk. I went into each of the two spare bedrooms and checked the closets – why, I couldn't say. My mind offered numerous possibilities I didn't want to consider, even briefly. I found nothing there. I checked the bathroom, then went to Delores's bedroom. The bed was made, so I had no way of telling if it had been slept in or not. Just to say I had, I looked under it, found a pencil, but that was all. On the vanity in her
