I tried to imagine having the same person as a friend for so long. Annie Gibson was probably in her late thirties. I tried to imagine having grandchildren, but I couldn’t even project how it would feel to have a child. Having a friend for as long as Annie had had Helen—that was something equally unimaginable.

I would be lucky to live that long, I thought. I watched the tail end of that thought trail out of sight and wondered where it had come from. At the moment, I had to pay attention to this woman across from me.

“I have to talk to you about something you may not like,” I said. This was a direct woman, and I sensed it would be better to approach her head-on.

“You have to run it by me before I decide.” Her face might be soft physically, but there was nothing soft about her will. “Some things ought to be secret.”

“I agree,” I said. I leaned forward, my elbows on my knees. “Ms. Gibson, Helen herself told us she had a bad time when she was drinking.”

Annie Gibson nodded, her eyes not leaving my face. “That’s so,” she said.

“With Teenie being murdered, Helen was real upset when she asked us to come by to talk to her,” I said, going so slowly, so carefully. “When I told her about Teenie and Sally, she said, ‘I’ll have to call their fathers.’ What I want to know from you is, Who was Teenie’s father?”

Annie Gibson shook her head. The brown curls moved with her, as if they’d been fixed in place with spray. Maybe they had. “I promised Helen I’d never tell,” she said. “She told me not to tell even if Teenie came and asked me.”

“And did she?” I asked. I blessed my brother for his silence.

“Yes,” Annie said without hesitation. “Yes, she did. Right before she died.”

“So, it seems like that was a pretty crucial secret,” I said. “You see? She asked, and she died. Helen tells me she’s going to call Teenie’s father, and she dies.”

Annie Gibson looked startled, as though she’d finally put two and two together. “But that can’t be,” she said. “He’d have no reason to.”

“He must have,” I said. I tried to keep my voice gentle and reasonable. “I told Helen that Hollis’s wife Sally was murdered, too. All three members of that family are gone now. And they all knew who Teenie’s father was.”

“Not Teenie,” Annie Gibson said. “Teenie never knew. I didn’t tell her. I promised Helen I wouldn’t. And I knew she’d asked Helen, many a time, after she began to suspect it wasn’t Jay.”

“Jay?” Tolliver asked.